For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Parallel Translations
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For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
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He that soweth in his flesshe shall of the flesshe reepe corrupcion. But he that soweth in the sprete shall of the sprete reepe lyfe everlastinge.
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For hee that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reape corruption: but hee that soweth to the spirit, shall of the spirit reape life euerlasting.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (25)
Passages linked to Galatians 6:8 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Romans 8:13 For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
- James 3:18 Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
- 2 Peter 2:19 promising them liberty, while they themselves are bondservants of corruption; for a man is brought into bondage by whoever overcomes him.
- Hosea 10:13 You have plowed wickedness. You have reaped iniquity. You have eaten the fruit of lies, for you trusted in your way, in the multitude of your mighty men.
- Job 4:8 According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity, and sow trouble, reap the same.
- Galatians 6:7 Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
- Romans 13:14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, for its lusts.
- Romans 6:21-22 What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now, being made free from sin and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification and the result of eternal life.
- Proverbs 22:8 He who sows wickedness reaps trouble, and the rod of his fury will be destroyed.
- John 4:36 He who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit to eternal life; that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.
- Jude 1:21 Keep yourselves in God’s love, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.
- Revelation 22:11 He who acts unjustly, let him act unjustly still. He who is filthy, let him be filthy still. He who is righteous, let him do righteousness still. He who is holy, let him be holy still.”
- Psalms 126:5-6 Those who sow in tears will reap in joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed for sowing, will certainly come again with joy, carrying his sheaves.
- John 6:27 Don’t work for the food which perishes, but for the food which remains to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For God the Father has sealed him.”
- Jeremiah 12:13 They have sown wheat, and have reaped thorns. They have exhausted themselves, and profit nothing. You will be ashamed of your fruits, because of Yahweh’s fierce anger.”
- Romans 6:13 Also, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
- Ecclesiastes 11:6 In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening don’t withhold your hand; for you don’t know which will prosper, whether this or that, or whether they both will be equally good.
- Hosea 8:7 For they sow the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind. He has no standing grain. The stalk will yield no head. If it does yield, strangers will swallow it up.
- Matthew 19:29 Everyone who has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive one hundred times, and will inherit eternal life.
- Isaiah 32:20 Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, who send out the feet of the ox and the donkey.
- Luke 18:30 who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the world to come, eternal life.”
- John 4:14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
- Titus 3:7 that being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
- 2 Peter 2:12 But these, as unreasoning creatures, born natural animals to be taken and destroyed, speaking evil in matters about which they are ignorant, will in their destroying surely be destroyed,
- 1 Timothy 1:16 However, for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first, Jesus Christ might display all his patience for an example of those who were going to believe in him for eternal life.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (18 sources)
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Martin Luther 1535 · Public Domain VERSE 8. For he that soweth to his flesh…
VERSE 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 everlasting life.
This simile of sowing and reaping also refers to the proper support of ministers. "He that soweth to the Spirit," i.e., he that honors the ministers of God is doing a spiritual thing and will reap everlasting life. "He that soweth to the flesh," i.e., he that has nothing left for the ministers of God, but only thinks of himself, that person will reap of the flesh corruption, not only in this life but also in the life to come. The Apostle wants to stir up his readers to be generous to their pastors.
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That the ministers of the Church need support any man with common sense can see. Though this support is something physical the Apostle does not hesitate to call it sowing to the Spirit. When people scrape up everything they can lay their hands on and keep everything for themselves the Apostle calls it a sowing to the flesh. He pronounces those who sow to the Spirit blessed for this life and the life to come, while those who sow to the flesh are accursed now and forever.
Martin Luther — Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (1535), English translation by Theodore Graebner (Zondervan, 1939) — public domain (U.S. copyright not renewed). Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 8. For he that soweth to his flesh. Having…
8. For he that soweth to his flesh. Having stated the general sentiment, he now divides it into parts. To sow to the flesh, is to look forward to the wants of the present life, without any regard to a future life. They who do this will gather fruit corresponding to the seed which they have sown, — will heap up that which shall miserably perish. To sow in the flesh, (seminare in carne,) is supposed by some to mean indulgence in the lusts of the flesh, and corruption to mean destruction; but the former exposition agrees better with the context. In departing from the old translation and from Erasmus, I have not acted rashly. The Greek words, ὁ σπείρων εἰς τὴν σάρκα ἑαυτοῦ, literally signify, he that soweth into his flesh. And what else does this mean, but to be so entirely devoted to the flesh, as to direct all our thoughts to its interests or convenience?
But he that soweth to the spirit. By the spirit I understand the spiritual life, to which they are said to sow whose views are directed more to heaven than to earth, and whose life is regulated by the desire of reaching the kingdom of God. From their spiritual employments they will reap in heaven incorruptible fruit. Those employments are denominated spiritual on account of their end, though in some respects they are external and relate to the body, as in the very case now under consideration of supporting pastors. If the Papists shall endeavor, in their usual manner, to build upon these words the righteousness of works, we have already shewn how easily their absurdities may be exposed. Though eternal life is a reward, it does not follow either that we are justified by works, or that works are meritorious of salvation. The undeserved kindness of God appears in the very act of honoring the works which his grace has enabled us to perform, by promising to them a reward to which they are not entitled.
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Is a more complete solution of the question demanded?
1. We have no good works which God rewards but those which we derive from his grace.
2. The good works which we perform by the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit, are the fruits of that adoption which is an act of free grace.
3. They are not only unworthy of the smallest and most inconsiderable reward, but deserve to be wholly condemned, because they are always stained by many blemishes; and what have pollutions to do with the presence of God?
4. Though a reward had been a thousand times promised to works, yet it is not due but by fulfilling the condition of obeying the law perfectly; and how widely distant are we all from that perfection!
Let Papists now go and attempt to force their way into heaven by the merit of works. We cheerfully concur with Paul and with the whole Bible in acknowledging, that we are unable to do anything but by the free grace of God, and yet that the benefits resulting from our works receive the name of a reward.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain To the commodities of this present life.
To the commodities of this present life.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall…
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.
Ver. 8. For he that soweth to his flesh] He that neglecting his poor soul, cares only to feather his nest and to heap up riches. Si ventri bene, si lateri, as Epicurus in Horace; if the belly may be filled, the back fitted, let the soul sink or swim, he takes no thought.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain For he that soweth to his flesh; he that…
For he that soweth to his flesh; he that layeth out his estate, or spendeth his time and talents, for the gratifying of the flesh;
shall of the flesh reap corruption; shall or may reap some carnal satisfaction, of a corruptible, dying, perishing nature.
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But he that soweth to the Spirit; but he who layeth out his estate, or spendeth his time, strength, talents, whatsoever God hath given him, for the glory of God, in obedience to the commands, motions, and dictates of the Spirit, or the revelations of the Divine will;
shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting; he shall not of merit, but of grace from the Spirit, reap everlasting life, reward, and satisfaction. So that as in the world, that man doth not suffer loss that layeth out his money, time, or strength about good things of a valuable and enduring nature; but he only who layeth them out about things perishing, and transitory, and of a corruptible nature: so that man shall not lose his estate that layeth it out for the maintenance of the gospel, and upholding the ministry of it; for he soweth to the Spirit, and shall thereof reap eternal life and salvation: he only loseth his estate, &c., who spendeth it to gratify his lusts, and please his flesh, for all the return which he shall have, will be in poor, sensible, perishing good things, which perish with the using, and will be of no significancy to him beyond this life.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And let us not be weary in well doing,....…
And let us not be weary in well doing,.... This may be understood of well doing, or doing good works in general, of every sort; which are such as are done according to the will of God, from a principle of love to him, in faith, and in the name and strength of Christ, and with a view to the glory of God: or else acts of beneficence to Christ's ministers and poor in particular; which are agreeable to the mind of God, and wellpleasing in his sight: and in doing which men should not be weary; nor are they, when their spiritual strength is renewed, and grace is in exercise, though they may meet with many things which tend to discourage and make them weary; such as change in their own circumstances, losses in the world, the multitude of objects, the ungratefulness of some, and unworthiness of others:
for in due time we shall reap; either in this world, sooner or later; in proper time, in God's own time, by enjoying an increase of the fruits of righteousness; for the seed sown shall spring up again; the bread that is cast on the waters will be found after many days; and such as honour the Lord with their substance shall be blessed with plenty of temporal good things, either they or theirs: or else in the other world, or at the end of this; which will be the harvest time, the reaping time, the time of enjoying eternal life:
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if we faint not; but continue to the end, persevere constantly in doing acts of beneficence, and patiently wait, as the husbandman does, for the precious fruits of the earth; for there must be a distance of time between sowing and reaping; men must not expect to reap as soon as they sow; and therefore should not be weary of sowing, nor impatient in waiting, though they do not see as yet the appearance of the fruits thereof; for in their season they will be seen and enjoyed.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain For he that now soweth to the flesh -…
For he that now soweth to the flesh - That follows the desires of corrupt nature. Shall hereafter of the flesh - Out of this very seed. Reap corruption - Death everlasting. But he that soweth to the Spirit - That follows his guidance in all his tempers and conversation. Shall of the Spirit - By the free grace and power of God, reap life everlasting.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 8. He that soweth to his flesh] In…
Verse 8. He that soweth to his flesh] In like manner, he that sows to the flesh-who indulges his sensual and animal appetites, shall have corruption as the crop: you cannot expect to lead a bad life and go to heaven at last. According as your present life is, so will be your eternal life whether your sowing be to the flesh or to the Spirit, so will your eternal reaping be. To sow, here, means transacting the concerns of a man's natural life. To reap, signifies his enjoyment or punishment in another world. Probably by flesh and Spirit the apostle means Judaism and Christianity. Circumcision of the flesh was the principal rite of the former; circumcision in the heart, by the Spirit, the chief rite of the latter; hence the one may have been called flesh, the other, Spirit. He who rejects the Gospel, and trusts only in the rites and ceremonies of the law for salvation, will reap endless disappointment and misery. He who trusts in Christ, and receives the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, shall reap life everlasting.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain For he that soweth to his flesh - That…
For he that soweth to his flesh - That makes provision for the indulgence of fleshly appetites and passions; see the notes at Gal 5:19-21. He who makes use of his property to give indulgence to licentiousness, intemperance, and vanity.
Shall of the flesh - From the flesh, or as that which indulgence in fleshly appetites properly produces. Punishment, under the divine government, is commonly in the line of offences. The punishment of licentiousness and intemperance in this life is commonly loathsome and offensive disease; and when long indulged, the sensualist becomes haggard, and bloated, and corrupted, and sinks into the grave. Such, also, is often the punishment of luxurious living, of a pampered appetite, of gluttony, as well as of intemperate drinking. But if the punishment does not follow in this life, it will be sure to overtake the sensualist in the world to come. There he shall reap ruin, final and everlasting.
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Corruption -
(1) By disease.
(2) In the grave - the home to which the sensualist rapidly travels.
(3) In the world of woe.
There all shall be corrupt. His virtue - even the semblance of virtue, shall all be gone. His understanding, will, fancy - his whole soul shall be debased and corrupt. No virtue will linger and live on the plains of ruin, but all shall be depravity and woe. Everything in hell is debased and corrupt; and the whole harvest of sensuality in this world and the world to come, is degradation and defilement.
But he that soweth to the Spirit - He who follows the leadings and cultivates the affections which the Holy Spirit would produce; see the notes at Gal 5:22-23.
Shall of the Spirit - As the result of following the leadings of the Spirit.
Reap life everlasting - See the note at Rom 2:7.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain He that soweth in his flesh, &c. The apostle…
He that soweth in his flesh, &c. The apostle represents the flesh and the spirit like two fields, on which men sow good or bad seed, according to which they shall reap. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Translate, "He that soweth unto his own flesh," with…
Translate, "He that soweth unto his own flesh," with a view to fulfilling its desires. He does not say, "His spirit," as he does say, "His flesh." For in ourselves we are not spiritual, but carnal. The flesh is devoted to selfishness.
corruption--that is, destruction (Phi 3:19). Compare as to the deliverance of believers from "corruption" (Rom 8:21). The use of the term "corruption" instead, implies that destruction is not an arbitrary punishment of fleshly-mindedness, but is its natural fruit; the corrupt flesh producing corruption, which is another word for destruction: corruption is the fault, and corruption the punishment (see on Co1 3:17; Pe2 2:12). Future life only expands the seed sown here. Men cannot mock God because they can deceive themselves. They who sow tares cannot reap wheat. They alone reap life eternal who sow to the Spirit (Psa 126:6; Pro 11:18; Pro 22:8; Hos 8:7; Hos 10:12; Luk 16:25; Rom 8:11; Jam 5:7).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 8. To his flesh—Flesh and Spirit do not designate…
8. To his flesh—Flesh and Spirit do not designate the different fields in which we sow, nor the different seeds, but the different interests to please which we sow. Yet the seed is different according to the different interests in which we sow, as the responsible act is different according to which interest it regards.
To his flesh—To the gratification of his flesh.
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Reap corruption—That absolute ruin of which bodily putrefaction is the image, and which, as the opposite of eternal life, is eternal death.
Of the Spirit—As the flesh is corruptible, so from the flesh is reaped corruption; as the Spirit is pure, perfect, living and eternal, so the life from him is eternal life. There is a lower and a higher system of things in life, including different masses of men. The one is the system of the flesh, particularly conspicuous in a sensual age like the present. It runs to sensual gratifications and excitements, to the revelling room, the liquor saloon, the horse race, the gambling hell, and the theatre. Opposite to this is the system of intellectual and spiritual aspiration; which tends to the school, the Christian association, the Sabbath dedicated to self-improvement, the Bible, and the Church. The latter accords with the healthful recreation in which reason, but not mere animal, is gratified. The former tends downward, and ends in endless ruin; the latter is upward, and rises to eternal life. Let no one be deceived; for as sure as God is not mocked, these, to the fleshly, will be the result.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 8. A particular application of the general truth just…
8. A particular application of the general truth just stated. True in the material world, it is equally so in the moral and spiritual. Embracing the whole sphere of human action, it includes the special case under consideration. Such as is the seed sown, such will be the harvest garnered. To hoard earthly ‘good things’, is one form of sowing to the flesh, and silver and gold are ‘corruptible things’. To give liberally is to lay up treasure in heaven, “where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt”.
soweth to his flesh] Some expositors regard the flesh as the ground into which, metaphorically, the seed is cast. It is perhaps better to take it as that for the purpose of which—its indulgence and the gratification of its desires, men live and act. The word is used here, as elsewhere in this Epistle, of the unrenewed nature of man, in strong contrast to the spirit—the ‘new man’, the ‘new creation’.
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to his flesh] Gr. ‘to his own flesh’.
corruption] That which he has saved and that which he has gained will turn to decay. But from the corresponding expression in the second clause, ‘life everlasting’, we must regard the ‘corruption’ as affecting the man himself, as well as his possessions and enjoyments. A course of self-indulgence corrupts the moral nature and ends in destruction. The sowing here spoken of represents the thoughts, desires, words, and deeds which go to make up the active side of a human life.
life everlasting] This life, like the corruption to which it is antithetical, is begun now (Joh_3:36), although its full development is future; for ‘the harvest is the end of the world.’
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (8) He that soweth to his flesh.—The seed sown…
(8) He that soweth to his flesh.—The seed sown is a man’s actions here on earth. If the object of those actions is merely self-indulgence, they are, as it were, sown in a field the owner of which is the flesh (i.e., the lower, carnal self). The flesh alone benefits by them, and for it alone are they garnered up.
Shall of the flesh reap corruption.—If such has been a man’s conduct, he must look to the flesh for his reward, and all the reward it can give him will be a share in its own corruption. The flesh perishes, and so shall the fruit of his actions perish, and “leave not a wrack behind.”
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He that soweth to the Spirit . . .—On the other hand, where all the actions are like seed deposited in the field of which the owner and lord is the Spirit, that same Spirit will reward them in the world to come with the gift of everlasting life.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain For he that soweth to his flesh shall of…
For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption (oti oJ speirwn eijv thrka eJautou ejk thv sarkosei fqoran); for he that soweth unto his own flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption. "Fort" the causal force of the particle oti, properly "because," is here greatly attenuated, being employed to introduce a sentence commending to acceptance the foregoing one, simply by a detailed exposition of particulars illustrating its meaning. This is the case also in 1Th_2:14:4:16; Eph_2:18; Php_4:16. In regard to the connection of this first half of the eighth verse withthe preceding context, we must take note of the sternly monitory tone which marks ver. 7. This shows that in the sentence, "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap," the apostle has more immediately in view the terrible harvest to be reaped by those who acted as if they thought that God might be overreached. We may infer from this that this first clause of ver. 8 is mainly the thought which up to here the writer had it on his mind to inculcate the "corruption" which a man would reap from a life of self-indulgence. But, after completing the statement of this thought, his tone forthwith changes; the frown clearing away from his countenance, he adds, to the threatening admonition of the first clause, the cheering promise of the second, while a more genial tone marks his further remarks on the subject in vers. 9 and 10. The second limb of the verse thus appears introduced in the same way as the second does in Rom_8:13; and in both cases with the conjunction de "Sowing unto his own flesh." Many critics render, "into his own flesh," as if, with a shifting of the image, which is certainly not uncommon with St. Paul, the flesh were now the ground into which the seed is cast. This relation, however, to the verb "sow" (see Alford and Ellicott) is in the New Testament expressed differently, by ejn, in, or by ejpi, upon; while eijv in Mat_13:22 denotes "among." It is more obvious to take eijv as "unto," "denoting the immediate object of the action, that to which it tends, that in which it terminates" (Webster and Wilkinson, "Commentary") This way of construing suits better in the phrase, eijv to Pneuma, which follows. Applying the image of sowing generally, the apostle in ver. 7 speaks of the quality of the sowing (not precisely the quality of the seed) as determining the quality of the harvest; and here, of one kind of sowing being "unto the flesh," the other "unto the Spirit." "He that soweth unto his own flesh;" that is, he whose general action in life is referred to his own personal gratification in his lower nature to his own profit, pleasure, honour. The addition of eJautou ("his own") has a marked reference to the topic which led to this general statement: the apostle has in his view a man"s gratifying his own merely worldly inclinations, to the disregard of the well-being, even the physical well-being, of other men. To sow unto the flesh of our brethren, in one sense, namely, for the promotion of their physical well-being, would bear a different aspect from sowing unto oar own flesh. "Shall from the flesh reap corruption." This by some commentators has been interpreted thus: In the harvest of That Day, nought will be found with him of all those things on which his heart has been set nought save, at the best, mere rottenness, disappointment, and illusion. This would be analogous to the moral with which our Lord pointed his parable of the rich fool, to whom God said, "Whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?" "So is he," added Christ, "that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God". (Luk_12:20, Luk_12:21) The word fqora, corruption, involves at least as much as this; but this view alone would furnish an inadequate antitheten to "eternal life," as also it gives less force to the word itself than it appears from its ordinary use to convey. One essential element of this verbal noun fqora is the notion of decay, or the condition of being impaired, spoilt, wasted away (cf. Col_2:20; Rom_8:21) It is used of corruption in our moral nature in 2Pe 1, 4 2:12, 19; as fqeirw and diafqeirw are likewise applied in 2Co_7:2; 1Ti_6:5. But the clear presentment of its sense, when connected as it is herewith "flesh," is afforded by its antithesis, with respect to the "body" or "flesh," to ajfqarsia in 1Co_15:42, "It is sown in corruption. , it is raised in incorruption," and ibid., 50," Neither doth corruption inherit incorruption;" and by the opposed adjectives "corruptible" and "incorruptible" (fqartov and afqartov) in 1Co_15:53, 1Co_15:54, as well as by the use of diafqora of the rotting away of a dead body, in Act_2:27, 31 13:34-37. That the apostle uses the word "corruption" with a direct reference to "flesh," and therefore as alluding to or rather expressing a certain qualification of the flesh"s condition, is shown by his inserting the words, ejk thv sarko) "of the flesh." Strictly speaking those words are not necessary for the completeness of the sentence. To all appearance they are added aetiologically, to make prominent the thought that what is sown unto the flesh may be expected to issue in corruption, because corruption is the natural end of flesh itself. For an analogous reason, "of the Spirit" is inserted in the antithetic statement; the Spirit being essentially not only living, but vivific. The words, then, seem to mean this" "shall from the flesh reap that corruption which the flesh, un-quickened by the Spirit of God for comp., (Rom_8:11) must itself issue in." In endeavouring more exactly to determine the sense of these words, it is well in the first instance to confine our view to the conceptions relative to this subject presented by St. Paul. In reviewing these, we observe that St. Paul never predicates ajfqarsia ("incorruption," "incorruptible-ness") of the future bodily condition of "those who perish (oiJ ajpollumenoi)." On the contrary, in 1Co_15:42-54 he clearly restricts this conception of bodily being to the case of those whose body shall be assimilated to that of the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, as indeed it is only to them that the entire discourse (vers. 20-58) relates. So again inleia)." Php_3:21, the "fashioning anew of the body of our humiliation into conformity with the body of his glory" is evidently limited to those whoso end is not "perdition (ajpw) Again, in 2Co 5. In the "house not made with hands, eternal," appears to be an exclusive designation of the resurrection-body of the accepted believer. Once more, inan)," Rom_2:7 the words, "to them that by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honour and incorruption (ajfqarsi) imply that incorruption is an attribute exclusively pertaining to the happiness after which true Christians aspire. All that we meet with elsewhere in St. Paul"s writings fits in perfectly with his holding the view that, while "there shall be a resurrection both of the just and unjust," as he stated to Felix (Act_24:15) a resurrection surely he meant in the body the bodies of the accepted alone wilt be incorruptible, the bodies of the lost being, for all that appears in his teaching, left in some sense subject to corruption. In what way the apostle in his own mind connected this conception, of incorruption being a quality exclusively pertaining to the future condition of the just. with that of the "eternal destruction (aijwniov oleqrov)" awaiting them who know not God, (2Th_1:9) we shall, perhaps, do wisely in not attempting to determine. We can, it is true, imagine ways of conjoining the two notions; "but it will be best not to positively affirm that this or that that was St. Paul"s manner of viewing the subject. Possibly the Spirit had not revealed this to him. if so, he might feel it incumbent upon him to forbear from giving forth definite statements on matters not really disclosed to his view, and, therefore, not intended to form a part of revealed truth. This, however, should not keep us back from accepting what appears to be the only probable view of the sense of the present passage, namely, that they who live a life of selfishness and carnal self-indulgence will reap the final award of having a body with flesh, in some most real and important sense, subject to corruption. The consideration that the apostle is thinking of the awards of the day of judgment, at once meets the objection that corruption is predicable of the Christian"s body also. It is obvious to reply that, though the body of a believer is sown in corruption even as the body of an unrighteous man, it is revealed to us that it will be raised in incorruption; which it is nowhere said that the body of him who dies in his sins will be. As applied to objects lying on the other side of the veil which parts the spiritual world from that visible world whence all our images of thought are derived, this term "corruption" must be understood as describing a condition of bodily being, not necessarily identical with, but very conceivably only in some respects analogous to, that which it describes in relation to a corpse in our present state. The resurrection stale, with all that pertains to it, inscrutably blending, as the story, of the forty days commencing with Christ s resurrection exemplifies, spiritual phenomena with corporeal, is one which we are wholly unable to understand or to realize. This may be thought a very superfluous observation. But it is not so. The attempts intellectually to realize the events which we are hereafter to witness and to be the subjects of, and the dogmatic affirmations relating to them, made, not merely in past ages, but in the very present, render it necessary that we should distinctly keep this truth in view. The physical theory of that future state, and the eventual history which is to be evolved in it, we not merely do not know, but are absolutely incapable of forecasting. We dare not say one syllable about them beyond what is distinctly told us; and what is told us, we are to remember, is through the very nature of the case no other than images, presented in a dark dim mirror, which shows them so obscurely, that to our intellective perception they seem riddles rather than revelations:
Arti gapomen dij ejsoptrou ejn aijnigmati. (1Co_13:12) It is, in fact, not our intellect, but our moral sense, that the revelations of the future state are designed to inform. Next, looking out from the field of purely Pauline doctrine upon the teaching presented in other parts of the New Testament, we are reminded at once of that awful and repeated word of our Lord concerning the "Gehenna of fire their worm (skwlhx) dieth not, and the fire is not quenched". (Mar_9:43-48) It is known that, before our Lord appeared upon earth, this conception of Gehenna, the terms of which beyond question were borrowed from the closing verses of Isaiah, had already become current in the eschatological views of the Jews. This is evidenced by RAPC Jdt 16:17; Ecc_7:17. This imagery our Lord adopted, recognizing, it should seem, in this portion of rabbinical teaching a just evolution of ideas which had been presented in the inspired volumes of the Old Testament a development of them which we may fairly attribute to the guiding influence of the Holy Spirit promised to God"s restored people, as e.g, in Eze_36:24-28. We cannot doubt that the worm" which our Lord spoke of means the worm which preys upon rotting flesh. The image, therefore, exactly accords with the word corruption" as interpreted above. Whether the apostle glanced at that discourse of Christ, or was even aware of it, is uncertain; but that he both knew of it and even inferred from it in using this word corruption," is by no means unlikely. One other reference to corruption" as the future doom of at least certain of the lost, is found in 2Pe_2:12, which, according to the now approved reading of the Greek text, runs thus: "But these, as creatures without reason, born mere animals to be taken and destroyed shall in their destroying be destroyed or, "in their corruption shall even rot away (ejn th fqora aujtwn kaisontai)." Possibly the word fqora, taken as "corruption," points here to moral corruption; but the verb fqarhsontai may very well point to the miserable doom of rotting away by which they shall judicially perish, moral corruption working physical corruption. But the exact sense is doubtful. With the clause before us we must group Rom_8:13, "If ye live after the flesh, ye are certain to die;" whilst the sentence which follows, "But if by the Spirit ye put to death the doings of the body, ye shall live," answers to the closing sentence of the present verse; as also does "death" as "the wages of sin," balanced against the "eternal life" which is "the gift of God," in Rom_6:2-5. The contrasted thoughts insei Php_3:19, 20 likewise closely touch those here presented to us. But he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting (oJ derwn eijv tomatov qeri zwhnion); but he that soweth unto the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life eternal. That is, he that expends thought, time, effort, money, upon the furthering, in himself and in others, of the fruits of the Spirit, shall receive, from that Holy Spirit to whose guidance dwelling within him he resigns himself, that quickening of his whole being, body, soul, and spirit, for an everlasting existence in glory, which it is the proper work of that Divine Agent to effect. For the latter clause, comp., Rom_8:11, "If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you as the guiding, animating influence in your lives) he that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies, because of his Spirit dwelling within you;" in which passage the aetiologleal clause, "by reason of his Spirit dwelling in you," corresponds exactly with the aetiological clause, "of the Spirit," in the words before us. The two verses which follow show that one specific form of sowing unto the Spirit which the apostle has definitely in view, while enforcing the general idea, is that of Christian beneficence. How closely the practice of Christian beneficence was in the apostle"s mind, in conformity with Christ"s own teaching, (Mt 25 etc.) connected with the securing of the future blissful immortality, is markedly shown inbwntai 1Ti_6:18, 1Ti_6:19; not the less so if we adopt the now approved reading, ina ejkila tou ontwv zwhv, "that they may lay hold on the life which is life indeed."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 8. Soweth to his flesh. He who thus sows…
8. Soweth to his flesh. He who thus sows will reap a crop of fleshly lusts and ills. His carnal indulgence will end in moral ruin. Soweth to the Spirit. He shall reap spiritually, and as a final harvest the spiritual life beyond, the life everlasting.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain For he that soweth unto his own flesh shall…
For he that soweth unto his own flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth unto the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap eternal life. [God is not to be deceived by false appearances, and whoever hopes to overreach him only deceives himself ( 2Ki_5:15-27 ; Act_5:4-5 ; Act_5:9 ). It is a broad law of God's (and he can not be deceived about it) that whatever a man sows he shall reap. As in the natural world he reaps grain for grain, so in the moral world, if he sows fleshly indulgence, he shall reap corruption, and so in the spiritual world, if he sows to the Spirit of God, he shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 6:8 Living to please the Spirit is only possible…
6:8 Living to please the Spirit is only possible in the Spirit’s power (3:3; 5:16). Those who trust in human effort and those who think they can do as they wish are in the same position: They live to satisfy their own sinful nature. Such people harvest decay and death. Those who live by the Spirit’s power and trust in God will harvest everlasting life.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.