Galatians 6:7-8 (NIV) — 7 “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”
Have you ever considered the virtually limitless control God gives you over your future in these words?
I’m not referring to control over your future circumstances. Circumstances are the context of your day to day life whereas the apostle is referring to the content of your daily life, or, if you will, it’s quality.
By implication, what he is saying, in effect, is this: Don’t fool yourself. Because of the immutable law of sowing and reaping, you have full control over the quality of your life in the days to come.
And he gives only two possible outcomes that will describe our future. The first he calls, “destruction” and the second “eternal life.”
From the Greek, by destruction he means things that happen to a dead body — disintegration, decay, corruption, ruin. As to how it feels we could say sad, hopeless, despairing, lost, bound down, discouraged, regretful, guilt ridden.
Eternal life, on the other hand, is just the opposite. But it is not a static possession like owning a car. It is dynamic. It is essentially the life of God at work in you to increasingly fulfill what he created you to be, and to do the good things he created for you to do. As to how that feels we could say free, joyful, meaningful, enthusiastic, adventurous.
Whatever the case may be, here’s the universal law Paul is highlighting: be it destruction or eternal life, you will always receive tomorrow precisely what you sowed today, and not just seed for seed, but multiplied many times over.
Here’s another question we need to ask: just what is bad seed and what is good seed?
And I think the first thing we can say in answer to that is that good seed — related as it is to the Holy Spirit — is whatever we sow to that which is eternally valuable.
Bad seed, on the other hand, has to do with what the apostle refers to as “the flesh.” And the flesh is all about the here and now, what satisfies my earthbound interests and appetites.
Let’s dig deeper.
How do I know when I’m sowing to my flesh? I suggest the following: I ask myself, “in what I’m about to do, is pleasing God my greatest concern? In other words, is there anything in what I’m aiming for here more important to me than pleasing God?”
You see, anything we think, say, or do — no matter how harmless and even noble hearted it looks — that doesn’t have pleasing God as its primary motive is bad seed, and will eventually bring on a harvest of disintegration and decay even if our life’s circumstances are relatively comfortable.
By contrast, regardless of what may be perplexing circumstances, when we focus on pleasing God, we are sowing good seed in all that we do and a beautiful harvest of peace and joy awaits us in the coming days.
So don’t fool yourself! In this sense, your future is in your hands depending on what seed you sow.
