The wheat and the tares
Whether the field of the parable is the world or the church, and whether it forbids the church to separate from sinners before the harvest.
Matthew 13:24-30
24He set another parable before them, saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field,
25but while people slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel weeds also among the wheat, and went away.
26But when the blade sprang up and produced fruit, then the darnel weeds appeared also.
27The servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where did these darnel weeds come from?’
28“He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather them up?’
29“But he said, ‘No, lest perhaps while you gather up the darnel weeds, you root up the wheat with them.
30Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First, gather up the darnel weeds, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”
What each tradition says
Rabbinic / Midrashic
No sourced position found. Checked the Jewish Encyclopedia 1905 (jewishencyclopedia.com): web searches of the site for "tares"/"wheat and tares"/Matthew 13 and the trial of its eschatology and Revelation articles surfaced no treatment of the parable; Sefaria's texts API holds only the Jewish canon and no commentary on Matthew. No public-domain rabbinic/midrashic statement on this parable found.
Patristic
Augustine reads "Suffer both to grow together till the harvest" as a warning not to root out prematurely, since gathering the tares may uproot the wheat also. In the Church, discipline for sin should be with tenderness for correction, not rooting out, where schism is not feared; one not correcting it by penitence leaves communion by choice.
Augustine (quoted in Aquinas' Catena Aurea), Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, ch. xiii — quoting Augustine, Contra Epistulam Parmeniani, iii. 2 — On Matthew 13:29-30 ("Suffer both to grow together till the harvest")
Catholic
Menochius observes three things in this parable. The Church of God on earth contains both good and bad. God is not the author of evil, and he does not always punish the wicked immediately, but patiently bears with them.
George Leo Haydock (citing Menochius), George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary (1859) — On Matthew 13:24 (Menochius's note)
Orthodox
Chrysostom reads the Master's command as a prohibition on uprooting the tares, lest the wheat be uprooted with them. This, he says, is to prevent wars, blood, and slaughter. He states that it is not right to put a heretic to death, since that would bring an implacable war into the world.
John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, Homily XLVI — NPNF 1st series, vol. 10 — Homily XLVI (on Matt. xiii. 24-30)
Reformed / Protestant
Calvin’s view is that the parable’s point is that while the church’s pilgrimage in this world continues, bad people and hypocrites will mix with the good and upright. This is so God’s children may be armed with patience and keep unbroken steadfastness of faith amid offenses that disturb them.
John Calvin, Commentary on Matthew, Mark, Luke, vol. 2 (Harmony of the Evangelists; Calvin Translation Society) — On Matthew 13:24-30 (the parable of the tares)
Evangelical
Spurgeon notes that good men have emigrated to found communities with none but saints, yet sinners sprang up even in their own families. The attempt to weed out the ungodly and heretical led to persecution and other evils, and the whole plan proved a failure.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Wheat in the Barn (sermon on Matt. 13:30, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit vol. 60) — "A Word of Separation" — the attempts to weed out the godless