The Ripened Harvest

²⁷ Just then his disciples arrived, and they were amazed that he was talking with a woman. Yet no one said, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

²⁸ Then the woman left her water jar, went into town, and told the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” ^{(A) 30} They left the town and made their way to him.^(B)

³¹ In the meantime the disciples kept urging him, “Rabbi,^(C) eat something.”

³² But he said, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”

³³ The disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?”

³⁴ “My food is to do the will of him^(D) who sent me^(E) and to finish his work,”^(F) Jesus told them. ³⁵ “Don’t you say, ‘There are still four more months, and then comes the harvest’? Listen to what I’m telling you: Open^[a] your eyes and look at the fields, because they are ready^[b] for harvest. ³⁶ The reaper is already receiving pay and gathering fruit for eternal life,^(G) so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. ³⁷ For in this case the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’^{(H) 38} I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from^[c] their labor.”

Consistency in the Christian Life

¹⁵ Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk—not as unwise people but as wise— ¹⁶ making the most of the time,^[a](A) because the days are evil. ¹⁷ So don’t be foolish, but understand^(B) what the Lord’s will^(C) is.