Sowing and Reaping

mira66 from Norwich, Norfolk, England, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The term “sowing and reaping” is a familiar one.  It is often used in preaching, almost to the point of seeming gimmicky.

But actually, it is a fundamental principle.  It is dangerous to ignore the principle simply because it is a familiar topic.

It is one thing to know something, it is another to put it into practice.

Noah on the ark is a type of salvation.

Once Noah came off the ark, the first principle God established, after Noah gave an offering, was that of sowing and reaping.

2 Peter 2:4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

 

Genesis 8:15 And God spake unto Noah, saying,

16 Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee.

17 Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.

18 And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him:

19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.

20 And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

21 And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.

22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

When it is said that “Jesus did it all”,  it is necessary to understand that there is a difference between being born again and afterward growing into the life in Christ.   In the sense of being born again, it is true that Jesus did it all.  No baby births itself.  The ability to be born of the spirit of God is because of the redemptive work of Christ.   It is impossible to work one’s way to heaven.  You must be born again.

But once a baby is born, it grows, or should grow.

Likewise, a newborn “babe in Christ” should grow.

I Peter 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:

Part of growing in Christ is learning to walk in God’s ways.  Sowing and reaping is a mainstay of the kingdom of heaven.  There are many forms of sowing:  time, treasure, talent, words, prayer.

Even the world recognizes that if you want your ship to come in, you first have to send it out.

Ecclesiastes 11:1 Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.