His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean his threshing floor, gather the wheat into the barn, but burn the chaff with unquenchable fire.
This verse presents a figurative description of the Messiah’s judgment and purification. “Having the winnowing fork in his hand” means that the Lord is ready to separate truth from falsehood, the righteous from the wicked. The “threshing floor” symbolizes the world and God’s people, where good and evil are together. The wheat represents the believers who bear fruit and are gathered into God’s storehouse, symbolizing salvation. But the chaff is the empty, fruitless life, which is destroyed with “unquenchable fire,” as a sign of righteous judgment. This word shows that Christ’s coming brings a division between the true and the false, destroying what is fruitless and establishing eternal righteousness.