Galatians 6:7,8 – what a person sows…

Be not deceived. God is not to be sneered at, for whatsoever a man may be sowing, this shall he be reaping also, for he who is sowing into his own flesh, from the flesh shall be reaping corruption, yet he who is sowing into the spirit from the spirit shall be reaping life eonian.

Paul had just written about “the works of the flesh” (5:19) versus “the fruit of the Spirit” (5:22). Here he continues the metaphor of bearing fruit and the contrast between flesh and spirit (6:8).

Paul is serious and he does not want his readers to deceive themselves. Whoever twists Paul’s teaching on the Gospel of God’s grace is mocking God. The teaching that man can be righteous only by putting himself under the law sows in the field of the flesh. And its harvest is destruction. More cannot be expected from ‘flesh’..

On the other hand, whoever sows in the Spirit, i.e. trusts in what GOD promises to do (3:2,3; 4:28,29), will reap eonian life. That is the life that belongs to the age to come. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever trusts in what GOD promises to do will reap the fruit that only God’s Spirit can produce, that is love: joy, peace, patience and so on (5:22)!

Delen: