6Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor.
7Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
Dig Deeper
The other day I was eating some sunflower seeds. I don’t normally do this very often but there I was. As I was enjoying the salty goodness of the sunflower seed, I realized something. You can take a seed and eat it or you can take it and sow it. If you eat it, you can enjoy it for a moment but then it’s gone and that’s all there is to it. On the other hand, you can take a seed and plant it in the ground and it will grow and produce new life beyond itself. That’s always the choice that we have when it comes to seeds. Consume it now and let that be the end of it, or plant it and let it continue to produce fruit for future generations.
Paul addresses a topic in this passage that was evidently every bit as difficult to discuss in his day as it is in ours. In 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, Paul discusses the topic of money and giving to support God’s people and His church in depth without ever mentioning the word "money" itself. He does the same thing here. It might seem strange that near the end of a letter that has been all about recognizing who the true people of God are and learning to live that way that Paul would suddenly switch to such an earthy and seemingly unspiritual topic. Yet, we should know enough about Paul by now to realize that he has a very specific purpose in bringing up this topic, a purpose that is directly related to what he has been saying in this letter all along.
Verse 6 is often frequently taken out of context by those who would not bother to do a little work to understand what Paul is actually saying. What he is clearly not talking about is a situation in which anytime you are studying the Bible and learn something, you need to share it with your teacher so they can know it too. The Greek word, koinoneito, is translated ‘share’ but was a common Christian figure of speech for ‘making a financial contribution’. Paul is saying that those who are taught the word of God should take from the gifts that God has given them and support those who would teach them the word. Paul says this even more clearly in 1 Timothy 5:17 when he says that those who preach and teach are worthy of double honor (another euphemism for financial contribution). This is an often touchy subject in churches today, but one that Paul felt was important (some erroneously point to the fact that Paul refused support from the church in Corinth, but fail to notice that, as Paul makes clear in 2 Cor. 12:14, he does so because they are not yet mature enough to handle doing so).
This is why Paul goes into a discourse on sowing and reaping, no doubt with the image of the fruit from the end of chapter 5 still in mind. We can only speculate here but it seems likely that because of the controversy going and and the infighting that had been caused by the Judaizers that at least some in the Galatian churches were now refusing proper support of their teachers. Paul will not stand for this. His words are to the point and rather stinging. To do this would be to mock God. What seems like a very non-spiritual issue is, in fact, an extremely spiritually related concept. A man reap what he sows.
We now begin to see why Paul felt so strongly about this and why he felt it was related to the topic of demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit or the works of the flesh. If they were to sow according the Spirit, then that would include happily supporting teachers and preachers. It would even mean sacrificing personally so that more and more teachers and preachers would be supported. To keep the resources that they have for themselves would be to be deceived and to sow according to the flesh. It is like the choice between consuming the seed for yourself or planting it to produce further life. We can spend money on houses that decay, cars the depreciate, and material goods that fade or we can spend our resources on God’s kingdom and the ministry of His word. The result of which saves lives and restores communities in the great redeeming work of the almighty God.
Paul wants them to not become weary in doing good. ‘Doing good’ is another of those common phrases in Paul’s day that referred to financial contributions. If they sow their money generously and in accordance with God’s will it will reap a harvest of eternal life, the life of the age to come. Thus, for Paul it comes down quite clearly to matter of being the people of the age to come who live by faith in the life of Christ. Those who live by faith in the life of the Messiah and walk according to the Spirit will sow according to the Spirit. Those who struggle with that and resist the life of the age to come, continuing to walk in the flesh, will sow according to the desires of the flesh.
Paul, as always, wants what is best for them. Paul is hardly motivated by a desire to fatten his own bank accounts, he realizes that how we use our resources, especially finances, is a direct reflection of where are our hearts are at. Just like the list of the fruit of the Spirit in chapter 5, this is another sign for the Galatians of where they stand as the people of God. Paul wants them to sow generously according to the Spirit to all people, but especially fellow members of the family of God. Money, in the Christian worldview, is never for one’s own enjoyment, it is a responsibility given by God. It can be used wisely and spiritually to produce a kingdom harvest that will last forever, or it can be used foolishly and selfishly to produce a temporal harvest that will soon fade away. For those who live in a society that has so much unprecedented wealth this is surely at least as important of a topic as it was for those in Galatia.
Devotional Thought
If you sow to the flesh in this present age, you will reap a harvest that is only of value in this present age. If you sow a harvest to the Spirit you will reap a harvest that will last for eternity. Where have you been sowing most of your resources, money and otherwise? What does this say about your true heart for God and His kingdom.
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