The Parable Of The Net? The parable of the net is another simple story. However, it is very important. We should understand what it teaches us. Fishermen (men who catch fish) put a net in the water. They catch all kinds of fish, good and bad. At last they pull the net to the shore, and separate the fish. They keep the good ones but they throw away the bad ones. Jesus says that it will be like that at the end of the age. *Angels will separate the *righteous people from the wicked people. Jesus says that there will be severe punishment for the wicked people.
Just as the net was cast into the sea drawing many fish, the gospel message is spread into the world, drawing many people to it. Just as the net gathered all types of fish, regardless of their value, so the gospel attracts many people who neither repent nor desire to follow Christ. Just as the fish could not be sorted until the net was pulled ashore, so false believers masquerading as true Christians will not be made known until the end of the age.
Our Lord would have us consider the consummation of all things, when the great net shall at last be drawn to shore, when there shall be no more sea, no ebb and flow, especially no mingling of bad and good in an obscure and confusing element; but decision and separation, a deliberate sitting down to see what has been made of this world by us all, and a summing up on that eternal shore of all gains and results, and every man’s aim made manifest by his end.
These “bad fish,” or false believers, can be likened to the rocky soil and thorny soil in Matthew 13:5-7 and to the tares in verse 40. They claim to have a relationship with Jesus, saying “Lord, Lord” (Matthew 7:22), and Jesus’ reply will be “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” (verse 23). The sobering main point of the parable can be stated thus: “A day of reckoning will come in which God will separate the true believers from mere pretenders, and those found to be false will be cast into hell.” Discover extra details on the The Parable Of The Net video on YouTube.
Our condition in this respect bears a close resemblance to fish enclosed in a net. At first, while the net is wide, they frisk and leap and seem free, but soon they discover that their advance is but in one direction, and when they halt they feel the pressure of the net. So it is with ourselves. We must go on; we cannot break through into the past; we cannot make time stand still till we resolve how to spend it. The years spent in indecision, in doubt, in self-seclusion, cannot now be filled with service of God and profit to our fellows.