Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Galatians 6:7 KJV
Today's extract starts with a statement that seems to suggest that some people had convinced themselves that they could get away with the consequences of their actions. And when you consider how 'slow' punishment for evil actions come, you kind of wonder whether it is not true.
This early statement re-emphasizes again the law according to God's own standard, which He had laid down since the flood, that as long as the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease. That was the law then, it is the law now, and no matter how 'slow' we think God is, be sure: you WILL reap what you sow.
And when you read the very clear words: God is not mocked, you get the clear message that the God referred to here isn't the type that needs to be told what is going on. He created the human heart, so He knows all its secret and hidden agendas. He formed the life, so He knows all the areas of pressure and deceit.
He is not the type of God to be moved by external piety that does no good to the inner man. Man has learnt to deceive other people with outward activities: charity, piety, moralistic uprightness, yet for this God, these are not enough. They all matter when the soul is surrendered to God, but until then, these activities remain what they are: mere activities with no eternal value.
And the law is simple: whatever a man sows is what he will reap. There is no respect to gender, ethnicity or race. The law is the same. There is no respect to power, position or privilege; the law is the same. And because there is a time lag between sowing and reaping, we sometimes think we can change the consequences of the seed that has been sown.
Another fundamental lesson this also teaches me is that if I want a determined end, the point of caution is at the point of sowing. I can carefully choose the kind of ground I want; I can carefully prepare the seed for transport; I can ensure that there are enough nutrients to nourish the seed when it is sown. All these matter until the seed enters the ground and is covered up. As soon as it is covered up, the nutrients, water, sunlight and all other things will impact the seed.
Sowing was done in secret, away from the crowd. Even if you had so many people witness the planting of the seed, you will have to look for more than that number to help you harvest the fruit from that seed. And of course, a bigger audience will witness the outcome of the seed that you sowed back then. People will pass by your field and witness the fruit of your seed. This just tells me that the time to take caution is at the point of planting. Whatever it is you want to get out from your seed must guide what you put in the ground. If I will end well, the time to start is now. I may have made mistakes in the past, but God always gives fresh starts. As long as I come to him, he can help me sow new seeds. He may not touch the old seeds I had sown, or he may teach me steps to take to fundamentally affect the outcome of the seed initially down, or the consequences of the initial seed sown may still come, but I have been able to secure the greatest fruit of all: eternal life, and that beats any other kind of fruit my life can produce. The biggest question now is: what is my life producing? What kind of fruit am I to expect from the seed I have sown? If I don't like what I have reaped so far, maybe it is time to change the seed. His time of favour is here.
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