I have always seen the 'barley' which is first to be harvested, as symbolic of the 'elect.' Barley is 'rough' and an 'ugly' grain. To remove the chaff from barley it is 'winnowed' whereas the wheat is threshed, or beaten. I believe the middle grounders are the 'wheat.' These will be threshed in judgment.
Luk 12:46 The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.
Luk 12:47 And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
Luk 12:48 But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.
Luk 12:49 I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?
Some will be given 'few' stripes while others 'many' stripes.
Concerning the above portion of scripture, Jesus told this to His disciples. And I believe that it pertains to us who feel we may be on the "chosen" path.
Look at what He says in
Matthew 24:
45"Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. 47I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, 'My master is staying away a long time,' 49and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. 50The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. 51He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.See the part about beating the fellow servants? I believe that's talking beating them over the head with things that they are not ready or able to accept.
And the part about feeding them their food allowance at the proper time? I believe that means we need to have the discernment to address people's spiritual state on an individual basis and give them what they need to hear when they need to hear it, like Paul.
1 Corinthians 3
2I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.See, Paul had the wisdom and discernment to realize that they couldn't handle the meat. If he had tried to force-feed the Corinthians meat when they were only ready for milk, he would be "beating his fellow servants." Even though the meat is Truth, it would have been truth that they were not ready for at that time.
That's because Paul knew:
6I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.I think it's easy for our flesh to get in the way and deceive us into thinking that
we can cause the growth. And when that happens, we start beating our fellow servants with meat that they're not yet ready to swallow.
So, even though we're supposed to "expose those who contradict" and teach things that we know to be true, we need to ask God for discernment on what to say and how to say it and when to say it. Because we must humble ourselves and understand that nothing we say will cause growth in someone. Only God can cause the growth. We should just feel worthy to be used as vessels.
I think about the way Jesus taught. Often times He would tell someone to do something without telling them how.
Think about the rich young ruler. He never actually told him what he was lacking. He even let him walk away.
Or how about the time Jesus said that we would never enter the kingdom unless we humbled ourselves like a small child. But He never explained exactly what that meant, or told us how to do it.
When we are sharing hidden truths of God's word with pepole, I think it good for us to just give a little at a time. If it is God's will for that person to grow, they will come back and seek more. But if we try to force feed everything to them at once, we are beating them, and we are sinning by not relying on God to cause the growth.
That's not to say we should be lazy and keep everything inside ourselves. Again, it's all a matter of allowing God to guide us in any given situation.
I know that kind of went off topic a little, but it does relate to how we'll be judged at the resurrection. If we go about just trying to force meat down people's throats, we will be beaten with many blows. And that's because we have been given deeper revelation than most people, but we would have abused it by trying to complete the growth process in others with
our own works. We are to rely on God to cause the growth.
That's probably why Paul, even though he believed he had been chosen, said:
1 Corinthians 9
27No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.The flesh is very deceptive. We know that the entire called Christian world believes they are serving by the spirit, when in fact they are serving by the flesh. Those of us who have been called out must be careful not to fall into the same trap and disqualify ourselves for the prize.