Galatians 6:8, commentary and pictures

Life works by an unerring law like farming, where seed produces a harvest of its own kind and every person is gathering what he himself plants. To plant to the lower nature is to live for self, indulging selfish desire, disobedience, impurity and unbelief, and its harvest is decay of body and mind, ruin of character, and at last eternal loss. To plant to the Spirit is to live in self-denying connection with Christ, cherishing truth, obedience, love, kindness and faithful service to others, and its harvest is strength for further rightdoing, joy reflected back, and life that lasts forever. The harvest gathered is character itself, which fixes destiny for eternity, for there is no middle ground and no change of character after death. That harvest is certain, multiplied far beyond the seed sown, and it spreads beyond the sower, since no thought, word or act can be taken back but lives on to draw others toward life or toward ruin.

Sowing and Reaping Law

The verse states a universal law of cause and effect that holds in human nature as it does in nature, where effect follows cause with unerring certainty and sown seed produces a harvest of its own kind. Sowing to the flesh brings a harvest of corruption and sowing to the Spirit brings a harvest of life everlasting, so the harvest reaped depends on the seed sown and received and cherished in the heart. As in the natural world unseen agencies work yet the crop follows the planting, and the Word of the living God is the seed, Christ is the sower, and the human heart is God's seed plot that yields nothing unless Christ constantly works its soil. Sowing to the Spirit is therefore not trusting in the arm of flesh nor making righteousness by human creating, but cherishing the righteousness of Christ nourished in the heart by the grace of God, growing under the dews and showers of His grace in holiness as wholeness to God unto a glorious harvest of souls made possible because God gave His Son, the Just for the unjust, to die. Every person is making his own harvest and should be careful what seed is sown, for the harvest of life is character, which determines destiny both in this life and in the life to come, and apparent success in wrongdoing is only illusion.

God is not mocked and is acquainted with all works, and every life is open before Him whether He has the whole heart's service or only a profession of religion. Every thought, feeling, word, action, motive, purpose of the heart, and secret inclination is discerned by Him, recorded faithfully by angels however secret, and will be reviewed before God and the angels and rewarded according to works whether good or evil. Daily thoughts, words, and actions are seeds whose harvest follows what is sown, with sowing to the flesh bringing misery and corruption and sowing to the Spirit bearing fruit to life eternal, and a person must reap what he has sown as deeds are recorded in heaven. Young men in particular are now sowing seed that decides whether they lose their souls, for every act and word is a seed for good or evil with the crop matching the seed, and neglecting duties at home, indulging lustful passions, perversity of temper, gratification of appetite, inclinations of an unsanctified heart, wrong principles, unfaithfulness, dissipation, and neglect of duty reaps a plentiful crop of remorse, shame, and despair that must stand the test of judgment. One guilty of hidden wrong who has tried to blind others while guilty before God must do thorough work for eternity if he values his soul's salvation, making a clean track behind him by thorough confession, thorough conversion and transformation by renewing of the mind, overcoming self-esteem and learning humility, so he can redeem the past by a life of goodness.

The harvest comes in due season if there is no fainting, so believers are to keep doing good without growing weary, trusting they will reap. Sowing to the Spirit means proving one's own work, bearing one's own burden, sharing good things with those taught and teaching, using means as sacred to help God's children, bearing the Spirit's fruit rather than dwelling on and speaking evil of others, and doing good unto all especially the household of faith without weariness in well doing, which reaps life everlasting in due season if there is no fainting. Obedience and the use of every part of life as God's property are acts of sowing to the Spirit, while cultivating love, truth, kindness, and forbearance and doing good whenever there is opportunity sows to the Spirit and leads to everlasting life. Now is the sowing time to sow good seed by being rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, and encouraging love of hospitality and love to help those who need help, for what is sown now decides the eternal interest and the harvest is coming in the great reaping time when each will reap what was sown with no failure in the crop because the harvest is sure. Such sowing lays up in store a good foundation against the time to come so that the sower lays hold on eternal life, including breaking up fallow ground, sowing righteousness and truth, and continuing in tears against perversity until joy.

The choice fixes destiny through all eternity, setting a life and death question before the whole human race with either eternal life or eternal death, no middle ground and no second probation. Every person is planting seed that will ripen into either enduring life or death, with living for the flesh bringing decay, wretchedness, misery and corruption, while living for the Spirit and overcoming in this life as Christ overcame brings life everlasting and eternal happiness. Overcoming means using the abundant opportunities and privileges heaven has provided, allowing no petting of fleshly inclinations and cutting out all selfishness by the roots, so that the overcomer may sit with Christ on His throne, and young men and women must choose what harvest they are preparing because that choice decides happiness or misery for eternity. The character people form by giving their thoughts and lives to earthly things is the harvest of that sowing, and the reaping time matches the sowing time so that no one can sow tares and reap wheat, for character remains as it is at death with no conversion or transformation of character in the resurrection. All seed sowing is sowing for eternity and cannot be done too carefully, which means leaving every false issue alone and refusing place to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, including fanciful spiritualistic theories, while those who break the spell through humility and reconversion and hold the beginning of their confidence firm unto the end stand free before God, sound in the faith, adopted again into the family of God, and reap life everlasting.

As the farmer must plow, sow and labor with seed, soil, sun and rain that God provides, so spiritual harvest requires diligent human working of the heart's soil pledged to God to produce wheat and not tares. There can be no harvest without seed-sowing and no result without effort, and like a farmer who must sow to reap, believers must work in God's cause and overcome through Christ's strength, whose Spirit fills and shapes those who trust Him, with God working with the sower and increasing his usefulness as entrusted talents are used in His strength to produce a precious harvest. No one can expect to be saved in indolence any more than to expect a harvest where nothing was sown or knowledge where nothing was sought, for idleness and drowsiness grieve the Spirit of God and destroy true godliness. Reaping to the Spirit requires letting the light of truth sanctify the life and expose the sinful passions of the heart striving for mastery, stretching every nerve and exerting all powers to resist Satan, conquering through the merits of Christ, and, when surrounded by influences leading away from God, praying unweariedly for help and strength from Jesus to overcome the devices of Satan. Prayer does not replace appointed means, and God does not work a miracle to supply neglect, for the idler and sluggard will fail to break down pride and to overcome temptation to sinful indulgences that keep him from his Saviour.

Sowing to the Flesh

Sowing to the flesh is living for self instead of God, following the desires of the natural heart in selfishness, self-love, self-esteem, self-indulgence, pride, vanity, ambition, pleasure and convenience, whatever the profession may be. It is sowing selfish pleasures and indulgence in careless, unkind, harsh, overbearing and self-important words and acts, and also sowing self-love, bitterness and jealousy and gratifying natural inclinations and passions, whose harvest is corruption in kind but largely increased. Serving self in this way cannot yield eternal life, and the mistake must be recognized with surrender of all to God if corruption is to be escaped.

Sowing to the flesh is disobedience to God's law and rejection of Scripture and light, for setting aside Scripture rejects its power to restrain evil passions and following the natural heart brings corruption. Choosing such disobedience earns the wages of sin, which is eternal destruction, the opposite of life eternal, whether the choice is made by nation, church, institution or individual, and persisting in sin such as violating the holy Sabbath reaps the punishment that course brings. By contrast submission to God and obedience to His holy law brings the sure result of life eternal, which is knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent, a knowledge of indescribable value in this world and as far-reaching as eternity, producing a pure clean character with power to overcome temptation, grow stronger in self-conquest, be useful to others, be approved by God and be qualified for sacred work.

Sowing to the flesh includes defiling sensual and intemperate habits, lustful practices, impurity and moral defilement, giving scope to appetites, passions, lusts and abominable desires, including evil that wrongs wife and children, pursuing earthly pleasures while forgetting God and truth, and violating nature's laws through self-indulgence and abuse of the body for lustful appetites. Its reaped corruption is debasement of the intellect, disordered brain and nerve power, destroyed vital nerve energies, lessened physical vigor and mental capability so mental work becomes irksome, suffering and fitful memory, disease, enslavement to passion, degradation, self-destruction, presenting a loathsome offering to God and disqualification from being agents God can use even while professing religion. Such misery comes from the consequences of the person's own course, not from God causing it, yet the harvest is still changeable while mercy is within reach through ceasing to do evil, humble confession and sincere repentance, returning to the Lord, accepting Christ's mercies, being cleansed by His blood, made perfect in Him and becoming a partaker of the divine nature.

Sowing to the flesh includes sowing doubt, skepticism, unbelief, questioning God's dealings and false ideas, cherishing skepticism and yielding the soul to darkness and doubt rather than constantly sowing good seed of faith and what is imperishable. As corn sown yields corn and thistles yield thistles, so this seed returns in kind with an abundant, increased harvest of doubt, questioning, unbelief and ruin, with power to exercise faith becoming weaker and weaker until a person is powerless to hope and believe when faith and confidence are most essential. Habit forms step by step, with preceding steps influencing succeeding steps, so indulged unbelieving thoughts and words that strengthen unbelief in self and others grow stronger and bolder with every indulgence until becoming an ensnaring warring lust engrafted in character; like a field left to itself soon covered with briers and thorns where poisonous weeds thrive without culture, unbelief grows of itself, while good seed must be sown, watched and cultivated with painstaking earnest warfare day by day and hour by hour, skepticism fought prayerfully from its first intimation, the tongue trained to speak no weakening unbelief, association that entangles the soul in doubt avoided, and words and deeds of faith repeated to build a habit of faith that reaps life everlasting. Seeds of unbelief and doubt sown by words and influence may lie dormant, then take root and lead others away from truth, especially when voiced by ministers, spreading spiritual harm to many.

Sowing to the flesh includes harsh, proud and unjust speech and spirit: evil-surmising, suspicion, unrighteous judgments, talebearing, faultfinding, jealousy, envy, strife, bitterness, criticism, murmuring, dishonesty, discouraging words and words of darkness that sow seeds of unbelief molding hearers and removing the fear of the Lord. These are seeds that grow with every repetition as one person adds to another until a false report assumes large proportions, bearing a harvest of evil and discord in the church, doing great injustice to others, and words once spoken can never be unsaid or buried. They return as a twofold curse, falling more heavily on the sower than on the hearer, scattering deadly fruit in his own soul, hurting his own experience, leaving him miserable and a stranger to true happiness, injuring the church, receiving the same reward the prince of darkness is winning by intense activity and shrewdness, and yielding a plentiful harvest by and by in which the sower will take no satisfaction, whose full size will only be known in the last great day when every thought, word and action is brought into judgment.

Sowing to the flesh begins with resisting a motion of the Spirit of God and His correction, and having once resisted it is less difficult to resist the second time, less the third and far less the fourth, until conscience is silenced, warnings lose power and habits seem second nature. Such resistance sows stubbornness and unbelief whose harvest is sinful indulgences, iniquity and ruin prepared for the sickle, and when protective restraint is withdrawn those rejecting mercy are left to reap what they have sown, exposed to evil and its consequences. This ruin follows from the person's own cultivated course, not by a decree of God that man shall not be saved nor by darkness God throws before eyes that cannot be penetrated, for God gives light but does not force acceptance of truth, and by example the person can also lead others into the same course. Even a single grain such as neglecting secret prayer and reading of the Scriptures for one day quiets conscience so omission is easier the next day and grows into a long list of omissions and a harvest of unbelief, resistance and destruction of the soul, and persistent resistance despite light and knowledge prepares for ruin, yet the case is not beyond hope unless the person makes it so by continuing in resistance, putting personal inclination under the Spirit's control, cherishing every ray of light and gaining victory over self.

Sowing to the flesh includes worldly pleasure, amusement, idleness, luxury while ignoring the poor, slothful neglect of duty, sowing indolence and ignorance, pride in outward appearance, making the body and appearance an idol, and a life devoted to self, worldly pleasures, gain and pleasing others. A life governed by uncontrolled fleshly desires calls youth to pause and consider consequences and heed God's instruction rather than live without the Spirit's guidance, for youth spent in thoughtless wild oats embitters the whole life, yielding to temptation sets life on a harmful course, missed opportunities to do right cannot be recovered, and knowing the right way but choosing not to follow it brings just condemnation. Expecting salvation in indolence is like expecting harvest without sowing, for diligent faithful effort strengthens mind and powers while indolence reaps its own results, parents who model pride plant pride in children bearing painful fruit rootable out only when the Spirit works in the heart, and gains of honor, fame or wealth from sowing to the flesh do not last beyond this life, the mortal body withering like grass, while sowing to the Spirit reaps life everlasting.

Sowing to the Spirit

Sowing to the Spirit is the opposite of living by impulse and selfish inclination, for it means staying in vital connection with Christ, taking hold of His strength and making peace with Him, moving from principle rather than feeling, and having every movement regulated and balanced by His Spirit. It follows the path marked from the manger to Calvary, becoming a partaker with Christ in His sufferings through self-denial, cross-bearing, crucifying the old man with its affections and lusts, resisting every temptation, enduring hardness, and being trained in a life of prayer, faith, and steadfast establishment. It turns the mind from selfish earthly concerns toward Christ and heavenly things, living by faith and obedience to God's law, valuing the Redeemer and speaking of Him. It cherishes every ray of light, keeps up secret prayer and reading of the Scriptures, resists temptation and gains victory over self, so that each temptation resisted and each moral victory gives power to sow to the Spirit again in the next trial, smooths the way for higher triumphs, and yields a harvest of light unto eternal life.

Sowing to the Spirit is sowing wheat in words and acts: love, sympathy, kindness, patience, compassion, unselfish love, thoughtful kindness and tender regard for the feelings of others, obedience, self-denial, and earnest, active, zealous doing of good with the glory of God ever in view. What is thus sown returns in kind, often largely increased, some thirty, some sixty, some a hundredfold, as words and acts heard and carried onward are reflected back upon the sower and one soul saved may save other souls through the co-operation of heaven to save the perishing. Kindness, love, and tender regard shown to others bring the same kindness, love, and tender regard in return, with joy reflected back, while selfishness, self-love, self-esteem, self-indulgence, distrust, envy, jealousy, bitterness, and careless, unkind, harsh, overbearing words and acts reap corruption and bitterness to one's own soul. For a teacher this means a severe, critical, overbearing spirit heedless of others' feelings will call forth the same spirit toward himself, while preserving his own dignity and self-respect requires carefully not wounding needlessly the self-respect of others, even the dullest, youngest, and most blundering scholars.

Sowing to the Spirit is turning from falsehood to truth and from sin to righteousness, then going on from one act of obedience to another as a temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, cherishing Christ's righteousness by grace rather than making righteousness by human effort. It studies the Word with full purpose to cleanse all sin from the life and to learn what is truth, welcoming Thus saith the Lord, repenting under the sharp reproofs of Bible truth, continuing in faith, becoming sanctified and cleansed from appetite for cheapness and folly, and growing in holiness as wholeness to God as a daily victor keeping the mark of Christ's perfection ever before him. It requires constant guardianship over self, combining divine power with human effort in true active faith that works by love and cleanses the soul from moral impurity, weeding out every careless word, bridling the tongue, and treasuring sanctifying truth and Christ abiding in the heart as a living spring welling up unto everlasting life, rather than offering the strange fire of human passion, prejudice, cheap talk, and perverse common things that make mischief. It cultivates truth and right principles in the heart so they bear fruit in godly character, a growth that does not arise by itself or by chance but is to be taught by parents and formed in right habits of thought and action from a child's earliest understanding. Heeding the Spirit's convictions and turning to Jesus in repentance, belief, and obedience brings peace and life everlasting, for the choice is urgent with eternal interests and judgment at stake.

Sowing to the Spirit is bearing infirmities and burdens and restoring one overtaken in fault in the spirit of meekness while considering oneself lest of being tempted, not being weary in well-doing, and as having opportunity doing good unto all especially unto the household of faith, healing those broken in heart in peace and love. The opposite harsh, proud, officious course of bearing down, accusing, casting aside, discouraging and destroying the wretched, wounded and bruised, ignoring grave necessities and leaving first love, brings the sower over the very same ground of trial and sorrow to be proved helpless and needy by bitter experience. It gathers with Christ rather than yielding to self-interest, living in repentance, self-denial and sacrifice transformed by genuine renewal, ready to endure reproach and trial for Christ, serving God with Christ's help while the Spirit through the Word sanctifies and prepares workers to reach others for salvation while opportunity lasts. It is both duty and privilege to cultivate gentleness, to have the peace of Christ in the heart, to live as peacemakers and followers of Christ, to unify brethren, and to speak words of praise, courage, and faith to others, for such precious seed springs up to eternal life with a glory beyond comprehension.

Sowing to the Spirit is faithful work with entrusted talents and means, for words and actions are seeds whose harvest follows what is sown, and good deeds and right choices prompted by the Spirit bear fruit unto eternal life and can help bring souls to conversion. Each resistance to temptation, act of self-denial, victory over sin, and right action is a seed sown unto eternal life that strengthens spirituality, makes the doer more noble and true, gives power for further victories, and makes repetition easier, while a selfish worldly life bears no fruit to God's glory and leaves opportunities to serve and warn others unused. Keeping the heart under the Holy Spirit's control makes words and work wise, holy, and shaped by Christ, so that teaching truth, writing and speaking under the Spirit, canvassing as gospel work, hospitality, giving, rich good works, self-denial, soul-winning, and serving in sanitariums and schools lay up a good foundation and spring up to a precious harvest for the heavenly garner and life everlasting. Living under Christ's saving grace and the principles of God's law in school life sows toward that harvest, and because lives are connected such godly influence leads others toward Jesus and salvation.

Certainty and Measure Harvest

The harvest is certain, plentiful and inescapable, with no failure in the crop and no blighting or loss of what has been sown. What is planted in self-love and worldly pleasure instead of God reaps grief and shame, and sowing to the flesh reaps corruption as just retribution for deeds done. Faithfulness, diligence or sloth in the work is made evident by its results, and that harvest fixes eternal destiny. Sowing indolence reaps indolence and sowing ignorance reaps ignorance, so ability left unused is worthless and mere longing for a higher place without working brings nothing. Those who stand still and do nothing cannot rightly complain that others do not appreciate them, but must work and rise and advance and keep step with Christ to prove worthy of a higher position and go forward unto victory. Even misleading others is seed whose consequences will come whether the sower cares to gather them or not.

Like always produces like, and the harvest multiplies the seed far beyond the sowing. Every indulgence of selfishness sows selfishness and reaps the same selfishness, binding the soul in trammels that make freedom harder. Seeds of unbelief, selfish indulgence, wrong physical and spiritual habits, repining words and thirst for outward adorning reap unhappiness and misery here and hereafter and hinder the usefulness of others. Coarse, sensual liberties and demoralizing example sow evil, poisonous seed that works unseen and springs up constantly, spreading by imitation especially when sown by men in responsible positions. Once such seed leavens a public institution it is next to impossible to eradicate, and loose familiar manners between men and women work like evil roots getting firm hold with active leavening power. Too common association of men with women, and tiny seeds sown in loving affection, caresses and undue familiarity by a minister of truth who should guard the young and those weak in moral power, yield a far-reaching harvest of the same kind whose full extent eternity alone will reveal. Faith diligently cultivated by humble obedience, self-denial, talking and practicing faith, careful words and following the leadings of the Spirit reaps a glorious harvest of confidence, humble trust, peace of Christ, happiness in this life, usefulness in God's cause and eternal life.

Faithful obedience yields faith and power for future obedience, and blessing others brings God's blessing in return. A righteous life reflecting Christ that gives hope and joy to others has that joy reflected back upon the giver, while educating the soul in doubt and talking doubt and questioning God's dealings reaps an abundant harvest of doubt that leaves a person powerless to hope and believe when faith is most essential. Each resistance to temptation, act of self-denial and victory over sin is seed sown unto eternal life, and every unselfish action strengthens spirituality and makes a person more noble and true. The first resistance to correction makes later warnings easier to resist, and each indulgence prepares the way for further temptation and confirms a person more in sin. By contrast, self-denial and resistance to temptation strengthen power to overcome again, each moral victory prepares the way for further victories, and every virtuous action strengthens ability to practice virtue and makes repetition easier. Good deeds and right choices prompted by the Spirit thus bear fruit unto eternal life, while a selfish worldly life bears no fruit to God's glory and leaves opportunities to serve and warn others unused.

Consequences may continue even after repentance and forgiveness, for evil choices are seeds whose fruit keeps growing. Even after reform there may remain throughout life a shattered constitution, wavering will, impaired intellect and weakened soul-power as the lasting harm of former evil sowing. The sower must suffer disaster difficult to remedy, dishonor to God and injury to self and others by hindering the work God is using others to do, even after seeing and repenting of the wrong. Those who have gone astray must therefore earnestly overcome character defects, pray in humility and faith, stay in close connection with God, daily crucify self, seek thorough transformation, and ask God for Christ's sake to cancel the past so the evil sown will not bring its fearful consequences.

Words and actions are seed being cast now either to the flesh or to the Spirit, and holding a low, worldly, unconsecrated standard is sowing to the flesh. In the day of final reckoning every person must take the sickle and mow down the crop his own hand has sown. One who has lived for the flesh will then recognize that the record of life leaves him wanting and that corruption must be reaped as the consequence of his choices. A man who rejected counsel and persisted toward ruin confesses in vision of the final judgment that he sowed to the flesh and would reap corruption. Spreading erroneous ideas is sowing whose harvest brings unwanted consequences in the judgment, leading both sower and those who accept the error into darkness.

Character Shapes Eternal Destiny

Life is the sowing time and the harvest of life is character, which decides destiny both now and hereafter. What is cultivated by choices, conduct and even words determines what is reaped, for selfishness and a life not shaped by genuine religion bring a harmful harvest, while integrity, faithfulness and good works develop Christian character unto eternal life. Apparent success in wrongdoing is self-cheating and illusion, for human judgment of worth is unreliable unless the Holy Spirit works on the mind, and mistaken judgment can bring eternal loss. The work is done through grace and strength not human effort alone: exercising the faculties in secret kindness, self-denial and unselfish good for others sows to the Spirit and perfects traits opposite to selfishness, and the work begun on earth reaches consummation in a higher, holier life to endure forever, with service acknowledged and gifts increased. Words themselves are seed germinating to good or bad fruit according to character, for nonsense, trifling, foolish, exaggerated and passionate speech feeds the evil feeling that prompted it and yields a crop none will want to gather, while soul purification and forming character after the divine similitude, with Christ within as a well of water springing up unto everlasting life, reaps character first in the speaker and still more powerfully in those influenced.

Youth is the impressible sowing time when character and habit are formed for this life and the life to come, and the seed sown each day is reaped according to its kind. Correct and virtuous habits formed then generally mark the course through life in reverence for God, honor for the right, self-control, sobriety and godliness, with thoughtful plans, conduct brought under criticism, integrity that will stand judgment, a constant sense of responsibility, and counsel received from those of experience as fortification against coming perils. Hurtful habits contracted early hold the victim in slavery, warp and enfeeble even the best talents, make men dwarfs in intellect, lower spirituality, and continue to appear throughout life, for youth easily gains and holds right character and self-control while mature age is as insensible to new impressions as hardened rock. Sowing to the flesh in youth is being lovers of pleasure and seekers for amusement, squandering time, money and influence in selfish gratification and yielding to influences that lead away from fidelity to God, and none can so indulge and expect to escape the harvest of woe and ruin. Wrong principles allowed to take root shape lasting character for which parents who permit the sowing share responsibility, and lasting change requires a special work of grace in the heart and thorough reform of life.

Now is the time to choose, for the harvest is coming and the result depends on what is sown in the present probation. Neglect, taking things easy, and refusing to arouse to zealous effort to know and understand salvation's terms sows to the flesh and reaps corruption, for the Lord has done everything on His part and provided every facility and advantage to escape, and there is no time for ease and no divided service between God and selfish aims. All are building for eternity and going backward or forward on one of two paths, with feet traveling safe paths preparing for translation to the heavenly mansions or traveling where the enemy leads toward despair. Sowing to the Spirit is sowing eternal truth with a spirit in sympathy with God, springing up to joy and everlasting life, while sowing bad seed in unbelief, wild oats and wrongdoing brings despair, corruption and present suffering as the harvest of the course chosen. Those giving the enemy advantage must look in the great moral looking glass to see what characters they are forming, and if walking contrary to a Thus saith the Lord must change decidedly, cease to sin, and render cheerful obedience in every department, for God's commands are spirit and life to the obedient and obedience brings great mental and spiritual strength by unity with Christ, who is one with God.

While mercy is within reach the harvest is still changeable, for evil choices bring corruption unless the person repents, humbly confesses, returns to the Lord, asks forgiveness, is cleansed by Christ's blood and partakes of the divine nature. Turning in humility, repentance and confession changes the course from pursuing one's own way instead of God's will, reshapes religious character, and alters influence on others. Those given chance to repent and reform but refusing to humble themselves and put away what is reproved become hardened against counsel, and those who cut ties binding them to God must bear the consequences.

Scripture histories illustrate the harvest of retribution and of repentance bearing fruit of righteousness unto life, as seen in Jacob's sons. Nadab and Abihu died when wine confused their senses into disobedience, warning that body, soul and spirit must be kept under protection through strict temperance and that tempting the Spirit can lead to the unforgivable sin against the Holy Ghost. Using God-given powers for selfish passion and vice sows to the flesh unto corruption, as shown when Byron's great intellect, uncontrolled and turned toward vice and lowering virtue, became a curse to himself and those he influenced and ripened to corruption. A selfish, self-exalting course like that of Korah, Dathan and Abiram — setting up own opinion, striving to be first, keeping own interest in view, and using influence for own benefit without thought of crippling God's cause — sows selfishness that must reap corruption the sower will not care to reap, even if prosperity attends for a time, for that success is the worst thing and will be judged in righteousness; and self-cultivated hardness like Pharaoh's is given over to its own course, while Hezekiah's pride was evil seed yielding later desolation and woe, in contrast to words and acts fostering good principles that help others do good and spread blessing to many.

Influence Extends to Others

Every thought, feeling, word, action, motive and manner is seed that bears fruit according to its kind, bringing joy or sorrow to the sower and shaping the future by the response given to light and privileges. The time to sow is now, for what is sown to the flesh reaps corruption and death while what is sown to the Spirit reaps eternal life, and the good works growing from that sowing can bring souls to conversion. Influence cannot be taken back or buried once scattered, but like seed taking root it produces a harvest for good or evil that does not end with the doer. A thoughtless word can turn another soul's eternal destiny, and each person's influence leads others either toward happiness and immortal life or toward sorrow and eternal ruin, spreading through ages of eternity and living on after death. When a life is shaped by Christ and lived humbly with God its good influence bears fruit for eternal life and may bring many to the Master, while the influence exerted for good or evil on minds and characters is written in heaven's book of records by an attending angel.

Parents sow in children through instruction, example, discipline, food, dress and home atmosphere, and those seeds bear good or evil fruit that shape whether children's lives bring happiness or misery. Mothers who indulge harmful appetites sow seeds that bear fruit in selfishness, disobedience and other harmful traits, which they themselves reap with bitterness and for which they are accountable to God. Indulging a child's disobedience sows harm that may lead other children following the example to be lost, puts the parents' own salvation at stake, and will be revealed in the judgment in the results of example and parenting. Sowing pride by parental example and teaching brings a sure harvest of pride in children that is difficult to reverse, for pride cannot be removed merely by denying gratifying things but requires the Spirit of God to reach and work in the heart. Selfish love of the world, costly worship of mammon, neglect of the means of grace, moving the family into places of temptation, and failure to count the ark of God as essential glory and defense reap children who grow up unloved and unlovely in character, with decided impiety and tendency to infidelity to the third and fourth generation, and this harvest comes from the parents' own sowing rather than failure of the faith professed, since God does not work a miracle to deliver children from temptation their parents chose, while earnest heart-work, prayer and right habit reap blessing.

Ministers and teachers sow in others, and the minister who teaches falsehood and leads people to trust it sows seed that brings corruption and loss, with the lost souls around him as the harvest of that teaching. Seeds of unbelief and doubt voiced by ministers may lie dormant, then take root and lead others away from truth and into ruin, while sowing to the Spirit leads to everlasting life and truth sown in hearts reaps a harvest for God. Sowing seeds of skepticism in young hearts brings a harvest of infidelity, and allowing Satan's evil teachings into an institution plants seeds that take root and yield corrupt results in workers educated in unbelief and publications that mislead the world. Ministers who use their position to lead others into licentiousness reap a corresponding harvest of licentiousness and face condemnation matching their exalted position, confronted by those they led to ruin, for evil seed spreads from the heart of the work through every branch.

In business, institutions and daily association, sowing to the flesh brings corruption while sowing to the Spirit brings everlasting life, so dishonesty and tearing others down to gain position bring a fitting harvest, whereas faithfulness in small responsibilities and work guided by God's principles bear different fruit. Even ordinary business dealings reveal which side a person serves and affect others as well as the doer under God's knowledge, for using money and influence for selfish gain forms selfish habits, while fairness, generosity and service to God's work are sowing to the Spirit. Selfish sowing brings its harvest back on the sower's own head in this life, as in perverting the canvassing work, pushing higher wages and devising plans to make money from authors, reaped in suffering loss and unremedied difficulties with pride, malice and loss of spirituality. Sowing evil influence, reports and unbelief like poisonous seed brings a certain bountiful harvest at reaping time whether the sowers care or not, with fruit spreading from the heart of the work through every branch to lose hundreds of souls and hold God's servants in toiling labor for a corrupt people, and the sowers themselves reap what they sowed unless the roots of bitterness are plucked up by working as zealously to counteract the evil as was spent to sow it.

Daily Life Applications

Students are deciding eternal destiny by how they treat teachers and companions, for encouraging and sustaining teachers rather than tempting them to stumble or discouraging them is sowing to the Spirit that should be continued until the due-time reaping, while helping tempt others and causing stumbling is sowing to the flesh that must be answered for before God. Humiliating a pupil by exposing faults is the same law in reverse, planting seed that drives him further downward because action yields a like harvest.

Following passion and impulse instead of God's voice in choosing friendships, companions, business ties and especially marriage unions with opposers of God who can never elevate or ennoble is sowing to the flesh, throwing obstructions in the way of serving God and reaping ruined aspirations and hopelessness in this life with possible loss of the soul.

Violating the laws of life by self-indulgence sows to the flesh and reaps corruption, while obedience brings healing and blessing of body and mind, for each person makes his own harvest and the effects reach children and later generations in mental and physical powers and family welfare. Choosing flesh foods from personal preference when a vegetarian diet can be secured sows to the flesh to physical injury and gradually careless disregard of God's instruction on other points of present truth with loss of perception of truth. Parents who place flesh of dead animals on the table and encourage children to eat meat and stimulating food sow to the flesh and reap corruption as ruin of mind, soul and body, making children nervous, peevish, irritable, passionate and impatient of restraint instead of sweet-tempered and patient, losing virtuous practices and driving youth by passion into corrupting and revolting sins and self-pollution that ruin mind, destroy memory and enfeeble every faculty, so parents must set before children only simple wholesome food and avoid all that stimulates. Persevering obedience to nature's laws and giving up harmful indulgences, including poisonous drugs that serve bodily appetite, brings health of body and mind as reward, while disobedience brings suffering and misery. Feeding the mind on story magazines, novels and sensational reading is likewise sowing seed whose harvest harms, giving no spiritual strength, weakening love for the pure truth of God's Word and consuming time, energy and self-discipline needed for life's serious concerns.

Using God-given powers and abilities for uncontrolled passion, vice and spreading moral ruin sows seed that brings a corrupting harvest of woe with no pride in the reaping, for intellect alone does not make true greatness but unsanctified and unguided by God's Spirit becomes a curse that lowers virtue, wastes its possessor's life and leads others to ruin. Faithful service and responsible use of gifts serve God and bring the reward of life everlasting, while misapplying powers and perverting privileges and opportunities sows a harvest that must be reaped without pleasure, leaving without refined moral taste and without Christ as abiding principle few youth to ever see heaven. Living and working to God's glory by heeding warnings and counsel, making needed changes and using entrusted abilities faithfully brings the enduring reward of life and Christ's peace proportionate to labor, while disregard of God's laws brings corruption.

The warning presses with special force when faith and works must stand in clear distinct lines, light shines amid moral darkness, the third angel's message is borne aloft, churches need to be set in order, the door of unbelief closed, Satan's seducing power threatens to deceive even the elect, and crooked paths turn the weak out of the way, so every soul must take heed and keep straight paths. Acting against God's will is sowing to the flesh that brings corruption, misery, destruction and exposure to wrath with no real joy in forbidden paths, while God plans for the good of creatures and receiving Jesus gives power to walk in righteousness and peace toward eternal life. Setting aside God's Word and feeding the mind on ideas that lead away from God rejects its power to restrain evil passions and sows to the flesh unto corruption away from everlasting life, showing that what the mind takes in shapes direction and harvest, including in education. Indulgence in luxury while ignoring the suffering poor is part of that wicked sowing that reaps corruption. Refusing God's Word and choosing careless pleasure sows harmful seed, while following the Word's instruction prepares for eternal life and calls for daily self-examination and readiness to meet God. Those who both hear and live Christ's word will in due time reap what they sow by being Christians always, looking constantly to Jesus, practicing His lessons, doing His work and keeping well-balanced by careful prayerful study of God's Word, while working out self-will, trampling righteous principles and ignoring God's wisdom meets God's protest.

Living to satisfy sinful desires reaps corruption and sorrow without lasting freedom, while living by the Spirit, heeding conviction and turning to Jesus, reaps peace and everlasting life, a solemn appeal to seek the Lord. Wild conduct uncontrolled by God's Spirit is a choice with consequences, for God is not mocked and each reaps what is sown. Selfishness and injustice toward others return upon those who practice or support them, and responsibility remains even for plans merely sanctioned and not originated, with no excuse in denying responsibility. A minister who relies on personal strength and neglects consecration, prayer and the Spirit's guidance lives by selfish impulses and sows to the flesh unto corruption in the end, while life linked with God and guided by the Spirit leads to everlasting life.