The Loophole in the Law of Sowing & Reaping

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.  (Galatians 6: 7)

The Bible says that we reap what we sow.  That’s true, but that’s not ALL.

Paul and Jesus talked about sowing and reaping with a kind of it’s-common-doggone-sense assumption that their listeners (us) would understand that sowing and reaping includes the process of TENDING.

But common sense ain’t all that common, is it?

We forget that we reap WHAT we sow,  but ONLY if we TEND what we sow.

Paul said, “ I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.

 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor. (1 Corinthians 3: 6-8)

The reward, the “reaping,” comes from God, but that reward is based on not only the labor of planting (sowing), but also on the labor of watering (tending).

We reap WHAT we sow,  but only if we TEND what we sow.

Mathew chapter 13 records Jesus’ famous Parable of the Sower.  This is the story where a farmer’s seed falls on different types of ground, representing the different mentalities in which people hear and respond to God’s Word.

Our favorite line from the Parable of the Sower is “Others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” (Mathew 13: 8)

We remember that and shout, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (verse 9)

But we’re supposed to hear more than that one line.

We’re supposed to hear that some of the seed, sown by the same Sower ---- died and produced NOTHING.

Where the farmer didn't put up a working scarecrow, the birds ate up his seed; and the seed produced nothing for him to reap. (Mathew 13: 4)

Where the farmer had not added supplemental top soil, the fresh shoots died from lack of depth and yielded nothing for him to reap. (verse 5)

Where the farmer had not arranged for sufficient shade despite knowing well the climate in which he farmed, his new plants did not survive; and from those plants he reaped zerofold. (verse 6)

Where the farmer had done a poor job of clearing thorns before sowing time, and didn’t then follow up by aggressively clearing the weeds during the growing season, the fresh shoots died; and the farmer reaped NOTHING from what he had sown. (verse 7)

The good soil that yielded thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold wasn’t good just because the soil was rich.  The scorched soil was equally rich, but the farmer didn’t reap there.  The thorny soil was great for growing (just ask the weeds), but the farmer didn’t reap from that space. 

The good soil was good because it was in an area that the farmer diligently tended in the time between sowing and reaping.

We reap what we sow,  but only if we tend what we have sown.

That ought to be common theological sense.  But clearly theological sense isn’t that common.

We have propagandized and commercialized the “Law of Sowing and Reaping” to the point that Christians actually think that they can drop money on a patch of carpet in a church or in a little basket, call their money “a financial seed” and then reap a return without tending to the thorns of sin and distraction in their lives, or addressing the shallowness of their spiritual practices, or spending time in the shade of a genuine relationship with God, or changing the company of scavengers in which they still socialize.

We expect to reap after sowing and without doing anything else.

And it just doesn’t work that way.

If you aren’t seeing the great harvest you expect from what you ”sowed” on Sunday, then perhaps you should give more attention to how you are (or are not) tending to your life between worship services.

You reap what you sow, when you tend what you have sown.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

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