The Harvest

The apostle sets before us a law as sure as any in nature. Be not deceived, he says, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. There is no cheating the harvest. What we sow, we reap, in kind and in measure, and the law holds whether we believe it or not. And out of this law he draws an encouragement for the weary. Let us not be weary in well doing, he says, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. Keep sowing the good seed, he means, for the harvest is coming, though it tarries, and it will surely come if we do not give up before it.

Notice the two truths held together here, that the harvest is certain and that it is delayed. In due season we shall reap, certainly; but in due season, not at once, not on our schedule, but in the season God appoints. Between the sowing and the reaping lies a gap, sometimes a long one, and it is in that gap that our faith and patience are tested, for we must go on sowing good seed into ground that shows no harvest yet, trusting a reaping we cannot see. The certainty of the harvest and the delay of it are both true, and the soul that would reap must hold to both.

THE WEARINESS OF WELL DOING

The apostle knows that well doing is wearying, and does not pretend otherwise. Let us not be weary in well doing. Doing good is tiring, especially when it is long continued and the harvest is not yet seen, when we sow and sow and see no fruit, when the kindness is unreturned and the labor unrewarded and the good we do seems to vanish into ground that gives nothing back. There is a real weariness in it, a temptation to grow tired of doing good, to conclude that it is not worth it, that the sowing bears no harvest and may as well be stopped. The apostle speaks to that weariness directly, for he knows it is where the harvest is most often lost.

For the harvest is conditioned on one thing, and the apostle names it. We shall reap, if we faint not. If we faint not. The reaping is sure, but it is forfeited by fainting, by giving up before the season comes. And this is the great tragedy of so much well doing, that it is abandoned just before the harvest, the seed left in the ground, the sowing stopped one season short of the reaping. Many a soul has fainted at the very edge of the harvest, has grown weary and quit when the fruit was almost ready to appear, and so lost by fainting what one more season of patience would have reaped. The harvest belongs to those who do not faint.

TWO SOWINGS, TWO HARVESTS

And the apostle sets before us the solemn other side of the law of the harvest, that there are two sowings and two reapings. He that soweth to his flesh, he says, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Every act is a seed, sown either to the flesh or to the Spirit, and the harvest matches the seed. The one who sows to the flesh, spending his days on its appetites and its self-will, reaps corruption, a harvest of decay. The one who sows to the Spirit, spending his days on the things of God, reaps life everlasting. We are sowing every day, in everything we do, and we shall reap the harvest of our sowing.

This should sober us and steady us both. It sobers us, for it means that nothing we sow is without its harvest, that the small daily seeds of flesh or Spirit are all growing toward a reaping, and we cannot sow to the flesh and hope to reap life. And it steadies us, for it means that no good seed is wasted, that every sowing to the Spirit, however small and however unrewarded now, is growing toward a harvest of life everlasting that cannot fail. Sow to the Spirit, then, day by day, in the small seeds of prayer and obedience and love, and do not faint, for the harvest matches the seed, and the seed sown to the Spirit reaps life.

THEY THAT SOW IN TEARS

And there is a joy set at the end of the sowing that makes the weariness worth bearing. They that sow in tears, the psalmist sings, shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. There is the whole of it, the tears of the sowing and the joy of the reaping. The sowing is often done in tears, in the hard and unrewarded labor of well doing, in the going forth and weeping with the precious seed. But the reaping is done in joy, with rejoicing, bringing the sheaves home. The tears are for the sowing season; the joy is for the harvest, and the harvest doubtless comes to the one who does not faint.

So the apostle can say elsewhere, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Your labour is not in vain. Not one seed of it is wasted, not one act of well doing lost, however it seems now. It is all growing toward a harvest, and the harvest is sure, and the labour is not in vain. This is what keeps the sower sowing through the weary season, the knowledge that the tears of the sowing are seed for the joy of the reaping, and that he who endures to the harvest will bring his sheaves home with rejoicing.

DO GOOD UNTO ALL

We should see what the well doing is that the apostle bids us not grow weary in, for he has been very concrete about it. Just before, he spoke of restoring the one overtaken in a fault, in the spirit of meekness, and of bearing one another’s burdens, and so fulfilling the law of Christ. And just after, he draws the conclusion. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. The well doing is this practical love, the restoring of the fallen, the bearing of burdens, the doing of good to all as opportunity comes, and it is in this humble, daily labor of love that we are not to grow weary.

And it is exactly this kind of well doing that most tempts us to weariness, for the labor of love is often unrewarded and unreturned. We restore a fallen brother and he falls again; we bear a burden and are not thanked; we do good and it is forgotten or repaid with unkindness, and we grow weary, and are tempted to stop, to conclude that our love is wasted on the ungrateful. But the apostle says the harvest of this love is as sure as any harvest, that the good sown in the lives of others is seed that will be reaped in due season, and that we must not faint in the sowing of it, however little it seems to yield now.

Note the breadth and the priority together, do good unto all men, especially unto them of the household of faith. The love is to reach all, as opportunity comes, excluding no one from its good; and yet it has a particular care for the family of faith, the brothers and sisters nearest to us. So the sowing of good is not a vague benevolence toward humanity in general that neglects the neighbor at hand, but a concrete doing of good to the actual people God sets in our path, beginning with the household of faith and reaching out to all, as we have opportunity.

So do not grow weary in this. When the love you sow is unreturned, when the burdens you bear go unthanked and the good you do is forgotten, remember that it is seed, and that the harvest is coming, and that the God who sees in secret will reap it in due season. As you have opportunity, do good, to all, and especially to the household of faith, and do not faint, for this quiet daily sowing of love is not wasted, but is the very well doing whose harvest the apostle promises to those who faint not.

So let us not be weary in well doing. Keep sowing the good seed, though the labor tires you and the harvest tarries and the ground gives nothing back yet, for the harvest is certain, and comes in due season, and belongs to those who faint not. Sow to the Spirit and not to the flesh, in the small daily seeds of a life given to God, for the harvest matches the seed. And when the sowing is done in tears, remember that they that sow in tears shall reap in joy, and that the weeping sower comes again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. For in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.