The chaff is collected with the wheat; the useless along with the useful. This is what it means to be sanctified, to be consecrated.
In order to separate this bad from the good, it is set to fire—the chaff burns and blows away with the wind.
The fire of our trials, of our suffering, burns the chaff from us. The bad has been burned away, presenting only the good grain before the Lord. Isn’t that a beautiful picture of salvation itself?
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.” (Matthew 3:12)
This strange and holy fire will also burn away the bad of mankind. Would you rather be chaff, or would you rather be the wheat?