The bible teaches us that God is separating two types of people: those who are to be saved and those who are to be destroyed. Those who are saved are figuratively called “wheat”. And for those who are not to be saved, there are two different kinds: weeds and chaff.
The weeds are people who neither knows nor keeps the truth. Even though they claim themselves to know God and follow the commands of God, in reality they are practicing the lawlessness. During the harvest, they are made into a bundle and put into the fire to be burned. Today, these are those who keeps the Sunday worship and Christmas, which are not the laws of God. They are just following the traditions of man.
And also there are another kind of people who are to be burned in fire: chaff. Chaff is defined as “the husk of grains and grasses that are separated during threshing”. In other words, chaff is exactly like grain, but it has no grain in the husk. Therefore, it is considered useless even though it is in the form of grain since it has nothing to eat inside the husk. The chaff will also be separated from the grains and put into the fire to be burned.
Matthew 3:12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Then who are considered as chaff spiritually? They are those who know the truth, but do not have firm faith in the truth. And they do not follow the truth, neither do they practice the truth. James clearly defines about the people who are like chaff.
James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. 20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?
According to the definition, chaff is the one who has the knowledge of God. They are the people who are in the truth just like the grains. Outwardly they look like the true people of God who are to be saved. They are in the same group as the wheat. Unlike the wheats, however, the difference is in the fact that they do not put their knowledge into practice. In other words, even though they have faith in God, but they do not practice what they believe.
Through this we can know that it is not the knowledge itself that gives us salvation. When the knowledge is combined with action, then the knowledge can lead us into salvation. Therefore, if we want to be like grains who are to be gathered in the heavenly barn, we must have true faith by putting into practice what we have learned. Chaff is the one whose faith is not accompanied by deeds. We should not be like them. We should put each and every word of God into practice.