Sowing & Reaping
Shishkin, Ivan - Haystacks (1890)
Galatians 6:7–8, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 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.”
Paul tells us very clearly here that a man reaps what he sows, and this happens because God will not be mocked. If a man sows thistles and thornbushs, he can't pretend to be shocked when thistles and thornbushes come up. No matter what excuses he makes to his friends, they’re just going to ask him, "what did you think would happen??"
This is not an automatic truth; a man reaps what he sows because God will not be mocked, and not because the world functions mechanistically. The universe is governed by a personal will, not an impersonal force. If you sow thistles, you will reap thistles. Why? Because God takes that little seed and makes it sprout into a thistle. Could He make it produce grapes instead? Absolutely, nothing is impossible for God (Luke 1:37). Yet He doesn't, because He will not be mocked. He will not have His creation accusing Him of being an arbitrary and capricious deity. He is steadfast, and He does not change (Malachi 3:6).
Practically speaking, this means that if you do as the world does, don't be surprised if you get what the world gets. For example, the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s was, at least in part, due to men reaping what they had been sowing. Romans 1:27, “And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.”
But the opposite is also true; if you sow to the Spirit, you shall reap the fruits of that seed, namely life everlasting. Sow righteousness, and you shall reap mercy (Hosea 10:12). Sow generosity and you shall reap abundance (2 Corinthians 9:6). Sow peace and you shall reap righteousness (James 3:18). Sow the tears of affliction and you shall reap bundles of joy (Psalm 126:5-6).
All of this sowing is itself the result of the Holy Spirit being sown in your heart. He is God’s holy seed planted in the soil of your heart by the preaching of the Word, and when the harvest is ready, the fruit is truly incredible. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:22–23). We sow to the Spirit and reap everlasting life because Christ first sowed His Spirit in us.
So take heart, for your labors are not in vain!
1 Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”