“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows that will he also reap.” (Gal. 6:7)

This is known as the law of sowing and reaping. We understand how it works in the natural world. The crop you harvest is the same as the seed you planted. Many years ago I passed a church whose sidewalk sign read, “People spend six days sowing wild oats and then the seventh praying there will be no harvest.” Hope that doesn’t sound familiar.

The point here is that you can’t confuse God with the seed planting. Planting one kind of seed and labeling the garden row with another name will not change what will come up from the ground. As a boy, I planted corn in my father’s heel marks as he paced off the row. Had I tried to cheat and skip a heel mark my father would have found out. If I had planted okra or peas in those same heel marks my father would have found out. I could not deceive my father about the seed because the fruit always tells. Same with our heavenly father. We will not mock God by pretending.

Doing good deeds for the wrong reason is sowing bad seed. Putting on a show may fool our family and our friends, but it will not deceive God. Living outside the lines will not produce fruit found only within the lines. There is flesh, and there is Spirit. Each one produces its own seed and fruit. We cannot plant evil seeds and reap golden fruit.

Jesus taught that we should lay up treasure in heaven rather than earth. Can’t put fleshly treasure in heaven. Can’t take evil fruit there either and the inspector is God. We will not get any non-Spirit fruit in the pearly gates.

Task for Today: First do a seed check. If all you have is good seed, then all you’ll reap is good fruit. Easy. Keep the bad seed out of your seed stock. Clean the storage area. Check the seed not the package to avoid mislabeled seed. Good seed produces good fruit.