PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

Sowing Unto The Spirit

Parenting is a long-term sowing process. Whatever we do in our words and our actions and whatever we are in our person is a sowing which will produce a harvest. We must learn to be sober and thoughtful in all of the actions of our daily living. Paul admonished us to "let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or in deed, do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him"—Colossians 3:16-17. If we embrace Paul's counsel, we will sow to the Spirit, and we will reap a harvest of the Spirit.

Peter also was concerned about the human living of those under his care. In his first epistle, he urges them to gird up the loins of their minds and being sober, set their hope perfectly on the grace being brought to them at the revelation of Jesus Christ. They should conduct themselves as children of obedience, and not be fashioned according to the former lusts in their ignorance; "But according to the Holy One who called you, you yourselves also be holy in all your manner of life." In everything they should remember that they were redeemed "with precious blood, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot, the blood of Christ" from their vain manner of life that was handed down from their fathers—1 Peter 1:13-19.

The care and training of our children is primarily a matter of sowing. Especially in our speaking, we need to have the consciousness that we are sowing into our children seeds that will produce a harvest. Every loose or idle word will produce a harvest of vanity. Every disdainful or proud utterance will result in a multitude of egotistical, disrespectful babble from our children. Conversely, every word proceeding out of our mouth that is a word of grace seasoned with salt (Colossians 4:6) and that gives grace to the hearer (Ephesians 4:29) will not corrupt others, but will build them up. Then our speaking will afford a rich harvest of grace in those who hear and will result in children who are "blessed after us"—Proverbs 20:6.

The book of Galatians is focused on Christ replacing the law. It is not God's intention to keep His people under the law. His intention is to dispense Christ into them. Thus, Christ as the center of God's economy must replace the law. Because the Judaizers were misusing the law, the Epistle to the Galatians was written to reveal Christ as the replacement of the law. Yes, the law was given for a specific purpose, but God did not intend for the law to be permanent. Christ has come to replace the law with Himself. This is the focal point of Galatians.

In chapter one Paul shows that God is pleased to reveal His Son, Jesus Christ, in us (1:15-16). In chapter two we see that we should live this Christ, not the law (2:19-21). God does not want us to be occupied with keeping the law and be distracted from living Christ. According to the pleasure of His heart, He has revealed His Son in us that we may live Him. The crucial points in chapters one and two are that the Son of God has been revealed into us and that we should live Him.

THE CONTRAST BETWEEN FLESH AND SPIRIT

In chapters three and four Paul shows us how to experience this Christ and enjoy Him. The One revealed as the center of God's economy is Christ. But in our experience this One is the Spirit. This is the reason that, beginning in chapter three, Paul speaks of the Spirit again and again. In 3:2 he asks the Galatians if they received the Spirit by the works of law or by the hearing of faith. Then, in a somewhat rebuking tone, he goes on to ask in the next verse, "Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" Here we see the contrast between the Spirit and the flesh. This is somewhat different from 2:20, where the contrast is between Christ and "I." The Spirit in chapter three is the very realization of the Christ in chapter two, and the flesh is the experiential aspect of the "I." Doctrinally we may say that our problem is with the "I," the self, but in experience our problem is with the flesh, which is the totality of our fallen being. It may be easy for us to testify in the church meetings that we are nothing but flesh. But in our daily life it is not so easy to admit that we are flesh. In the sight of God, fallen man is nothing but flesh. Beginning in chapter three and continuing into chapter six, Paul contrasts the Spirit with the flesh.

Galatians 4:29 says, "But as then he that was born according to flesh persecuted him that was born according to Spirit, so also it is now." In this verse we see two categories of people: those born according to flesh and those born according to Spirit. As saved ones, we are in both categories. On the one hand, we are children born according to flesh; on the other hand, we are also children born according to Spirit. Within us we have two elements, two natures—the Spirit and the flesh. These two elements make us two kinds of children.

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