Galatians 6:7-8
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.
Galatians 6:7-8 (NKJV)
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
Galatians 6:7-8 (NIV)
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 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.
Galatians 6:7-8 (KJV)
Don't be misled — you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.
Galatians 6:7-8 (NLT)
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Galatians 6:7-8 (ESV)
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Galatians 6:7-8 (NASB)Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.lockman.org
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked [He will not allow Himself to be ridiculed, nor treated with contempt nor allow His precepts to be scornfully set aside]; for whatever a man sows, this and this only is what he will reap. For the one who sows to his flesh [his sinful capacity, his worldliness, his disgraceful impulses] will reap from the flesh ruin and destruction, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Galatians 6:7-8 (AMP)Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible (AMP), Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.lockman.org
Do not be deceived and deluded and misled; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at (scorned, disdained, or mocked by mere pretensions or professions, or by His precepts being set aside.) [He inevitably deludes himself who attempts to delude God.] For whatever a man sows, that and that only is what he will reap. For he who sows to his own flesh (lower nature, sensuality) will from the flesh reap decay and ruin and destruction, but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Galatians 6:7-8 (AMPC)Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible (AMPC), Copyright © 1954, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.lockman.org
Don't be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others — ignoring God! — harvests a crop of weeds. All he'll have to show for his life is weeds! But the person who plants in response to God, letting God's Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.
Galatians 6:7-8 (MSG)Scripture quotations from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
New Covenant Meaning
Sowing and Reaping Is a Law of Harvest, Not a System of Punishment
Paul is not describing God as an angry judge waiting to punish wrong choices. He is describing a law that is built into creation the way gravity is built into creation. You plant corn, you get corn. You plant weeds, you get weeds. This is not arbitrary. It is the built-in design of how life works. Sowing to the flesh means investing your energy, attention, and choices into what the flesh wants: gratification, self-promotion, short-term comfort. That investment produces corruption because the flesh has no capacity for lasting fruit. Sowing to the Spirit means investing in what the Spirit produces: love, faith, obedience, relationship with God. That investment produces eternal life because the Spirit is the source of eternal life.
God Cannot Be Treated as Though His Word Does Not Apply
The phrase God is not mocked carries weight. The Greek word for mocked means to turn up the nose at, to treat something with contempt. Paul is addressing a specific temptation: to live as though the principle of sowing and reaping does not actually operate, to assume that persistent fleshly living will somehow produce spiritual outcomes anyway. This is self-deception. God's design does not bend to accommodate the belief that you can sow one thing and reap another. The warning is not to live in fear. It is to live in alignment with the way God has structured reality so that your harvest matches what you actually want.
In the New Covenant, Galatians 6:7-8 is set in the context of a letter that declares freedom from the law and life in the Spirit. Paul has just written that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Sowing to the Spirit is not a matter of earning favor with God. It is a matter of cooperating with the Spirit who is already at work in you. When you make choices that align with the Spirit, you position yourself to experience more of what the Spirit produces. Romans 8:13 says that if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. This is harvest language. The good news is that the Spirit is already on your side, already at work, already producing life.
Application for Your Life
Examine What You Are Currently Planting
The harvest in your life right now is largely the result of seeds planted in your past. And the seeds you are planting now will produce the harvest you experience in the future. This is not fatalism. It is an invitation to take an honest look at where your daily investments are going. Where is your attention? What are you feeding? What are you choosing, day after day, that is building toward a harvest? Galatians 6:7-8 gives you the clearest possible framework: you will reap what you sow. Use that framework not to condemn yourself but to make clear-eyed choices about what you want your future to look like.
Sow Generously to the Spirit Without Getting Tired
The verse that follows (v. 9) says not to grow weary in doing good, because in due season you will reap if you do not give up. Sowing to the Spirit is a long-term activity. The harvest does not always come immediately. Sometimes you pray, give, serve, and love for a long time before the harvest is visible. Paul's instruction is to keep sowing. Every act of generosity, every choice to walk in the Spirit, every decision to feed faith rather than fear is a seed. Galatians 6:7-8 is not just a warning against wrong choices. It is an encouragement to keep making right ones, because the harvest is coming.
Prayer Based on This Verse
Father, I want my life to produce the harvest that only comes from sowing to the Spirit. I choose today to invest my attention, my choices, and my energy into what the Spirit produces rather than what the flesh wants. I know the harvest is real. I know You have designed life so that what I plant is what I reap. Help me to plant generously and consistently. Where I have been sowing to the flesh, I turn from that now. Where I have been sowing to the Spirit, give me the courage to keep going without getting tired. I trust that the harvest is coming in due season. In Jesus name. Amen.