John 4:35-38 Say not you, There are yet four months, and then comes harvest? behold, I say to you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields… I. THE PRINCIPLE OF MISSIONARY EFFORT IMPLIED. 1. This principle combines two apparent opposites: it necessitates the agency of man and preserves the supremacy of God. By the one it precludes man from yielding to the bent of his natural indolence and attaining nothing; by the other it annihilates the unseemly arrogance which would vaunt the arm of flesh as though it could accomplish everything. 2. It furnishes a reply to scepticism which asks, "Why, if God be a perfect agent, does He need man; and why, if man be an imperfect agent, does God employ him?" Lift up your eyes! Though the husbandman has to sow, on God depends the fruitful seasons. Man works for God, God works by man. It is for us to employ, it is for Him to bless the means. II. THE DUTY ENJOINED. In the natural world we do not expect a harvest without labour, nor without God's blessing. So Paul must plant and Apollos water, but God giveth the increase. Duty is irrespective of results. III. THE BENEFIT TO BE CONFERRED Labourers do not depend for their hire on the upspringing of the seed, nor for its quantity or quality. Under all circumstances he is worthy of his hire. But in spiritual husbandry He who employs the sowers can also command the elemental influences. He who engages the reapers can ensure the crop, He therefore who sows not only receives present wages, but "gathereth fruit," etc. (T. Dale, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. |
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