6:8 For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
For those of us who may not have been exposed to a rural agrarian culture truly miss out on a great lesson that the Bible has for us. There is a spiritual law of sowing and reaping that applies to our lives just like the natural law of sowing and reaping. There are three quick concepts that I would like to share with you about sowing and reaping.
1. We always reap what we sow.
If you were to plant an acorn into the ground you can expect an oak tree to grow. If you were to plant apple seeds you can expect to grow an apple tree. If you are to plant corn you can expect to reap corn. You get the idea right? If you plant an acorn you would not expect to grow a maple tree would you? Or if you planted an apple tree would you expect to grow an orange tree? This is a natural law that is inescapable. The Lord Jesus was constantly drawing parallels from the natural universe to apply them to spiritual principles. Here we see that the Apostle Paul is using the same kind of teaching.
The spiritual law is the same. You reap what you sow. If you sow to the "spirit" then you will reap the benefits of eternal life. If you plant goodness you can expect to reap goodness. If you plant love you can expect to reap love in your life. If you sow forgiveness you will reap forgiveness in your life. In other words if you are good to others you will see that goodness come back to you. If you love others you will be loved. If you extend mercy and grace to others mercy and grace will be extended to you. Conversely, if you sow to the "flesh" and you are mean and hateful you can expect others to treat you in the same manner. If you sow to the flesh in always pleasing the sin nature inside of us, we will reap the consequences of that sin. For example if we engage in promiscuity then don't be surprised if you feel unloved, unwanted, and used. Don't be surprised if one day you awake to find that you have contracted a sexually transmitted disease, or become pregnant or become a father. These are natural consequences for our actions. Paul, warned the Galatian Christians not to be deceived, that whatever a man sows that he shall also reap. If we sow our wild oats we can expect a crop of wild oats. What most of us do is sow our wild oats and then pray for crop failure! There are consequences for our behavior both good and bad. If we sow to the spirit we can expect to reap the fruit of a blessed life with the favor of God. If we sow to our own carnal sinful nature then we expect to reap destruction. Wise King Solomon posed a question to his son, he asked: "Can a man bring hot coals to his breast without his clothes being burned?" The answer is of course not! If you play with fire you will get burned. That is exactly what sin is like. Do not be so foolish to think that you can get away with it. There is always a consequence for sin.
2. We always reap more than what we sow.
This is indeed interesting! Think about that for a moment. How much potential is a watermelon for more watermelons? It is exponential in theory! Each watermelon produces literally hundreds of seeds capable of each bearing a watermelon bearing hundreds of seeds! We always reap more than we sow! This is both good and bad news of course! The good news is that if we sow kindness it has the potential of coming back to us 100 fold! If we sow a $1 into the kingdom of God for missions for example it has the potential of multiplying 100 fold! Imagine when you witness and win a soul to the LORD. That person now has the potential to reach more than you alone for two are better than one! When we sow for eternal purposes and into the Kingdom of God and into the lives of others we can expect a harvest! That is why Paul says not to grow weary in well doing for in due season you will reap! You can expect your harvest! If you have been faithful to God, your harvest is coming! It can be money, but don't limit yourself to just that! Imagine all the times you loved the unlovable, you cared for the hurting, you prayed for the sick, all that good work is going to produce a wonderful harvest in your life! You may see it here in this world, but I can promise you that you will see it in the next. Nothing that we ever do for God goes unnoticed or unrewarded by the Lord!
The bad news is though that if you sow to the flesh you can expect to reap a whirlwind of pain, sorrow, and misfortune. You may have only had one little indiscretion but it can bring about a terrible result! Some of you will commit a spiritual misdemeanor but your punishment will be that of a felony! Why? Because it is a spiritual law, that you will reap more than you sow. If you sow to the flesh you will reap destruction. So, the take away here is that you want to be careful about the slightest of sins. For each sin that is sown will reap a negative consequence. A consequence that you will not want to have to face or endure. You may say, well if I ask God for forgiveness he will forgive me and I will receive a fresh start. Well, yes, God will forgive you if you confess your sins, but that will not alleviate the consequence of that sin. The Heavenly Father will lovingly correct you for your disobedience for sure. But, if I were to murder someone today and ask God for forgiveness tomorrow does that mean that I will be spared by the authorities for my crime. In Alabama where I live, I would suffer the death penalty a consequence for my sin, even-though I may have received forgiveness by God.
3. We always reap later than we sow.
When we plant our crops we will not harvest them instantly! It takes time for these seeds to take root and to blossom. This where many of us fall. Many of us grow weary in doing good. We get tired of doing the right thing all of the time. It seems that it never pays off! The nice guy finishes last! You go to church, you give to the church, you serve in the church, you love your neighbor and you pray etc...but yet it seems like you can never catch a break! Can I get a witness? Seeds take time to take root and blossom. Just because you do good today doesn't mean that your ship will come in tomorrow. Usually over the course of time things take shape. I have heard it says that it takes 20 years to make an overnight success! That is why we are exhorted not to faint!. But to press on and keep on keeping on for in due season...in your time...when the time is right you will reap if you don't give up.
This is a spiritual secret that the Devil doesn't want you to know. When you and I sow to the flesh we don't get zapped immediately. It would be cool if we would get some kind of electric fence shock every time we stepped outside of the will of God to let us know if we were in danger of sin. But, it doesn't work that way. Over time many of us will nurture and cultivate that sin in our life, because we didn't root it out and confess that sin when the Holy Spirit revealed it to us. Instead, we think that we got away with it and over time we deceive our self thinking that it hasn't caught up with us. I live near the beach, and if I were to go to the beach every day for a year I would not notice that the sea has eroded the shore line over time because it was gradual. It is the same in our spiritual life. We don't usually repent until it is too late. It is like if the termites had come to roost in your house and you saw one maybe two, but never saw any signs of decay. Yet over time they gradually destroyed your home little by little. So it is with sin in our life. If it goes unchecked it will destroy us and we won't even realize it until it is too late.
There is a lot of wisdom in this verse. Be careful what and where you sow, because you will always reap what you sow, more than you sow, and later than you sow. |
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