This parable is found in the Gospel of Matthew only.
Matthew 13:47-50
47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. 48 When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous 50 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Meaning/Conclusion:
In this story, Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to another scene which would have been familiar to most Israelites. It would have been especially meaningful to those who lived and worked around the Sea of Galilee. This describes a common process of fishing, which is the use of a net. An especially common form of net fishing is sometimes called trawling, which involves sweeping a net through the water. Alternatively, a large net is thrown flat onto the surface of the water, and sinkers pull it down, trapping everything underneath inside the net. Either method gathers up everything it surrounds, including many varieties of fish and animals. Some of these are useful to a fisherman, others are not.
This is the central idea of the parable: the net collects everything, but not everything collected is kept.
This is closely related to the parable of the wheat and the weeds:
Matthew 13:24–30
24 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”
One thing that is vital to look at here is how Jesus frequently spoke on hell and judgment in parables, teachings, and in illustrations. I think this is an important aspect of this parable and of Jesus ministry in general.
20+ New Testament examples on the topic of hell (there are many more): https://www.biblestudytools.com/topical-verses/gnashing-of-teeth-bible-verses/
You see, we live in a society that is built on and is full of half truths (aka deception) without regard to God’s love and truths here are some examples:
Love is love - when reality love is sacrificial and not self seeking, love also follows truth, BIBLICAL truth, not feelings or emotions as the guide:
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
“4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
Follow your heart - when in reality our heart is deceitful and full of evil:
Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Mark 7:21–23
21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
If God is love why would He send someone to hell - in reality He is 100% love but He is also 100% of all His attributes including 100% Holy, Just, and Righteous. What does that mean? It means that when we sin and disobey, “we” not “He” is responsible for our separation from Him. Even still, He proved His love for us as He sacrificed His very best to save us from the penalty of our own sin and to save us from its judgment (which is the just reward of a life of sin, death hell and the grave)
Romans 6:23
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 5:8
“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
So back to the point here, Jesus freely talks about Hell and judgment as it is truth in love that we should all be unafraid to discuss with other. The caveat here is, if we are doing so with concern and love for others. We should be sharing it with others in grace and compassion as Christ did. Our desire should be like Jesus and that is that none would perish or die in their sins and go to hell, but all would come to the knowledge of their sin and repent and believe upon Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. We also should have a healthy fear of the Lord, hell, and sin.
Proverbs 9:10
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”
*One more thing to note from this parable is that we must be also constantly fishing and seeking to catch as many as possible for the Kingdom. It’s our job to fish and catch them (fish and species of all kinds without partiality). We catch them, God will do the sorting v48-49 of our main text.
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