Sowing In The Flesh And In The Spirit

Quoniam qui seminat in carne sua, de carne et metet corruptionem. Qui autem seminat in spiritu, de spiritu metet vitam aeternam. Omne quod loquimur, agimus, cogitamus, in duobus seminatur agris, carne et spiritu. Si bona sunt, quae de manu, ore, corde promuntur, seminata in spiritu, vitae aeternae fructibus redundabunt. Si mala, ab agro carnis excepta, corruptionis nobis segetem pullulabunt. Aliter: qui legem carnaliter intelligit, repromissiones quoque carnales, et quae in praesenti saeculo corrumpuntur, exspectat. Qui autem spiritualis auditor est, seminat in spiritu, et de spiritu metet vitam sempiternam. Simul notemus sermonis consequentiam, et eam cum superioribus copulemus: hominem vocari in spiritu seminantem, qui quando coeperit vitam metere sempiternam, homo fortasse esse desistit. Cassianus, qui putativam? Christi carnem introducens, omnem conjunctionem masculi ad feminam immundam arbitratur, Encratitarum vel acerrimus haeresiarches, tali adversum nos sub occasione praesentis testimonii usus est argumento: Si quis seminat in carne, de carne metet corruptionem: in carne autem seminat, qui mulieri jungitur: ergo et is qui uxore utitur, et seminat in carne ejus, de carne metet corruptionem. Respondebitur ei, primum non dixisse Paulum, qui seminat in carne; sed, in carne sua. Nemo autem secum ipse concumbit, et in sua carne seminat. Deinde ut observationem hac quam annotavimus, in carne sua, ex abundanti ei concedamus, addendum est eos quoque, qui comedant et bibant, et dormiant et aliquid faciant ab refrigerium corporis, juxta illum seminare in carne, et de ea metere corruptionem. Quod si ad hoc confugerit, ut dicat eos qui, sive bibant, sive manducent, sive dormiant, in nomine tamen Domini omnia cum ratione perficiant, non in carne seminare, sed in spiritu; et nos ei similiter respondebimus, eos quoque qui Dei primam sententiam sequantur cum ratione facientes: Crescite et multiplicamini, et replete terram, non in carne, sed in spiritu seminare. Syllogismus itaque ejus futilis et caducus, sophismata primum decipit audientem. Caeterum diligenter inspectus, facile solvitur: neque enim possumus dicere, Abraham, Isaac et Jacob, et alios sanctos viros, qui de repromissione nati sunt, ipsum quoque Domini praecursorem, quia in carne natus est, de corruptionis germine pullulasse illud pariter observandum, quod qui seminat in carne, cum additamento suae carnis ponitur: qui autem seminat in spiritu, non dicitur in spiritu suo, sed simpliciter in spiritu. Qui enim bona seminat, non in suo quippiam, sed in Dei spiritu seminat, de quo et vitam est messurus aeternam. Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum in Epistolam ad Galatas, Liber III, Cap VI Source: Migne PL 26.430d-432a

Because he who sows in his own flesh, reaps corruption from the flesh. But he who sows in the spirit, reaps eternal life from the spirit. 1 Everything that we say and do and think is sown in the field in two ways, in the flesh and in the spirit. If they are good things which come from the hand and the mouth and the heart, having sown in the spirit, they shall abound with the fruits of eternal life. If evil is taken up from the field of the flesh, there shall spring forth a crop of corruption for us. Otherwise, he who understands the law carnally, and also they who expect the things promised carnally in the present world, they are corrupted. He who is a spiritual hearer, he sows in the spirit, and from the spirit he reaps eternal life. At the same time let us note the consequence of the words and couple them with what has been said before. A man called to sow in the spirit, when he has begun to sow eternal life, perhaps he is a man who stops. Cassianus, 2 bringing in his supposed flesh of Christ, thought that every union of male and female was unclean, indeed he was a most severe Encratrite heresiarch, and he made use in argument against us the present testimony: 'If someone sows in the flesh, he reaps corruption from the flesh,' so that he who is joined to a woman is one who sows in the flesh, and therefore he who makes use of a wife so, sows in her flesh, from which he reaps corruption. It shall be answered firstly that Paul did not say he who sows in 'the flesh' but in 'his own flesh'. No man lies with himself and sows seed in his own flesh. Next, according to that observation that we have noted, 'in his own flesh,' we must allow greater scope to it, adding also those who eat and drink and sleep and do other things for the refreshment of the body, having that as a 'sowing in the flesh', and from which they reap corruption. Because if he shall flee to this, saying that those who either drink or eat or sleep do so, yet it is they who complete everything in the name of the Lord with reason who do not sow in the flesh but in the spirit. And we shall answer him similarly, concerning those who follow the first command of God and act rationally: 'Grow and multiply and fill the earth,' 3 that they do not sow in the flesh but in the spirit. Thus his argument is futile and unstable, an initial sophism to deceive the hearer. Besides, by diligent inspection, it is easily resolved: for we cannot say that Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and other holy men who were born from the promise, and who were also precursors of the Lord, because they were born in the flesh, sprang forth from the seed of corruption. So altogether it must be observed that he who sows in the flesh is described by the addition of 'his own flesh', but he who sows in the spirit does not sow in his own spirit but simply 'in the spirit'. For he who sows good things does not do so from himself, but he sows in the spirit of God, from which is life and the eternal harvest. Saint Jerome, Commentary on the Letter to the Galatians, Book 3, Chapter 6 1 Galat 6.8 2 Julius Cassianus, (see Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 3.13-14) 3 Genes 1.28 4 Eccl 7.11 5 1 Jn 5.19 6 1 Cor 15.32 7 Ephes 5.16