Day 3

Lisa Scheffler, author

If you plant wheat, you expect wheat to grow. If you plant corn, you expect to see some ears of corn at harvest time. There may be some weeds that crop up, but for the most part, it’s simple. Whatever seed you sow is what you’re going to harvest.

Paul uses the illustration of planting and harvesting in the verses we’re looking at today to make a spiritual point. We have accountability with God through reaping what we sow.

Read

Galatians 6:6-8

⁶Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.

⁷Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. ⁸Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

Reflect

If you are finding it difficult to trace Paul’s flow of thought in these verses, you’re not alone. Verse 6 sticks out, and some scholars include it with the verses we looked at yesterday, and some with the paragraph we just read today.

Scot McKnight describes the flow like this: “living in the freedom of the Spirit precludes conceit (5:26), so spiritual people should bear one another’s burdens in humility (6:1–5), bear one another’s burdens to the degree that they financially support their teachers (v. 6), and recognize that God will hold them accountable for how they have treated others (vv. 6–10).”^[1]

N.T. Wright explains it this way, “the picture of ‘sowing’ and ‘harvesting’—a development in Paul’s mind, perhaps, from the fruit trees at the end of chapter 5—seems to be tied also to the giving of money… If church members ‘sow’ to the Spirit, by giving solid practical support to the church’s ministry, especially in teaching and preaching, they themselves will in due course bring in a harvest.^[2]

However you want to divide these verses, we can agree that healthy, vibrant faith communities want to grow. They want to reach people in their communities and invite them into the family. Because of this desire, they are willing to invest in the ministry of their church to see a greater harvest for the kingdom. That includes providing financially for those who have taken on the mantle to lead and instruct. Kingdom people invest in kingdom growth. We should give generously to our local church.

Of course sowing and reaping have broader application. Paul warns that God will not be mocked. In other words, you can’t sow to the flesh and expect God to give you the harvest of the Spirit. God is generous beyond belief, but he won’t be made a fool of. Yet how many times do we bitterly complain and blame God for our troubles, when in reality, we are reaping what we’ve sown. God forgives and restores those who confess and repent, but nevertheless, often the most loving thing he can do is allow us to face the consequences of our actions. Good parents know this because it’s one way we learn and grow.

But here is the good news, because of Jesus’s sacrifice for us on the cross and his victory over the forces of sin and death, we don’t have to sow to the flesh! We can choose to sow to the Spirit and reap the harvest of his work in our lives.

In the context of the Galatians, that no doubt includes building relationships with others so that we are not just led by the Spirit as individuals, but as whole faith communities. Imagine the impact we could have on our community if we were a church characterized by the fruit of the Spirit. A place that opened up space for the presence of Jesus. A community where people felt known and loved and where people came and found freedom from their anxieties and addictions. What if that was the kind of harvest we could reap? It starts with each of us walking in step with the Spirit.

Of course the ultimate harvest is eternal life. In the Bible this phrase isn’t just about duration (living forever) but about the quality of this forever-life. It’s an eternity with Jesus where our restoration is complete. It’s experiencing God’s presence without the veil of fallenness between us. It’s a life with one another, where we enjoy being the family of God for all eternity as heirs of God.

Paul isn’t saying that we earn eternal life for ourselves by what we sow. He’s contrasting two ways of being — either in the flesh or in the Spirit. Those who are in Christ have received the Spirit. It’s to him they sow.

^[1] Scot McKnight, Galatians, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995), 283.

^[2] Tom Wright, Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004), 78.

Respond

Walter Hansen vividly explains the harvest that the Galatian Christians were reaping:

“Those who are sowing to please the sinful nature are destroying relationships with others: they are biting, devouring, provoking and envying others (5:15, 26). In their arrogance they are seeking to pressure everyone to conform to the same ethnic customs and traditions. Churches are being torn apart and destroyed by ethnic rivalries and social competition. Sowing to please the sinful nature will always result in a harvest of destruction, a destruction of relationships with others and with God.^[1]”

The Galatians aren’t alone. Churches throughout the centuries have met with similar fates. How can the American church in general, and our local church in particular reap a different harvest? How can we sow to the Spirit? What role to we need to play as individuals?

^[1] G. Walter Hansen, Galatians, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994), Ga 6:7–8.