A Sojourner's Quest

PA RT I V: P E R S E V E R I NG F O R T H E L ONG H A U L / 2 5 7

7. Hos. 10.12 – Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.

8. James 3.18 – And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

B. The exegetical interpretation

1. God has so structured the moral world that you will always reap more than what you sow, Luke 6.38 – Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you. 2. This is nearly a self-evident fact; no one sows hoping to only get in return the exact amount that the sowed in the first place. 3. Investment on return is expected in the spiritual realm, note the parable of the Talents, cf. Matt. 25.14ff.; Matt. 25.26-27 – But his master answered him, “You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sowed and gather where I scattered no seed? [27] Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.” 4. The harvest comes in varying quantities, Matt. 13.23 – As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.

C. The application of the principle to our personal discipline and testimony

1. The more we sow the more we reap.