Today in God's Word—March 2023
East Tallassee Church of Christ
March 24, Galatians 6
One of life’s simple pleasures is a juicy, ripe, home-grown tomato. My tomato crop is going to be a dismal failure again this year. I’m always at the mercy of generous friends who share their tomatoes with me, or I go to the store or a fruit stand to buy tomatoes. Ah, the indignity of it! Charity tomatoes! Store-bought produce! Why has this happened to me again?
It’s probably because I didn’t plant any tomatoes. The age-old law of sowing and reaping has caught up with me yet another year. Since the day God established the plant kingdom, sowing seed and reaping a harvest has been the natural order. We reap what we sow beyond the garden, too. Seed produces after its kind. The harvest is greater than what was sown. Drought or other factors may sometimes alter the general rules of crop production, but in life only God’s mercy and grace can save us from the bitter harvest that comes from unwise sowing.
Paul advised the Galatians to remember this principle as he closed his letter. He encouraged them to keep doing the right things so the desired harvest would come. Let’s see how this broad principle affects some specific matters.
We are sowing seed by supporting those who preach the gospel, investing in the harvest their labors will produce. We share in the joy when souls are saved and lives are strengthened. The return on the investment in faithful teachers is secure, better than the FDIC. These deposits are insured by GINM — ”God is not mocked.”
He will enforce the law of sowing and reaping.
When someone in our fellowship sins, spiritual members are supposed to restore them gently, not humiliate or excommunicate them. Paul used the same word for “restore” that his companion Dr. Luke would use for setting a broken bone or mending a torn net. It’s getting a person back in their rightful place. That’s sowing to the Spirit.
We each have personal responsibility to God that no one can bear for us. But many of life’s heavy burdens can and should be shared. Paul said we fulfill the law of Christ when we help one another. It’s another way to sow to the Spirit.
Finally, Paul returned to the false teachers who wanted to force the Galatians to be circumcised. He reiterated that being a new person in Christ was what mattered, not circumcision. Paul’s boasting was in the Lord, not in imposing the fleshly sign of an old covenant on people to whom it was never addressed. Ritualistic law-keeping is sowing to the flesh; becoming a new creation in Christ is sowing to the Spirit.
If your spiritual harvest is going to be greater than my tomato crop this year, you’d better pay attention to what you’re sowing. The sowing (or lack of it) is inevitably tied to the reaping (or lack of it). I pray your harvest will be rich and rewarding in the Spirit.
From The Abiding Companion: A Friendly Guide for Your Journey Through the New Testament, Copyright © 2010 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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