2 Timothy 2:6
6 The husbandman [georgos] that laboureth [kopiao] must be [dei] first [protos] partaker [metalambano] of the fruits. [karpos] KJV-Interlinear
6 The hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops. NASB
Labor, ‘kopiao,’ means to work hard, to work intensely with sweat and pain and often times to the point of exhaustion.
And here Paul uses the farmer as the example of one who works hard throughout the year, plowing, planting, cultivating, pruning and so forth until the harvest. Then it is the farmer and his workers who receive the benefit of their hard work. And they receive their benefits first.
The farmer receives the larger share, because it is his crop. His workers receive their share next and then others receive their benefit on down the line as the blessings of the harvest continue on through the community.
The principle here is the spiritual life of the believer and the rewards received when the harvest of their lives arrives. That harvest as it were, is the Judgment Seat of Christ, when all believers stand before Him, and receive their evaluation and the appropriate reward due them for their spiritual effort and status.
Those who do not or did not advance in their spiritual life, they did not work in other words, receive little reward, if any.
Those who pursue their spiritual life with vigor, will be in line for a vast reward. And, they will receive their reward first.
And even though we are stepping through this chapter slowly, when we finally get to verse 15, we will see that the effort expected from you, is not in your doing things, but in your study.
You are a student without portfolio as far as the spiritual life is concerned. You (we all) have to learn from the scriptures, lest we know nothing. For on our own we can learn nothing with regard to the spiritual life.
No person is self taught or self made. If you see yourself in that light then you are a fool.
Apart from doctrine, you have no fulfillment of that which God expects from you.
However, if you do pursue your spiritual life in accordance with Gods mandates (study, learn, understand, apply, and do it all over again throughout your life), then you will advance in your spiritual life, you will go before Christ with phenomenal spiritual production, and you will be first in line for the first fruit rewards which He promises herein.
It is not you who are placing yourself first, but God, based on your obedience to His mandates and expectations.
Many others will try to be first, as you wait for your name to be called forward before Christ, but they will be pushed back, making room for mature believers who have worked (daily study process) and are therefore entitled based on Gods rules, not theirs.
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