Sowing and Reaping

When a friend falls. Paul wrote, “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness” (6:1). A trespass is a sin. Overtaken means the sin caught him, like a runner who trips. Help them back up. To restore means to put something back the way it should be. God does not want us to gossip about a friend who sinned or leave him alone. He wants us to help him come back to Jesus, gently. Watch yourself. Paul added, “considering yourself lest you also be tempted” (6:1). Nobody is too strong to fall. We help others knowing we need God's help too. Carry the load together. “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (6:2). A burden is something too heavy to carry alone, like sadness, sickness, fear or a hard temptation. The law of Christ. Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you” (John 13:34). Carrying a friend's load is love you can see. No bragging, no comparing. “For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself” (6:3). Instead of comparing yourself with others, “let each one examine his own work” (6:4). Your own backpack. “For each one shall bear his own load” (6:5). Verse 2 is about heavy burdens we share. Verse 5 is about the everyday pack each of us carries for God. What we learn. Christians are a family. We help each other up, we carry heavy loads together, and each of us does our own part.

Spirit-led people (6:1). Paul had just described the fruit of the Spirit and warned, “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another” (5:26). “You who are spiritual” does not mean a special class of Christians. It means everyone who walks by the Spirit (5:25). Restore (6:1). The Greek word is katartizo (say: kah-tar-TEE-zoh), which means to mend or put back in order. Fishermen used it for mending torn nets (Matthew 4:21), and doctors used it for setting a broken bone. Restoring is careful, gentle work, not a lecture. Gentleness and self-watch (6:1). Gentleness is part of the fruit of the Spirit (5:23). “Considering yourself lest you also be tempted” keeps the helper humble. Jesus warned against picking at the speck in a brother’s eye while ignoring the plank in your own (Matthew 7:3-5). Burdens (6:2). The word here is baros (say: BAR-oss), a heavy weight, more than one person can carry. Sharing it is how we “fulfill the law of Christ,” the command to love one another as He loved us (John 13:34; Galatians 5:14). A different law. The false teachers wanted the Galatians to take up the law of Moses as the way to be accepted by God. Paul points them to the law Christ lived and gives by His Spirit: love. Self-deception (6:3-4). Thinking you are something when you are nothing is pride. The cure is to “examine his own work” (6:4) before God, not to measure yourself against a weaker brother. Comparing either puffs us up or pulls us down, and both take our eyes off Jesus. Load (6:5). Phortion (say: FOR-tee-on) was the word for a soldier’s pack or a ship’s cargo, the load each person is given. Verses 2 and 5 fit together: share the crushing weights, and faithfully carry your own daily work before God. Application. When a friend sins, pray first, go gently, and help them back to Jesus. If a friend is crushed by sadness or trouble, show up and carry some of the weight.

Paul wrote to the churches like a loving big brother. Sometimes a Christian friend does something wrong. God does not want us to laugh at that friend. He does not want us to tell everyone either. He wants us to help our friend come back to Jesus. We should be gentle and kind. We should also be careful, because we can sin too. Then Paul said to help each other with troubles. A trouble can feel like a very heavy bag. When friends help carry it, it feels lighter. That is how we show the love of Jesus. Do not brag or compare yourself with others. Just do your own part well for God.

Paul said to help each other. Is your friend sad or hurt? You can help carry the heavy load.

Share with your teachers. “Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches” (6:6). God's people take care of those who teach them God's Word. Nobody fools God. “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked” (6:7). Mocked means made fun of or tricked. People may fool their friends, but they can never fool God. The rule of the garden. “For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (6:7). To sow is to plant seeds, and to reap is to gather the harvest. Plant beans and you get beans, never pumpkins. Two kinds of seed. “For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption” (6:8). The flesh here means our sinful self, the part of us that wants its own way. Corruption. Corruption means rotting and falling apart. Selfish choices can look fun, but they lead to ruin and, in the end, to death (Romans 6:23). The good seed. “But he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life” (6:8). Sowing to the Spirit means feeding the new life God gives: praying, reading His Word, doing what He says and loving people. Life is a gift. Everlasting life is not paid for by our seeds. It comes “of the Spirit,” from God. When we trust Jesus, the Spirit gives us life and then grows good fruit in us (Galatians 5:22-23). What we learn. Every day we are planting something. Ask God to help you plant seeds that please Him.

Supporting teachers (6:6). “Share in all good things” includes providing for those who teach God’s Word. Paul wrote the same to Corinth: “If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things?” (1 Corinthians 9:11). Giving to God’s work is itself a kind of sowing. Not mocked (6:7). The word pictures turning up your nose at someone. People act as if God will not see how they live, as if they could plant weeds and harvest wheat. God is not fooled, and His world runs by His rules. The law of the harvest (6:7). Farmers in Galatia knew three facts: the seed decides the crop, the crop is bigger than the seed, and the harvest comes later than the planting. All three are true of our choices. Sowing to the flesh (6:8). The flesh is our fallen nature, which wants its own way (5:17, 19-21). To sow to it is to feed it with what we watch, say and choose. Its harvest is corruption, decay that ends in death. “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Romans 8:6). Sowing to the Spirit (6:8). This is walking by the Spirit (5:16, 25): saying yes to Him in prayer, Scripture, worship, honesty, kindness and the church family. Its harvest is everlasting life, which begins now and lasts forever. Not salvation by seeds. Earlier Paul wrote that “a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ” (2:16). Everlasting life is reaped “of the Spirit,” as God’s gift. Our sowing does not earn that life. It shows which life is in us, and the Spirit uses it to grow us. Application. Look at what you plant each day: what you watch, what you say and how you treat people. Ask the Spirit to help you plant for Him.

Paul said learners should share good things with their teachers. Then he gave a farm rule. A farmer gets what he plants. Plant wheat seeds, and wheat grows. Our choices are like seeds. God sees every seed we plant. Nobody can trick God. Selfish, sinful choices are bad seeds. They grow into sadness and death. Choices that please the Holy Spirit are good seeds. Praying and loving others are good seeds too. They grow into life with God forever. But we cannot buy that life with good seeds. Eternal life is a gift from God's Spirit.

What you plant is what grows. Bad seeds grow bad things. Good seeds grow good things. God helps us plant good seeds.

Doing good gets tiring. “And let us not grow weary while doing good” (6:9). Weary means tired out. Sometimes we help, share and forgive, and nobody seems to notice. The right time. “For in due season we shall reap” (6:9). Due season means the right time, God's time. A farmer does not dig up his seeds every day to check on them. He waits. Keep going. “If we do not lose heart” (6:9). To lose heart is to become discouraged and quit. The harvest belongs to those who keep going. Strength from God. “But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength” (Isaiah 40:31). When you feel tired of doing good, ask God for fresh strength. Look for chances. “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all” (6:10). Opportunity means a chance. God puts chances to do good in front of us every day. Good to all. All means everyone: the new kid, the grumpy neighbor, even people who are unkind to us. Our church family. Paul adds, “especially to those who are of the household of faith” (6:10). The household of faith is God's family, everyone who trusts Jesus. We take special care of each other. What we learn. Do not give up. God sees every kind thing you do, and His harvest always comes at the right time.

Weary (6:9). Paul means the tiredness that makes people quit. Doing good costs time, money and comfort, and the results are often hidden for a long time. Due season (6:9). “Due season” means the time God has set. The harvest is certain, but the timing belongs to Him. Some of it comes in this life, and all of it comes when Jesus returns. A promise with a condition. “We shall reap if we do not lose heart.” The harvest is sure; our part is to keep sowing. The danger is not a failed crop but a farmer who walks away from the field before it is ripe. Not in vain. “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58). Paul wrote that right after teaching the resurrection. Because Jesus rose, nothing done for Him is wasted. Opportunity (6:10). Paul uses the same word for “opportunity” here as for “season” in verse 9. Each season of sowing is a chance God hands us. The promise of a harvest leads straight to action: “let us do good to all.” Good to all, especially family (6:10). Christian kindness has no borders. Jesus told His followers, “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you” (Matthew 5:44). Yet the church is a family with special care for one another, as the first believers showed when they shared what they had (Acts 2:44-45). Application. Pick one person you do not usually spend time with and one person in your church family. Plan one good thing to do for each of them this week.

Paul wrote, “We must not become tired of doing good.” Doing good can be hard. Sometimes we help, and nobody says thank you. Sometimes we are kind, and people are still mean. But God sees every good thing we do. Think about a farmer who plants seeds. He does not see plants the next day. He waits and waits. Then the harvest comes at the right time. God promises a harvest for us too. So we must not give up! We should help anyone we can. We should be extra kind to God's family.

Do not get tired of doing good. Keep on being kind. God will bring a harvest. Do not give up!

Big letters. “See with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand!” (6:11). Paul usually had a helper write his letters down. Here he took the pen himself to finish. A good showing. Some teachers wanted “to make a good showing in the flesh” (6:12). They cared about looking good to other people and wanted to “boast in your flesh” (6:13). An outward rule. They told the non-Jewish believers they had to be circumcised to really belong to God. Circumcision was a sign in the body that God gave Abraham's family. Paul said those teachers were afraid of being treated badly “for the cross of Christ” (6:12). Paul's one boast. “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (6:14). To boast is to brag. Paul would not brag about rules, his background or his work. He bragged only about what Jesus did for him on the cross. Crucified to the world. Paul said the world “has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (6:14). The world's praise did not matter to him anymore. Jesus mattered more. A new creation. “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation” (6:15). Avails means counts. Outward rules cannot change a heart. Only Jesus makes us new inside. Peace and mercy. “And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them” (6:16). Everyone who trusts the cross and lives as a new creation has God's peace and mercy.

Large letters (6:11). Paul usually spoke his letters to a helper who wrote them down (Romans 16:22 names one, Tertius). Here he took the pen for the closing lines. Many Christians see the large letters as Paul underlining what mattered most. The real motive (6:12-13). The teachers pressing circumcision on Gentile believers wanted a good showing “in the flesh,” an outward mark they could count. Paul names their reason: to escape persecution “for the cross of Christ.” A message of rule-keeping offended no one, but the cross offended many (5:11). They did not keep it either (6:13). Even those teachers did not keep the whole law. Paul had already warned that relying on the law puts a person under its curse, because no one keeps all of it (3:10). Boasting (6:14). Paul’s only boast is “the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Compare 1 Corinthians 1:31: “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.” The cross leaves us nothing to brag about in ourselves and everything to praise God for. Crucified both ways (6:14). The world, with its scoreboard of status and approval, is dead to Paul, and Paul is dead to it. This echoes 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” A new creation (6:15). The Greek is kaine ktisis (say: kai-NAY KTEE-sis), meaning a brand-new creation. In Christ the old marks that divided people count for nothing. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Peace and mercy (6:16). Paul blesses all who walk by this rule, “and upon the Israel of God.” Many Christians see these words as a blessing on Jewish believers in Jesus, part of the one family God is making. Application. What are you tempted to brag about: grades, looks, talent, being good? Trade it for the cross, and let Jesus be your boast.

Paul wrote the end of his letter himself, in big letters. Some men wanted the believers to keep an old rule. Those men wanted to look good to other people. They wanted to brag about the people who followed them. Paul did not brag about rules. He bragged about only one thing, the cross of Jesus. On the cross, Jesus died for our sins. Keeping rules cannot make anyone new inside. Only Jesus can make us new people. When we trust Him, God makes us brand new. Paul prayed for peace and mercy for all God's people.

Paul was glad about the cross. Jesus died on the cross for us. Then He rose again! Jesus makes us new inside.