35 Do you not say, ‘There are still four months until the harvest’? I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are ripe for harvest.

36 Already the reaper draws his wages and gathers a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together.

37 For in this case the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true.

38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the hard work, and now you have taken up their labor.”

— John 4:35-38

5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, as the Lord has assigned to each his role.

6 I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.

— 1 Corinthians 3:5-6

37 He replied, “The One who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.

38 The field is the world, and the good seed represents the sons of the kingdom

— Matthew 13:37-38

Thoughts on Today’s Reading

May your heart be filled with the joy from the Lord!

In John’s Gospel, he recorded that Jesus spoke of “harvesting” people for eternal life. The “wages” those who work in the fields receive are the joyful rewards of sharing the gospel. This remained Jesus’ constant focus. God orchestrates a network of workers to share the labor and privilege of reaping God’s harvest. Some plant seed of truth that others harvest. One person sows, perhaps for many years and through much prayer, while enduring hardship and great sacrifice. Then another person reaps the harvest as people come to faith and lives are changed.

The harvest of a soul for Christ often incorporates the investments of many people. The teamwork and collaboration among God’s people allow sowers and reapers to rejoice together when God’s kingdom advance. I can testify God’s orchestrating of the soul winning brings me great joy through the past many years of sowing seeds of gospel and reaping souls for the Lord. My true wage for the labors in the gospel fields is seeing people believing in Jesus Christ and coming into God’s kingdom of life.