The Parable of the Dragnet
The gospel net gathers every kind of fish — and the sorting comes at the end.
The kingdom of heaven is like a net cast into the sea that gathers fish of every kind. When it is full, the fishermen sort the good into vessels and throw the bad away. So it will be at the end of the age.
The parable
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.
The net gathers of every kind; the sorting comes when it is full.
What it means
Like the wheat and the tares, the dragnet is a parable about the mixed nature of the visible church and the certainty of a final separation. The gospel net is cast wide and gathers all kinds — the net does not sort as it gathers.
The sorting happens at the shore, at the end of the age. Until then, good and bad, true and false, are drawn in together. This is why the church on earth is always a mixed company, and why we should neither despair at the presence of the false nor presume to do the final sorting ourselves.
The parable ends with sober warning about the end of the age, when the angels sever the wicked from among the just. It is a call to make sure we are among the good fish — not merely caught in the net of outward religion, but genuinely Christ's.