You Will Reap What You Sow

(Galatians 6:7-8)

This principle we are looking at today should be classified as one of the underlying principles that uphold the universe. It is certainly universally understood and recognised in all walks of life.

You reap what you sow is truth. There is no getting around it. You cannot expect to receive something if you do not first put in the work to get that thing. And you only get back that which you sowed in the first place.

This is true in the gardening and agricultural worlds and can be plainly seen there. If you sow wheat, you reap wheat. If you plant tomatoes, you reap tomatoes. But you don’t sow wheat expecting to get tomatoes.

And it is the same with all human relationships and interactions, including the relationship we have with God.

Sowing and Reaping

You cannot expect to reap friendships if you sow discord, abuse and aggression towards the people close to you. You cannot expect to succeed in business and reap the rewards of good repeat customers, profitability and the regard of the broader business community if you sow lies, poor products and rip-off tactics.

You can only reap what you sow. If you sow what is good, you will receive good in return. Conversely if you sow evil, then that is what you will receive back.

Look at a few more examples. If you sow into your body, fatty foods full of sugar, then you cannot expect to reap the good health that comes from eating properly. What you will reap is obesity and all of the illnesses that go with that. Likewise you cannot expect to reap the body of Adonis if the exercise you sow is all about being a couch potato using a remote to flick from one TV channel to the next.

Look at some of the professions that exist. I’ll give you a few and go through them in your own mind and I am sure you will have an opinion of what each of them sows and reaps. Politician, car salesmen, real estate salesperson, teacher, doctor, nurse, call centre operator, lawyer, bank executive.

As soon as you read the job title I am sure you had an immediate opinion on most of those in the list. Some you would trust without question and others you would be checking if you still had all your fingers after shaking hands.

Why is that? Because there have been so many examples of bad behaviour, fraud, lying and cheating in some of these professions that they have a reputation. They have reaped the reputation of the highly publicised problems sown in their professions.

Is this deserved? No, it isn’t. For example, nobody seems to like car salesmen. They have a reputation as being slick and sleazy and just looking out for themselves. However, that is not my experience. I have bought many cars over the years and the majority of the car salesmen have been professional, friendly and helpful, and not in a fake way. Have there been some shysters in that time? Absolutely! But you can pick them out and walk away. But the professionals who do a good job are going to get my repeat business. And it is the same in all other walks of life. They will reap what they sow.

Does this sound like common sense? Of course it is! That is why the principle of sowing and reaping is one of the underlying principles of the universe.

It is the same in spiritual matters. You reap what you sow, as this scripture says today.

7 Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 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. (Galatians 6:7-8)

If we sow to the flesh, that is, if we choose to do what is evil in the sight of God, then we will reap corruption. We will reap sickness, disease and failure by doing what is wrong. And in the end we will receive eternal death and punishment because we chose to ignore the will of God and seek what is right.

As an example, consider what God says about unbelievers and atheists in the Psalms.

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none that does good. (Psalm 14:1)

This is what God thinks of atheist and non-believers. He says they are fools because they have rejected God saying there is no God. And what do they follow up their lack of belief with? Corruption and abominable deeds. They do no good at all but only do evil because they do not seek the things of God.

What is worse is that they are without hope in this world. Seeking God and the Lord Jesus Christ is to seek hope. We seek the hope of salvation and a future without all of the evils of this world. But an atheist and unbeliever who does not believe in God has no hope and so they remain in the darkness of sin. They have reaped what they have sown, and it is a sad thing that they choose to reject hope. They believe themselves to be wise and they consider Christians to be fools for believing in “fairy tales” as they put it.

But a life lived in hope is far better than one lived in hopelessness. To be without hope is to die a thousand times because no matter what you do, when you have no hope the underlying question in life will always be, “What’s the point?” Christians and those who believe in God answer the same question by saying “Life is the point,” and specifically a life into eternity with Jesus Christ and God. In fact we know that “Jesus is the point.” This is why we exist: to seek God and find Jesus Christ. And each will reap what they sow.

But while we are talking of reaping and sowing, there is more to this that needs to be understood.

You do not reap immediately after you sow. There is a process and a passing of time between these two things. So we will consider that for a moment.

Growth

When a farmer or a gardener sows a plant, it takes time and effort to reach the point where it is ready for reaping. You do not plant one day and harvest the next.

It is the same in Christ. A seed of faith and truth is planted in a person that needs to be nurtured, just as a plant needs the sun and the rain to attain maturity. A plant needs to be fed the right minerals so it can grow to maturity and be ready for reaping.

It is the same process for the Christian. Paul spoke about this in his first letter to the Corinthians.

6 I planted, Apol’los watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. (1 Corinthians 3:6-7)

Paul planted the seed of Christianity into the church at Corinth. Then Apollos came to the church and he taught them the ways of the Lord. That is, Apollos watered and fed the word that was sown so that they would mature.

But the important thing to note here is that it is God who gave the growth. Just as in agricultural matters, we can sow, water and feed plants, but we cannot make them or stop them from growing. Only God gives the growth. In agriculture it was God who established the processes by which plants grow, seed and come to maturity.

It is the same in the church. It is God who gives growth to the individual in Christ Jesus as well as the growth in the church. And He does not grow all churches at the same rate. Often a very large church can suffer more problems than a small group simply because there are more logistics involved in large churches. It is hard to ensure all of the congregation in a large church is growing and having their spiritual needs met.

It also depends on how well the ministry gifts are working in the church and whether they are being applied correctly by those who have the responsibility for teaching and preaching. God has given ministry gifts to the church for the purpose of sowing and reaping correctly. Note these words.

11 And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. (Ephesians 4:11-14)

The purpose of the gifts of ministry was for planting, feeding and watering the seeds of faith in the church until we all reach maturity, just as a plant is watered and fed. The purpose of the ministry gifts is growth, and the goal of the spiritual growth we can see here is to mature into the fullness of the measure of the stature of Jesus Christ.

Abundance

God is a God of abundance, and in sowing and reaping there is an abundance. For example, you do not sow one grain of wheat in the hope of getting one grain in return. If that were so you would never have any wheat to eat. Instead, you sow one grain to get a head of wheat which might have fifty or a hundred grains in it, so there is sufficient wheat to eat plus more grain to sow.

And this is what God wants in His people: for them to be abundantly blessed in their sowing and reaping. We see this in a number of scriptures that what is sown is not the fullness of what is reaped. You sow a single seed and reap a multitude of seeds. You sow a grain of faith and reap eternal life. This is abundance. Look at some of these verses that speak of abundance in the Lord.

We are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, as is fitting, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. (2 Thessalonians 1:3)

And;

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. (John 10:10)

There is also a warning about the abundance of evil that will come upon those who choose to sow evil and discontent rather than the good things of the Lord.

For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. (Hosea 8:7)

It does not matter whether you sow good or evil, you will reap what you sow, and you will reap it in abundance. The person who sows a wind of discontent will reap a whirlwind of destruction. And the person who sows the good seed of the faith will reap eternal life.

The principle of sowing and reaping is universal and must not be taken lightly. You reap what you sow in all aspects of your life, so choose to sow what is good and reap the abundance of the blessings of the Lord that come from seeking His ways.

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