The Bible often references agrarian principles. If we sow good seed, in time we reap good crops. Beyond planting and harvesting, we are responsible for removing weeds. Weeds rob the intended crop of nutrients and moisture that are essential to reach full potential.

For some, those weeds are selfishness, deceitfulness, pride, unfaithfulness, and other personal character deficits. For others, the weeds implanted in their otherwise well-maintained lives and hearts are actually people. Not all people, of course, but those who masquerade as high quality crops or workers when they are not, as caring and selfless friends who are anything but, as ardent supporters who are merely pandering in order to plunder another’s harvest, as hardworking fellow farmers while conceiving shortcuts, as peers of sweat equity when their sweat is contrived.

Determining what to do with those persistent weeds is the most agonizing of all, requiring God’s wisdom, discernment, and strength, and even…