The Law of Sowing and Reaping

7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. 9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. 10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

This Biblical passage has become a familiar proverb in our day, even among those who do not know God.

"You reap what you sow," is often heard.

"What goes around comes around."

"Garbage in, garbage out."

Yet I don't think most folks really understand what this means for them.

Let's look at this passage more closely this morning and see what we can learn.

I have several points to make about the Law of Sowing and Reaping. The first one is the obvious, bedrock meaning from this passage. The other points come from more careful consideration of this whole metaphor of sowing and reaping.

We Reap WHAT We Sow

It's a straight cause-and-effect principle.

If we sow to the flesh (that is, do the things that appeal only to our fleshly natures) we will reap corruption, a word whose Greek equivalent comes from a root meaning, "to shrivel, to wither, to spoil, to rot."

The idea is that while sowing to the flesh might look great at first, the things we gain by it will eventually rot or spoil on us.

On the other hand, if we sow to the Spirit (that is, do things that build up our spiritual lives) we will reap something that doesn't shrivel, wither, spoil, or rot.

The positive teaching here is encouragement not to give up on doing good in our lives for the Lord.

The negative teaching is a warning that spells out the results of doing evil.

A man who sowed - Drink, neglect, drugs, world.

"Whatever a man sows, this he will also reap."

What had this man sown?

Neglect of his wife and family.

Neglect of his spiritual life.

Love of money that was out of balance with his love for God.

He had gone from "seek first God's kingdom" to "don't seek His kingdom at all."

What was he reaping?

He got an extended jail sentence.

His wife divorced him to go with her lover.

His teenage children rebelled.

He filed bankruptcy and lost his business.

Eventually, because he couldn’t make the payments, he lost his half of the house they had lived in.

Folks, the Bible does have answers to all of our problems.

2 Peter 1:3 KJV 1900

3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

But please here me on this:

The answers God gives are mostly preventative rather than remedial.

In other words, He tells us how to avoid these kinds of problems, not how to make them vanish when we have ignored His warnings.

Could this man repent of all his neglect, turn back to God, and restore his hope of eternal life?

Yes, if the turning is genuine.

Would such a move restore his wife and family and business?

That is far less likely.

Why? Here comes that awful law again: We reap what we sow! When we sow to the flesh we reap corruption.

We reap things that shrivel, wither, spoil, and rot.

Should this man be angry when God doesn't step in and take away all of his problems? Could God be blamed for these troubles? Yes, God could be blamed, and many angrily blame Him in such cases.

But the truth is, this man can rightly blame only himself.

God has published a book full of warnings about things like these.

Wet Paint

But that book is meaningless to people who don't pay attention to it.

We reap MORE Than We Sow

Think about seeds.

A single seed can grow a plant that produces hundreds or even thousands of seeds.

A single bag of seeds can sow a whole field and produce hundreds of bags of new seed.

We reap more than we sow. This is true in the positive sense, but it is also true in the negative.

In the negative sense, there is a warning in the Old Testament book of Hosea,

Hosea 8:7 KJV 1900

7 For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: It hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: If so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.

The idea is that if we sow a little bit of evil we will reap a lot of evil. We sow a stiff breeze and we reap a tornado.

A single seed is such a tiny thing - so seemingly insignificant.

A handful of tiny seeds is still not much.

What harm could there possibly by in sowing them?

They look so helpless lying there.

Yes, that's how they look, but when you consider a seed, don't think of just one seed.

Think of a harvest. Think of reaping a field because that's the way the law of sowing and reaping works.

Since I mentioned it in the earlier story, let's consider church attendance among the several issues involved.

What difference does it make whether I come here and meet with the Christians, worship, and hear teaching from God's word? That stuff can seem so irrelevant to what I'm doing sometimes.

1 Timothy 3:15 KJV 1900

15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

1 Timothy 3:15 says the church is the "pillar and support of the truth."

What happens when you remove the support from something? Yeah, it falls down! So is the church important?

Hey, but it's just a seed! Surely it's not as significant as my career and my stock portfolio and house remodel!

If we had the time I could set aside the issue of church attendance and make the same point with the other important disciplines of the Christian life.

They may seem insignificant and unimportant, but they're seeds - tiny seeds that become a harvest - tiny seeds that, if neglected, become an empty field where a harvest should have been when you needed it.

As Paul says here in our text, "do not be deceived."

We Reap ONLY IF We Sow

We reap only if we sow. If we don't sow the seeds of a bad habit, we'll never have to deal with the difficulties that result.

We must be cautious of saying not me.

1 Corinthians 10:12 KJV 1900

12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

What we are talking about is that you CANNOT Reap if you have not sown.

Tht is bad when you are talking about good things, butthat is good when you are talking about bad things.

I will never be eaten by a shark. - that is not arrogant, because i will never go swimming in the sea.If i swam everyday at duck and dawn with no shark nets, then its arrogance.

But i cannot reap a shark bite, if i never sow by going into the ocean.

Alchahol

Drugs

Fornication

Its not saying “Im better and it will never happende to me” its rather saying that i know how weak i am, i know it can and probibly will hapen to me. I know that if i sow into these things i will reap destruction.

So how do i prevent my family from reaoping thises things? BY NEVER SOWING.

We Will Reap LATER Than We Sow

I called Paul's warning to your attention earlier - that one in verse 7: "Do not be deceived."

We get deceived when we come to believe that this law of sowing and reaping really isn't true - or really doesn't apply to us.

We get deceived when we think of those seemingly insignificant things in our lives that "don't really matter," forgetting that they are the seeds of far more weighty things.

We get deceived when we think that since we've sown some seeds and seemingly gotten away with it, we are somehow immune or exempt.

It takes time to get a harvest. In the positive sense, we must patiently sow those spiritual seeds and be confident that it will all be worth it. If we do we will see some of the results in the here-and-now and some beyond this life.

The idea that the sowing usually comes some time after the reaping also shows up in

Ecclesiastes 8:11 KJV 1900

11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

Because there is a delay between cause and effect, we get the mistaken idea that there is no effect. Yet my point his is that we reap later than we sow.