What does Matthew 13:49 mean?

Jesus explains the meaning behind His parable about the fishermen sorting out their catch of every kind of fish (Matthew 13:47–48). He is making the same point He did in the earlier parable of the wheat and the weeds (Matthew 13:24–30; 36–43), only this time with fishing instead of farming.

The fishermen who sit on the beach throwing out the bad fish and saving the good ones represent the work of the angels at the "end of the age." Jesus is describing the judgment that will come when He returns to set up His political kingdom on the earth. That judgment will begin with the angels sorting and separating the righteous from the evil on the earth. As the rest of Matthew's gospel and the New Testament will show, those who are with Jesus, saved by faith in Him and His death for their sin on the cross, will be declared righteous. Those who have rejected Jesus will remain in their sin and their status as "evil."

In the following verse, Jesus once more declares that the work of the angels will be to throw the "bad fish," those who are evil, into hell.