“In Due Season”

Norman E. Sewell

What is “due season?” Paul wrote to the Galatians, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4), The fullness of time referred to God’s plan to bring Jesus into the world at the time He had planned and prepared for. But what about “due season?”

First let’s look at that statement in its context in the scriptures. “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart” (Galatians 6:9). The two verses just before this one said simply that “whatever a man sows, that he will also reap,” whether of good or of evil. So the clear admonition is that we must keep on doing good and we will reap.

I believe there is certainly an eternal application to this passage, that if we keep on going and keep on doing good we will reap eternal life (not earned, but received as a gift). But could there be another application as well, one that is more of this age? Could this same principle be applied to our lives today, that “we shall reap if we do not lose heart?”

It’s easy to become discouraged. We talk to our friends and neighbors about the gospel and for the most part they are satisfied with their present religion or no religion at all. We set a good example before our children or grandchildren, and yet they persist in going their own way, either to religions that are “more fun” or off into the world. So what do we do now?

We must continue to believe that in “due season” we will reap what we have sown. Not all reaping will be the same. In Matthew’s account of the parable of the sower some of the seed didn’t produce any fruit that endured. “But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty” (Matthew 13:8). We struggle to find someone who has “a noble and good heart” (Luke 8:17). When you find that person and sow the seed of the kingdom into his/her heart then you will see something wonderful. As long as our Lord delays His return and allows this world to exist, there will be for some a “due season” when they have heard the word with an honest heart.

So, “do not lose heart!” “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void. But it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). DO NOT GIVE UP – God will give the increase “in due season.”