My dear readers,

We Reap What We Sow

Proverbs 11:18: “The wicked worketh a deceitful work: but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward.”

God has ordained in nature that what a person reaps is based entirely on what he sows. If the farmer is lazy and he sows an acre of his 10-acre land, he reaps only an acre’s worth of produce. If he sows all 10 acres, he reaps a 10-acre worth of produce. If he sows wheat, he gets wheat. If he sows corn, he gets corn. Using the same principle of sowing, the LORD reveals that what a person does in life today will yield the fruits of his labour tomorrow.

What have you done with your life thus far?

• “Sowing” deceitful work – The wicked work. The Bible does not say the wicked sow. The word “work” describes a much more complicated and more labour-intensive endeavour than merely sowing, which is direct and uncomplicated. Sowing requires tilling the ground before planting seeds. It is done during the day, when everyone can see the sower doing it. It is honest hard work. The motive is to feed the family and care for God’s Promised Land.

In contrast, the work of the wicked one is conniving and requires extensive plotting and planning. His goal is to gain and exploit his victims. He does not care about hurting others to benefit himself. His greed drives him on. His pride prevents him from admitting he is wrong, even when his wrong is obvious to everyone. An admission of wrongdoing is alien to his wicked heart. His self-righteous soul has blinded him to all his sins and evil, from his sinful desires to his depraved and warped mind. He sees the world through his psychedelic glasses, choosing what colour he wishes to see according to that which fits his wicked agenda.

His work is labourious. God describes it as deceitful work. He works very hard when necessary, as long as his goal of personal gain is achieved. His brain activity never stops. He even dreams of his diabolical schemes while asleep. By the time he wakes up the next morning, the design of his garment of deception is near completion. He knows that to execute his evil scheme and guarantee success, he must bide his time, like a roaring lion hiding in the bushes, waiting for his prey. He must not allow impatience to ruin his cleverly crafted plan. He knows that once his plan is set in motion, there is no retraction. He must go all the way to the end. He seldom fails because he studies his victims and has memorised all their strengths and weaknesses. He plays on their strengths craftily to lower their guard, so he can infiltrate their hearts, minds, and souls and sow seeds of deception, leading them to think they have made a friend and a brother-in-Christ. In reality, he has allowed a minion of the devil to enter the inner recesses of his soul, mind and heart.

In time, the wicked works will be exposed as deceitful, but by then the damage would have been done: lives ruined, and relationships broken beyond repair.

His work appears to embody Christian kindness and goodness. On the surface, his hard work seems helpful, and the people he ministers to benefit from his generosity and sacrifices. He knows he cannot take away the salvation of God’s children, but he can very well destroy the holy witness of his victims who have spent many years building up a holy witness for Christ. He can also deceitfully sow seeds of discord to ruin the brotherly love amongst the members of God’s people. He will cause his victims to sin against God the same way Balaam helped Balak, the king of Moab, to lure Israel into sin, resulting in the deaths of twenty-four thousand Israelites. The deceptive work of the wicked one follows in the footsteps of the old Serpent, who cunningly deceived Eve into sinning against God. The potency of their dastard deeds is in its deceptive nature. Christians, when they go to church, let their guard down, believing that all who come are like them, to worship God and fellowship with like-minded brethren. The sly one sends his wicked workers to deceive God’s children in their vulnerable state of sincere worship. The damage to the lives and relationships of God’s children has been great.

Who is this wicked person? What is he like?

He is a professing believer better known as a messenger of light. He is a chameleon at heart and in person. He is sociable. He fits well in any scenario. He can be the life of any party or a quiet wolf with a mousy demeanour lurking in a secluded corner, observing everyone around him like a chess master studying his moves, preparing to checkmate his gullible prey. His endgame is to devour all his victims to increase his ill-gotten gains. He is all things to all people to win everything from everyone. He is bankrupt of all scruples. All things are open to easy picking. He speaks softly, like the false prophet of Revelation 13, but his words are laced with spiritual cyanide.

His nature is like poisonous ivy. The ones who draw near to him will surely be poisoned. The osmotic nature of his being is devilish. The mere association with him will lead to destruction and the damnation of hellfire. All spiritually mature believers who see through him will immediately conclude that all who are friendly toward him are like him in every way, since birds of the same feather usually flock together. These wicked persons are found primarily in the congregation, but sometimes they worm their way into positions of leadership and control the pulpit and the churches to the ultimate detriment of the lives of all who remain in such an Ichabod church.

In the context of the church, he can speak like a fundamentalist with other fundamentalists, if it suits his purpose. He walks and sits with neo-evangelicals and even liberals. He has no stance on almost all the doctrines of the Bible. Like water, his doctrinal shape changes according to the container in which the water is poured. His façade of righteousness is designed to infiltrate and hurt God’s children and hinder God's work. These wicked ones toil hard to ensure their deceit succeeds.

• Sowing Righteousness – In contrast, the one who sows righteousness will reap a sure reward. The righteousness refers to all things that glorify God and magnify the Lord Jesus Christ. For example, the sowing of righteousness refers to sowing the gospel seed. All the other doctrines in the Bible are blind to sinners until their spiritual eyes are opened after salvation. What sinners need the most is the gospel of Christ to save them from their sins. Those who share the gospel will receive a sure reward, because God’s evaluation is based on their faithfulness in sharing the gospel, not on whether the sinner becomes a Christian. Salvation is of the Lord and not of man. God will not judge His servants by how many He leads to Christ, but by how faithfully they discharge their responsibilities according to the Bible. As long as they are faithful, they will surely be rewarded. That is why God says that the ones who sow righteousness shall be a sure reward.

Who are the ones who sow righteousness? Only believers can sow righteousness because they are the only ones who are righteous in God’s eyes. Therefore, when believers serve God in the church, they are co-labourers with God. They help build believers' faith through their faithful service and godly testimonies. The Holy Spirit blesses the labour of God's children in the church as they build up one another’s faith to face the dangers of the world they experience for six days every week.

The righteousness sown is anchored in God's Word. Without God's Word, either taught directly or by inference, there is no righteous blessing. The Holy Spirit will only take the Word of God to bring conviction and conversion, and not the opinions or ideas of man, not even of believers. All God's children are equipped with at least one spiritual gift upon salvation, like a child born into the world with at least one talent to live on earth. All God's children can sow righteousness, unless they are not born again. God equips them to do so; otherwise, God's children have a good excuse not to sow righteousness. The righteousness sown impacts others eternally.

God’s children must not be motivated by reward when they sow, but by God’s love. With the love of God as their motive, they will then receive a sure reward. If the motive is the reward, there will not be a sure reward; the sowing was not done in righteousness. The motive of God’s love means all that the righteous do is for God’s glory and the spiritual well-being of others, not self-interest and personal gain.

How have you been sowing?