Bible Strands
2 Timothy 2:6
The hardworking farmer should be the first to partake of the crops.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Paul addresses Timothy in a pastoral letter, placing this agricultural illustration directly after military and athletic examples to define the structural order of spiritual labor.
The words — κοπιῶντα (kopiōnta) translates literally as "hardworking," and δεῖ (dei) means "it is necessary," forming a mandatory clause that binds the γεωργὸν (geōrgon), or "farmer," to a specific sequence of action and reward.
The thread — The agricultural sequence of labor followed by harvest runs through 1 Corinthians 9:7, where Paul questions who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit, and Hebrews 10:36, which links perseverance to receiving God's promises, while 1 Corinthians 3:6 mirrors the planting-and-growing dynamic.
Why it lands — The text states that a hardworking farmer is first to partake of the crops, establishing a non-negotiable priority for the laborer. It requires readers to accept delayed, earned reward as a structural rule of ministry rather than a discretionary blessing.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits.
Cross-references
- Hebrews 10:36 You need to persevere, so that after you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.
- 1 Corinthians 9:7 Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Who tends a flock and does not drink of its milk?
- 1 Corinthians 3:6 I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.
- Luke 10:2 And He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest.
- John 4:35 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.
- 1 Corinthians 9:23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.
- Isaiah 28:24 Does the plowman plow for planting every day? Does he continuously loosen and harrow the soil?
- Matthew 9:37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
- Matthew 20:1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.
- Matthew 21:33 Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey.