Be not deceived God is not mocked; for whatever a man shall sow, that also shall he reap.
The warning sits between a call to share good things with teachers and a promise of harvest to those who do not give up. It raises a hard question: if forgiveness is free, do my choices with time, money and body still carry consequences?
Paul's opening words assume that someone is at risk of believing something false. One writer notes how often this warning recurs, and what it implies about who does the judging:
The Spirit warns us again and again against deception. We deceive ourselves, and Satan's agents deceive us too. Take that warning to heart. One thing at least is certain: God is not mocked. The wise and clever of this world once mocked Him in the person of His Son. Even so, God will not be treated as nothing forever. He is a God of knowledge. He weighs our actions, and in due time He will make the results plain. For He will give to every man according to his work. What is more, in His wise plan, men judge themselves and repay themselves.
We can fool ourselves, but we cannot change the results:
Here the point is the order God has set up in His holy government, both in the natural things around us and in the moral affairs of our lives. So we are told that even if we do deceive ourselves, we shall not be able to mock God by changing the results. In nature every seed produces "according to its kind," a phrase repeated ten times in Genesis 1.
The word means a sneer. Here it aims at those who refused to support their teachers:
The word means to turn up our noses at God. The apostle tells the Galatians to share with their teachers. But Paul knows some of them will hear this command and turn up their noses, saying, "Why should we listen to this man Paul? We have our new teachers from Jerusalem. Let us hear them." It is not Paul you are turning up your noses at. Far from it. Paul is only God's messenger, bringing you God's message. It is at God you are turning up your noses when you refuse to heed His Word.
It is easy to assume that grace puts believers outside this rule:
The apostle goes on to show something about believers here on earth. Their lives fall under the general principles of God's government, just like anyone else's. Our souls are apt to forget this, and to act as if, because we are subjects of grace, we are free from responsibility. Not at all. Grace can never be lost. God will carry every believer safely through the wilderness and present each one in glory. But on the way there, God's unchanging principles of government touch us just as they touch anyone else.
Commentators hold both truths together by keeping pardon and harvest apart:
"Whatever one sows, that will he also reap." God may forgive the sin of sowing weeds, but the reaping still matches the sowing. The former is grace, the latter is government. Each acts in its own sphere, and neither interferes with the other. As a subject of grace, David walked in the courts of the sanctuary. Later, as a subject of government, he had to climb the rough slopes of the Mount of Olives. And we may say that David's heart never felt divine grace more deeply than at the very time he was under the righteous action of divine government.
The choice is not occasional but constant, made with each ordinary act:
Though, as born of God, we have a new nature, the old nature — the flesh — is still in us. We pass through our lives like a man walking through a field with two baskets of seed. The basket on his left has in it the things of the flesh. The one on his right has in it the things of the Spirit. Everything depends on what he does. Which basket does he dip his hand into to scatter seed?
One writer reads the sowing as a choice between self-indulgence and self-denial. He also answers an objection: believers already have eternal life.
The question here is self-indulgence in one way or another. If someone has a heart for the Lord, he will soon find a way to serve Him. But that way often demands much self-denial. No circumstances set this aside… Someone might say to me: I understood you to teach that those who believe already have eternal life. But here it says, "the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life." Both statements are of the greatest value, but the point of view is different. If God is urging His people to a holy walk, He shows that everlasting life is the crown of that walk, and the end of it.
- Sowing — every day scatters seed. Thoughts, words, money, time: nothing is neutral, and each seed produces according to its kind.
- Self-deception — the lie is that my case will be the exception. That is the one thing the verse forbids.
- Sneering — to mock God is to turn up the nose at His Word, as some did when told to share with those who taught them.
- Separation — grace pardons the sowing; government still brings the harvest. David walked in the sanctuary as a forgiven man and climbed the Mount of Olives as a governed one.
- Sobriety — when a painful harvest comes, ask what you sowed to get it. Then start using the other basket.
For he that sows to his own flesh, shall reap corruption from the flesh; but he that sows to the Spirit, from the Spirit shall reap eternal life
Paul is writing to believers about everyday life: every thought, word and coin is seed going into the ground. The verse raises two hard questions — what is "corruption," and how can people who already have eternal life still reap it?
What does it mean to sow in each direction? One writer defines both sides and names the crop each one grows.
To sow to the flesh is to cater for it and its desires. To sow to the Spirit is to give Him His place and to give yourself to His interests. If the first, we reap corruption. If the second, eternal life. The corruption comes from the flesh. Eternal life, from the Spirit.
Paul has just told the taught to share good things with the teacher. That is where the sowing image begins, and it stays there before it broadens.
Anyone who learns God's truth from another person has a responsibility to give back whatever help he can to the teacher. This matters most when the teacher gives his time to teaching the Word… Paul is addressing the believer here, not the unbeliever, though the principle covers everyone. Anyone who lives independently of God and disobeys Him is sowing to the flesh, and the sad harvest will come in due time. The sowing here refers directly to the use of our possessions.
Scripture elsewhere teaches that a generous sowing brings a generous harvest. This verse presses a different law: you cannot change the kind.
It is, of course, true that we reap as we sow in quantity. 2 Corinthians 9:6 stresses that side of the question… Our verse presses the truth that as surely as God is God, we reap as we sow in character or kind. We cannot sow one kind and reap another kind… Men cannot sow thistles and reap wheat… The same is true in the spiritual world. If we sow to satisfy the flesh we reap corruption, always corruption, and nothing but corruption.
"Corruption" is not a penalty God adds on top of the flesh. It is what the flesh itself produces, and it starts in the mind, long before anything shows.
So flesh and corruption are tied together as cause and effect… The "old man" is corrupt through deceitful desires (Eph. 4:22). Those desires are so deceitful that what looks like the most intellectual and refined philosophy may in fact be human minds wandering, driven by the desires of the flesh. Such people simply end up thinking what they want to think. All the corruption that fills the world today starts in thought. Words and actions follow.
A believer may quietly assume that being under grace means being outside cause and effect. Commentators are united that it does not.
Our souls are apt to forget this, and to act as if grace freed us from responsibility. Not at all. No one can ever forfeit grace. God will surely carry every believer safely through the wilderness and present him in glory. But along the road the unchangeable principles of God's government touch us just as they touch anyone else. Never indulge the flesh.
What is at stake, then, is not whether God keeps a Christian, but what a Christian loses along the way.
So it is not that the believer can lose his salvation; it is a matter that he can lose the enjoyment of fellowship with God. Whatever we do, we will face the consequences. King David's sin was forgiven, but in God's government he still lost four of his sons… God examines every action. We are under His government.
If the believer already has eternal life, how can it still be a harvest? The answer lies in two points of view on one gift.
A person might say to me, "I understood you to teach that those who believe have eternal life already. But here it says that the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life." Both statements are of the utmost value. But the point of view is totally different. If God is exhorting His people to a holy walk, He shows that eternal life is the crown of that walk, and the end of it. Whatever salvation grace brings in, it never sets aside the value of holy devotedness to God… The eternal life spoken of here is clearly what we are to have in glory. The eternal life John writes about is what the believer already has on earth. Both are true.
- Sowing. Every thought, word, act and coin is seed. It falls into one of two fields: catering for the flesh, or giving the Spirit His place.
- Kind. The harvest matches the seed in kind, not only in size. No one has ever sown thistles and reaped wheat.
- Corruption. The flesh does not earn decay as a punishment. Decay is what it grows, starting in the way a person chooses to think.
- Government. Grace keeps every believer safe to glory. Yet on the road God's government still touches us: David was forgiven, and still lost four sons.
- Crown. Eternal life is the believer's now. It is also the harvest at the end of a Spirit-sown walk — the same gift, seen from the field and from the barn.
but let us not lose heart in doing good; for in due time, if we do not faint, we shall reap.
Paul has just laid down the law of sowing and reaping, and now turns it into an appeal to keep going. The pressure he addresses is not open sin but slow results — the quiet exhaustion of doing good and seeing nothing come of it.
One writer places this appeal inside God's government of His people in this life. There, what we sow decides what we gather:
The Apostle now adds a solemn warning. He pictures God's government in our path through this world as sowing and reaping. Let us not fool ourselves. We are Christians by the grace of God, but that does not mean we escape the results of our folly in this life. "God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap." On the one hand, if we act in the flesh, we shall suffer. God's mercy may lessen that suffering when we judge the failure. On the other hand, to act in the Spirit will carry its bright reward not only down here but in the life everlasting.
Weariness comes from impatience with God's timing. We check for growth long before anything could have grown:
But we must not weary in the right path, for God is faithful, and if we persevere, we shall reap in His own time. We often want to see the fruit of our labours at once, like someone who turns up the earth to see if the seed is springing. But if the work is real, it is God's work. We must wait until He finishes it. Then we shall see fruit ripened to match the perfection of His workmanship.
The verse uses two different Greek words, and one writer traces both. The first word, en-kakeo, lies behind "be weary." It means losing heart. It bites hardest when someone has taken advantage of your kindness:
"Let us not be weary in well doing" (an older translation), or, as J. N. Darby renders it, "Let us not lose heart in doing good." It is so easy to lose heart in doing good. That poor soul you helped the other day turned out to be a crook, not in need at all. So you vowed nobody would fool you so easily again. No, no; let us not be discouraged; let us not give in to evil. Next time you may turn away somebody really in need.
The second word pictures something different — not a decision to stop, but a gradual loss of tension:
Near the end of this verse older translations have the word "faint" (the ESV has "give up"). It is a completely different word from en-kakeo. The word used here is ek-luo, "I loose," or "I unloose" — like a bowstring being let go slack.
The promise is not that we will see returns soon, but that a fixed season is coming — and it arrives with Christ:
This should encourage the heart of the believer in the middle of all the trials of this present life. Often now we have to put a foot on the neck of something we love. Often we have to cut away what our hearts cling to. But the path will soon end in joy and glory, where the divine life in us can grow with nothing to spoil it. We must not let our hands drop, however much the heart urges it. Keep on with every good work until the Lord Jesus comes. The "due season" is not far off; then joy will crown the servant's work. We need to remind each other of this now. Serving Christ in these last days is often very discouraging, and the worker is likely to faint on the road or give up in despair. Take courage — the Lord is near.
The sowing image is not limited to preaching or obvious religious work. It stretches across everything a believer does, and it names where the reaping happens:
The principle of sowing is widened in verses 9 and 10 to include our whole conduct of life. Well-doing of whatever sort is sowing pure seed. May we never become weary in doing it! The season of final reaping is close at hand — the Judgment Seat of Christ (Rom. 14:10; 2 Cor. 5:10). There is no reason to faint or be discouraged, however, and we shall not faint if Christ is the Object before our souls. Opportunities for doing good are abundant if we keep our eyes open, and we are to exclude no one from our thoughtfulness and care.
- Sowing. Sow in the Spirit and the reward comes, here and in the life to come; God's government makes the harvest as certain as the seed.
- Waiting. Weariness comes from digging up the seed to inspect it, instead of leaving the work to ripen at God's pace.
- Two failures. One word warns against caving in and giving up; the other pictures a bowstring gone slack — strength quietly leaking away.
- One season. The reaping has a set time: it comes with Christ, and it is near.
- One reach. Well-doing covers the whole of life, excludes no one, and keeps going while Christ stays before the soul.
So then, as we have occasion, let us do good towards all, and specially towards those of the household of faith.
Paul ends his warning about sowing and reaping with a plain instruction: keep doing good, and do it now. It answers three questions. When do we act? Who is included? Who comes first?
The words "so then" tie this command back to the harvest law of the previous verses. One writer explains that picture, and what to do when we see little result:
He pictures God's government of our path through this world as sowing and reaping. Let us not fool ourselves. We are Christians by the grace of God, but that does not mean we escape the results of our own foolishness in this life... In the presence of opposition and conflict we may faint, seeing little result of "well doing" we may grow weary, but let us press on, waiting God's "due season."
Another writer widens the picture to cover everything we do:
Verses 9 and 10 widen the principle of sowing to cover our whole way of life. Well-doing of whatever sort is sowing pure seed... Chances to do good are everywhere if we keep our eyes open. We are to leave no one out of our thoughtfulness and care... This is not just enjoying people and giving them what they want. It is real, positive good done to them.
The Greek behind "opportunity" is the same word for "season" used in verse 9. That gives the sentence a deadline, and the word for "do good" carries the sense of effort:
The word for "labor" makes us think of the hard work that is needed. And if we are to do good towards all, it does require hard work... And it is only as we have time! "But this I say, brothers: the time is short!" (1 Cor. 7:29, older translation.) Soon our opportunities will be gone. Soon it will be too late. We will not have the opportunities in heaven to do good towards all as we have now down here.
"All" means all. One writer lists what else the New Testament tells us to do for all people:
We are to love all (1 Thess. 3:12), to pray for all (1 Tim. 2:1), to do good to all (Gal. 6:10), to love and to help our enemies (Rom. 12:19-21), and to be kind to the unthankful and the evil (Matt. 5:43-48). At the same time we are especially to do good to the household of faith. We are to love our brothers and sisters as Christ has loved us. That means we must be willing to lay down our lives for them. (1 John 3:16.)
Kindness also reaches people who never read the Bible:
The power of our testimony for the Lord depends more on our actions than on our words! The world may not study Scripture, but often it knows how to judge our behaviour. How many a soul has been broken down, not only by the pure gospel, clearly presented, but also by the mercy shown!
Why do believers get the first claim? Because of two different ties, and one outranks the other:
We are to be givers and doers of good to all men; while the household of faith has the first claim on us. By creation we are connected with all men. Redemption and its results place us in the household of faith. The first tie is natural, the second is spiritual, and the spiritual comes before the natural.
The phrase itself must not be shrunk to fit our own group:
"The faith" is a term which tells us of the faith in Christ Jesus, and the household of faith includes every believer. May we remember that we all belong to the same household. People may build walls. They form groups and societies that shut other believers out. But in God's eyes we all belong to the same household.
Believers and unbelievers can do the same kind act. What separates them is why they do it. And helping the world is not a partnership with it.
Surely, if there is a special duty to the household of faith, I am also bound to do good to all men. But in this there is no yoking together with those outside Christ, and no communion. The worldly man gives because he is generous, or feels for the need of the person, or is expected to give. The child of God does it because it is the will of God. The one acts on the ground of nature, the other in faith.
- Sow — this command grows out of the harvest law. Whatever you scatter, you gather. So keep scattering good, even when you see no crop.
- Season — "opportunity" is the same word as "due season"; the window is open now and closes at death, so the work is urgent.
- Labour — the verb means expended effort, not warm feeling; doing good to all is hard work.
- All — the circle takes in everyone: enemies, the unthankful, the evil. Mercy shown often reaches people that words never touch.
- Especially — creation links us to everyone; redemption links us to believers. The second tie comes first. And that household holds every believer, not only our own circle.