A familiar Bible saying, checked in context
What you sow, you reap
Paraphrase
Galatians 6:7 says a person will reap what they sow, but the familiar short form is not the exact KJV sentence.
By @The..Mustard..Seed · Updated
Read the relevant KJV passage
Galatians 6:7Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Compare the evidence
Eliphaz uses sowing-and-reaping language against the suffering Job; his use needs testing against the book’s ending.
Job 4:8Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.
God later says Job’s friends have not spoken rightly about him, a warning against applying a moral slogan too confidently to someone’s pain.
Job 42:7And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.
What the context adds
Galatians 6:7 says a person reaps what they sow; the familiar version paraphrases the line. Paul follows with a contrast between sowing to the flesh and to the Spirit and urges readers not to grow weary in well-doing. Job 4:8 shows a different speaker using a similar image to draw conclusions about a suffering person. Job 42:7 warns readers that the friends’ speech was not right. Hosea 8:7 and 2 Corinthians 9:6 use sowing language in still other ways. Comparing these passages stops a true biblical image from becoming an automatic explanation of another person’s suffering.
A question to carry forward
When is sowing-and-reaping language self-examination, and when is it an unsupported verdict on someone else?
Keep reading
Read Galatians 6:7–10 and see where the sowing image leads.
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