Sowing and Reaping

Main Idea

Our spiritual investments today determine the harvest we’ll reap tomorrow.

[opening story] Recap last week: Looking to the needs of others by carrying the heavy burdens with others, while simultaneously and consistently examining yourself and taking responsibility for your own load that is yours alone to carry.

Today’s passage elevates the concept of personal responsibility to a new level of thinking and experience.

Passage

Galatians 6:6–10 CSB

6 Let the one who is taught the word share all his good things with the teacher. 7 Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a person sows he will also reap, 8 because the one who sows to his flesh will reap destruction from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. 9 Let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us work for the good of all, especially for those who belong to the household of faith.

I - Share

Connected to the personal responsibility of verses 4-5.

Connected to the burden-bearing of verse 2.

Share can mean many things:

1. It can refer to fellowship; therefore, the encouragement would be for both the teacher and the student to share their growth. In Tim Keller’s words, “The student is not a passive pawn, and the teacher is not an imperious dictator.”

2. The teacher is responsible for sharing the knowledge of the Word. This serves as an important reminder of the teacher's primary duty to teach, instruct, and instill the word of God in the minds and hearts of the congregation. The English version of this Greek word is to catechize… or to instruct in a question/answer format so that the basics of the Christian faith are clearly communicated.

3. The congregation is responsible, beyond mutual fellowship, for financially supporting the teacher. If you connect the two, the teacher's paycheck becomes an act of Christian fellowship, which is a profound way to view it and reflects a level of intimacy that we might otherwise overlook. It also indicates what the individual values. If Jesus said that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also… then it shows that their heart is directed toward God’s word and the support of the teacher/church that proclaims it. Paul addressed this to other congregations, such as the Corinthians (1 Cor. 9), but he didn’t always insist on it, because he didn’t want it to become a stumbling block. That doesn’t nullify the truth, however.

4. Both the teacher and the student should share good things. We’ve unpacked what that could mean, and while this list is not exhaustive, at the core of it all is the Spirit’s fruit of goodness. The things shared are developed from the Spirit and have that distinctive, fruity flavor.

5. This type of fellowship will always be life-giving. When the Teacher pours himself out for the students and the students sacrifice and give back to the Teacher, it forges a powerful bond that is difficult for Satan to break.

 It’s in believers’ long-term spiritual best interest to provide financially for the teaching ministry of their local churches. — Todd Wilson, Preaching the Word

II - Don’t be Deceived

We learned last week about self-deception when Paul warned us not to think that we are someone special when we truly aren’t. If you confuse your false piety with true righteousness, you are self-deceived and appear foolish. You have only created a version of yourself that doesn’t really exist.

Similarly, there are levels of deception that occur as a natural result of the issues discussed in this passage. Living in opposition to God’s standards and guiding laws makes you a mocker. You might not shake your fist in the air and verbally mock God, but your lifestyle does.

1. You are deceiving yourself if you live according to the flesh by indulging in all the things Paul warned against while simultaneously claiming that you are living by the Spirit; this makes you just as foolish and deceived. God will not be mocked by your double lifestyle and false display of religion.

2. There also appears to be a level of deception if you do not share good things with your teacher. If there is no interchange, then according to the definition of ‘sharing,’ you are living out a false fellowship. If you are one who only ever takes, how is that real fellowship? Do you truly value God’s word? If so, then why are you not giving of your time, treasures, and talents to see it spread? Do you appreciate your Pastor and teacher? Do you know that he is supported by the offerings of the congregation? If there is no giving back to the church, you might need to wrestle with the fact that your treasure… and therefore your heart… is elsewhere. Are you genuinely a part of a church that you never interact with or financially support?

3. There is self-deception in believing that there won’t be consequences for your actions and choices. If you mess with the bull, you’re gonna get the horns, you know what I mean? 

This is what Paul takes a moment to reflect on, because this is a universal rule God has set in place that is as unchangeable as gravity and just as certain as death or taxes. That is the law of sowing and reaping.

III - Sow and Reap

How many times have you heard the saying, "you reap what you sow"? You probably heard it a lot in high school from your parents when you were about to do something incredibly foolish.

In theory, we all know this. We can picture a farmer with a vast, freshly plowed field before him and a bag of seeds in his hand. Let’s say they are tomato seeds. We can see him scatter the seeds, tend the field, cultivate the crop, and prepare for a harvest. We can also see how absurd he would be if he expected a harvest of sugar snap peas. How would you react if he threw down his hat and kicked his mule in frustration over a tomato harvest instead of sugar snap peas? It seems utterly ridiculous to think that he would expect a harvest of something other than what he planted.

Why do we act this way in other areas of life? We eat fast food every day and wonder why our health is in the toilet. We stare at screens all day and question why our eyes hurt. We prioritize our careers over our spouses and children and wonder why our families are falling apart. And when we indulge in our desires, we wonder why God doesn’t bless us with a new house, fancy clothes, a healthy bank account, and perfectly-behaved children. We have forgotten that we reap what we sow.

Paul aims to bring this immutable law back to the forefront. God will not be mocked. You will reap a harvest based on the types of seeds you plant. Paul applies this law in at least three areas of life.

1. Teacher - Student. We would be doing ourselves a disservice by failing to recognize how this applies to the teacher-student relationship. There is an investment by both parties, right? The teacher sows spiritual seeds into the students, and the students sow material seeds into the teacher (which also reflects the spiritual treasure in their hearts). As your Pastor… if I want to see you mature… then I must be willing to invest in you. If you don’t want to see me emaciated and begging on the streets, you need to invest in my paycheck. Additionally, it is incredibly edifying for a pastor to hear about the truths his students are learning and the changes God is making in their hearts. This type of sowing will yield a strong, unified church that leads with the love of Christ for the building of His kingdom.

2. In our own lives. we also sow seeds into our own harvest fields. One field is the flesh, and the other is the Spirit. Each type of seed will yield its own crop, and each type of soil will impact its quality.

Consider a field that becomes contaminated because it is located next to a chemical factory that dumps its waste into the river. Whatever you plant there will inevitably contain all the impurities from that factory, but you have access to the latest planting technologies, making planting as easy as possible. You have massive tractors, irrigation systems, and access to unlimited amounts of miracle-grow. This is what it is like to sow in the field of the flesh. If you invest your time, money, efforts, passion, thoughts, and actions into this field, you will harvest the negative outcomes mentioned in chapter 5, resulting in your destruction, which literally means decaying morally and physically. It corrupts your entire being. Just as surely as the sun will rise in the east tomorrow morning, this is the harvest you will reap if you devote your resources to the flesh. 

Now, imagine another field that is far away from the factory or any other sources of contamination. The air is clean and pure, and the soil is black and rich. The only caveat is that you have access only to a plow and hand-held tools. Planting in this field is a personal and labor-intensive endeavor. However, the crop that emerges from this field provides sustenance for this life and the next. It brings life instead of destroying it. Sowing to the Spirit will yield blessings now (aka - the fruit of the Spirit), but ultimately, even those things would be fairly meaningless without a lasting effect… and the beautiful truth of this passage is that our labors in this field have an eternal impact. By laboring in this field, we will reap eternal life.

3. In others. While much of the harvest comes to bear in our own lives, we must also recognize that we don’t live in a vacuum. What occurs in our personal lives will inevitably impact those around us. The works of the flesh corrupt our relationships with God and others through jealousy, envy, factions, dissensions, and so forth. Similarly, the fruit of the Spirit is produced for the benefit of the community as a whole. A tree may produce fruit, but it doesn’t consume what it bears. That is meant for others.

Paul has a specific term for sowing into others. He calls it an opportunity.

IV - The Opportunity of Sowing

Don’t tire of doing good. Living in a way that is counterintuitive to our culture and our fallen human nature is difficult. The world tells us to sacrifice others for the sake of self, while Scripture instructs us to sacrifice self for the sake of others. When someone takes our coat, we are to offer them our shirt. When they slap us on the cheek, we are to turn the other one. We are to love those who hate us and pray for those who persecute us. None of these actions are easy for us to do. In fact, if the Spirit was not guiding us into these truths, I doubt we could accomplish them; but even as we strive to do so, we can become weary. Ideally, we would receive the same fruit of goodness back from our brothers and sisters, but we shouldn’t expect nonbelievers to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit, which can make it exhausting to do good for those who don’t reciprocate. Nonetheless, we are to persevere, because it isn’t about what we gain from it. We do this because it is a Christian virtue to embody in the world that points people to Christ, so we must not lose heart. We must continue planting.

Persevere.There is a promise and an exhortation involved. We will reap because of this God-ordained, universal law. The crop will grow, and there will be a harvest… at the proper time. However, the lack of focus on that one phrase has caused many Christians to walk back into the arms of the world. Let’s return to our farmer friend. We saw how silly it would be if he expected to harvest sugar snap peas when he planted tomato seeds. It would be equally silly if he returned to the field the day after planting, looked at his watch, and yelled, “COME ON! WHERE ARE YOU?” It doesn’t take years in the field to understand that the only way plants grow is over time. They don’t just sprout, grow, and yield in a day. Months go by between seed time and harvest. Many people lose heart and abandon their efforts in sowing to the Spirit because they fail to grasp this one principle. While physical plants like tomatoes or corn take months, spiritual harvests may take years, decades, or more. Does that mean we throw up our hands and give up? No… we are called to persevere! Like the seeds we are planting, we are called to fall to the ground and die to self so that God can produce His fruit in us; we must do exactly that. We offer our lives as a living sacrifice, keep our eyes on heavenly pursuits, and persevere, knowing that God will bring the harvest at the proper time.

All people, especially the local church. We don’t limit our outreach. Our mission reaches everyone, everywhere. We plant the seeds of the Spirit, expecting a harvest in their lives at the right time. We pray that in God’s sovereign timing, He will draw those who do not know Him. However, consistent with the metaphor, the firstfruits of our labor are meant for the church family. The needs of the church should be addressed by the people of the church. This means that we all have a place in the family, spiritual fruit to share, and a common purpose to fulfill for the strengthening of the family. This connects to a broader implication regarding the fellowship between the teacher and the student. We were never meant to gather on Sunday mornings as spectators or consumers who take in without giving back. The church body should never suffer want of fellowship or service. My encouragement to you is to recognize your role in the local church. You need us, and we need you, and every interaction and service is an opportunity to plant seeds. If you aren’t engaged in deeper fellowship and service, you risk stunting your spiritual growth and missing chances to uplift your brothers and sisters.

🔥 Application Points:

1. Sow Intentionally.

You’re always planting something. Every choice, habit, and interaction is seed going into a field—either the flesh or the Spirit.

Examine your inputs and plant with eternity in mind.

➤ Reflect: Where am I sowing most of my time, energy, and resources? Do I want the harvest that will yield?

2. Don’t Be Deceived by Delay.

A harvest will come. Spiritual crops grow slowly, but God guarantees they will come.

Keep doing good, even when you don’t see things happening. A lot of activity happens in the soil before the plant sprouts beyond the surface.

➤ Challenge: Where am I tempted to give up because I haven’t seen the results yet? How can I keep my mind on things above and persevere?

3. Give and Serve in the Local Church.

True fellowship means mutual investment—not just spiritual intake, but sacrificial giving. The church is made up of players on the field, not spectators in the stands.

Support your church and pastor and your spiritual siblings with your presence, provision, and participation.

➤ Act: What specific way can I give back this week to those who pour into my spiritual growth? Where, specifically, can I get plugged into the life of the church?