Sowing and reaping

Something occurred to me a while back regarding Galatians 6,

1 Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
2 Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
3 For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
4 But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.
5 For every man shall bear his own burden.
6 Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.
7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

The context of this passage is straightforward enough but the instruction is very subtle, so simple that I had walked right past it not even noticing it in the slightest…. then while reading Genesis 1, studying an unrelated topic, these verses took on a whole new dimension as a potential application on a much larger scale.

11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

Beyond the obvious correlation textually, the part at the end, "and God saw that it was good” hit me differently.,it was more than the previous verse and seemed to be a decree or ordinance of sorts… An immutable attribute of life, the very mechanism of production. This had never occurred to me and when I went to scripture for reference, Galatians 6 came to mind and when I read it in this light 🤯!!
Paul seems to buttress the point by initiating his matter of fact statement to the affirmative, by saying -
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked”
It occurred to me that the implication/application of this held far more weight than I had previously imagined. From the macro objective reality to the micro subjective perception of reality, this appears to be a fixed governing principle that to even consider a breach is to not only be deceived but also to openly mock God 😳!!

Since that time I’ve attempted to apprehend it in its totality but the farthest I’ve gotten is that -
a. we (church) grossly underestimated how evil, evil is and as such have come to accept it as common to life. This is evident in the worldliness of our ranks .
b. we (church) do not fear the Lord in any comparable biblical sense that could be considered healthy much less holy. This too is evidenced in the acceptance of friendship with the world. Which according to James 4 is spiritual adultery and literally war with God 🥹

Has anyone else considered that we (church) may be deceived on a mass scale but on a fundamental level or something to that effect?
I mean there are allot of scriptures that warn against us being deceived, distracted, led astray. weighted down, etc….
My local pastor had once said from the pulpit, "the thing about deception is that if your are, you don’t know it otherwise it wouldn’t be deception”

From what I’m finding in scripture, everything we think, say and do is a proverbial seed that we sow by our intent of the heart and then later, sometimes much later, reap the fruit according to the kind/type of seed we planted.
It appears that there are only 2 types of seeds sin/death - righteousness/life
And as such, we are seeds as it were and our very lives and whom we serve bears fruit after its own kind…

Romans 6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

The deception comes in the form of the "good” fruit from the wrong tree, tree bearing the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.
Is this why so many churches have gone the way of the world??
Have they been feeding, unknowingly, on the "good” fruit of the wrong tree and thereby producing fruit that, by its very nature, cannot please God?
Yet would we not be oblivious to this unless we had a close personal examination of the fruit of our lives?
Would that not explain the "goats” whom Jesus says "depart, I never knew you”….
From what I can gather in scripture, they seemed to have had some sort of salvific experience and were quite zealous, even works that by all appearances would be evidence of the Holy Spirit, yet it’s not the works but the fruit that God is after,… the harvest .

So has anyone else considered this or a similar thing pertaining to why we, 2000 yrs out from Pentecost and we don’t seem to have matured to be as fruitful as we should/could be yet literal billions of dollars and countless hours of effort have poured through ministry …. We have to have missed something, perhaps it’s a very small thing, in either case I just can’t square with scripture that if we were aligned with and keeping step with the Holy Spirit that we could be in such disarray-
Jesus prayed, that we would be one just as He and His Father are one, so that the world would believe….. sure seems like we are the problem or weak link in that chain, otherwise how do we explain the condition we are in 🤷🏽”â™‚️

Abide in me and you will bear much fruit. You abide in my love when you obey my command. This is my command, that you love one another.

I pray that you will know His will, so that you can walk in a way pleasing to Him bearing fruit in every good work.

We have been given His precious and great promises and His divine power so make every effort to increase in godliness which will make you useful and fruitful in the knowledge of Him.

Sew to the Spirit and you will reap eternal life.

Grow to maturity in the knowledge of Him by speaking truth in love to one another.

If a seed falls to the ground and does it will produce much fruit.

Why don’t we bear more fruit.

Lack of death, lack of prayer, lack of making every effort to grow, lack of brotherly love, lack of ministering the truth in love to one another.

Scriptures answer to your question. Of course this presupposes new birth in the first place.

Fletcher,

The church of Jesus is all of those things. The visible institution however, is not.

The good and acceptable are juxtaposed against the perfect will of God in Romans, and we, through conformity to Jesus, renewal of mind, and a total presentation of ourselves living sacrifices, are given the revelation to discern the good from the perfect.

I have long thought that the world still commits the original sin of constantly eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and we as believers are to eat of the tree of life. We love to know right from wrong, but the ministry and life of Jesus shows us plainly that human good intention is the antithesis of the Fathers will.

The church is one, it is light, it is salt. It doesn't have it, it isn't commanded to be it, it simply is. Those that aren't, well, they prove just how small the "little flock" actually is.

And yet are we not our brothers keepers?
Will we not be held to account if we fail to warn them and ourselves even?

I mean none of us are exempt from the deception that has crept in and has taken so many people captive,…

The current disarray and general lack of unity on even fundamental matters leaves my spirit troubled.
It honestly seems to me we (as a whole) might’ve, albeit with good intentions, departed from the simplicity of the gospel…
One area is when we attempt to make the gospel more palatable for people, effectively watering it down rendering it ineffective, that’s not what we were commanded to do 🤷🏽”â™‚️
When reading the NT, Jesus and the apostles were very confrontational regarding the presentation and exceedingly gentle and merciful when dealing with those whom were willing to hear, repent and obey … is that how the narrative reads to you?

One fundamental and foundational thing the Lord has not let me escape is that what we see in churches (plural), in buildings on Sunday mornings, and even in prayer meetings and what the world calls "para church" ministries, are not in fact the body of Christ at all, they are churches (plural), not the church (singular). We are in the age of apostasy, and what we see around the world are men claiming great works, signs and wonders, political strength and power, demons being driven out, healing, and everything Jesus told us beforehand would accompany this age of false prophets and apostasy. Let not your heart be troubled, He told us beforehand.

The fear of deception overtaking us can be just as debilitating as sin, and we must proceed in faith that if our lives line up with Jesus teaching, and we are hearing from the Lord in prayer, and walking with God in faith and obedience, He will not let us be led astray. He is the good shepherd, and we the stupid sheep, He leads the way, stay close to Him.

The gospel is powerful because of it's weakness. Men have the ability to resist and bawk at the word, and it's power lies in the total and utter weakness of that fact. The rejected and despised gospel of Jesus will one day inherit the earth, and the King of that gospel message, will rule this earth from Zion.

We as the church must realize that weakness, and shake the dust from our feet when the preaching is rejected and despised. They don't want what we have, because it is weak. It is the power of God for salvation, but don't mistake power for the worlds definition, this power lay in the fact that God chooses the weak and despised as the strong and mighty.

Sometimes we go, in fleshly zeal, where God doesn't want us. We must walk humbly with Him, and trust in faith His guiding hand.

Well said, and much of what you have written is a comfort to me 🙏🏻
Perhaps my personal relationships, the love I have for the clients that use my services, has held more sway in the practice of my faith than I had realized.