There is this book that became all the rage in 2006 called “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne. It is a book and DVD that claims “what you put put into the universe you get back,” and “what you focus on will be drawn to you.” These sayings are New Age and utterly false. Some Christian brothers may be baited into thinking isn’t reaping what you sow similar to these sayings? No it is not. In fact one of the most misquoted Bible verses is “you reap what you sow.” People equate this saying as something akin to Karma (another false belief), you will get back what you put out into the universe or world, again this is a lie, have you not heard, “every good deed doesn’t go unpunished,”? Its an adage because when a Christian does an act of charity, alms or kindness, the devil seeks to discourage this kind of benevolence, lest Christians and ultimately Christ get glory for it. Instead, often what happens is when we do a good act or act of kindness we become besieged and the immediate reaction is, “see if I do that (kindness) again!.
There is a great quote a heard in something is wad watching that went like this, “You don’t do the right thing because all goes well and prospers, you do the right thing because its the right thing, even if it doesn’t turn out well in the end for you.” This is a concept our Lord and God Jesus Christ taught first, He says, “Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For their fathers treated the prophets in the same way.” (Luke 6:21-23). Look at those words, blessed are when you are hated and insulted and rejected because you follow Jesus! That right there contradicts this idea that if you sow good, you’ll reap hood from others, in fact it days from bad treatment for Christ’s sake you reap good! Christ goes further, “But to those of you who will listen, I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone takes your cloak, do not withhold your tunic as well. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what is yours, do not demand it back. 31Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full.
But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:27-38). Here we see the opposite, Its not sow good so you get good, but respond to the bad people do to you with good like praying for them or having mercy on them as you’d want them to do to you if you did the same thing. Its the reverse of the false teachings of The Secret. You don’t do good to get good, you respond to bad with good.
Finally the Reap what you sow really is about sowing for eternal rewards not getting back rewards on earth, “Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” (Galatians 6:6-10). Emphasis here is not you shall reap in this life anything for sowing unto the Spirit instead of the flesh but rather you shall reap eternal rewards just as Jesus said, “blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven.“ (Luke 6:22-23).
The idea you will reap fortune and goodness from people in this life is a false doctrine created from a hybrid of the false Prosperity Doctrine that promises wealth and ease for following Jesus, and the New Age/ Buddhist/ Hindu idea of putting out into universe good to get it back later in this life. Jesus tells us the opposite, that we shall be hated, and when we are hated to bless and treat those hating us with love, mercy, and kindness. We are to do good to those who persecute us, not do good and expect good from people. Now yes as Christians we are suppose to help each other (James Chapter 2) and followers of Christ do get a sense from the Holy Spirit to help others, but its not via merits, that you will get God’s help later if you do good to someone now, that’s a false Roman Catholic idea, and New Age teaching as explored earlier; but rather the Lord will put on the heart of a brother or sister in Christ to help another brother or sister because God loves us, and is our Father, and takes care of his Children not because they did good, remember God saved us when we were his enemies, when we weren’t doing any good at all, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person-though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die- but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:6-10).
One more time because learning is repetition, we as Christians don’t do good to reap good, we are called to do good to those who do bad to us and God does good to us not because we do good but because He loves us and we are His children. Amen.
To be clesr, when Paul says in the Galatians passage I shared to do good, especially to those in the faith, he does not say to do this to get good back.
ReplyDeleteThe point is motive, Jesus our Lord was moved with compassion to help others, he didn’t do good so that later someone would do good to Him.
We do good not to get good back whih would make our kindness selfish, but we do good becsuse Christ tells us to, and to do it even to the bad people in our lives.