So it will be at the end of the world: the angels will go out and separate the wicked from among the righteous.
In this saying Jesus plainly presents how the end of the world will be—the process of spiritual separation. Here the language of the parable is replaced by direct speech. The angels, God’s agents, will go out to carry out the decisive division. The wicked, who have been in the same place as the righteous, in the same world, within the same sphere of faith, will be separated from them. This shows that until that moment good and evil people can coexist, but it is not permanent. This separation will not be made according to outward affiliation or words, but according to the content of a person’s heart and life. The parable warns that evil cannot remain hidden forever under a veil of righteousness; in the end everyone will be found in their proper place.