Sometimes Suffering Is Justice

Some suffering comes from the process of sowing and reaping. Suffering results from wrong thoughts or actions.  The consequences of sin are often painful. I experienced such pain from my financial failure in the 1980s, and I continue to live with the outcome of that failure.

We should never blame God or others for our wrong choices and their consequences. God warned us many times in many ways that we reap what we sow. The entire story of Israel is a picture of the consequences of disregarding God and truth. Reaping what we sow is a rule that states how things work. We may not like the outcome, but every sin has its consequences, and we must accept full responsibility for our failures and turn to God in repentance for mercy. But even as we receive God’s forgiveness, we still suffer the pain of sin in our lives.

David wrote Psalm 51 in remembrance of his sin of adultery and murder. God forgave David’s sin, but still David lived to see four of his sons die in consequence of his wrong choices. Forgiveness for sin keeps us from being separated from God, but He does not usually remove the physical outcome of sin. We can know that we are near to God and our sins are forgiven because of our faith, but we should not think that there is an easy escape from the outcome of wrong choices. We do reap what we sow, and we cannot rightfully blame God and others for our failures.

This is a warning to young people. Older people know the law of sowing and reaping, because we all have experience with it in our own lives. But young people tend to live by their feelings. They may believe that the rules do not apply to them personally. Or they think that experiencing excitement and good feelings are the purpose of life. Living by sensual desire brings swift pain. The Bible has given plenty of warning about the outcome of a sensual lifestyle.

Apostle Paul wrote these words, Rom 8:4-9 –“He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.”

I have been forgiven for past failures because of the blood of Christ. But I understand that the result of sin lingers and works itself out in the lives of people. We live in a world that is corrupted because of sin, and we all reap some consequences of our own sins as well as the accumulated sins of others. This is justice, reaping what has been sown.

The warning is given by Solomon in Eccl 12:13-14 – “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole [duty] of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.” NIV

All should respect God’s revelation of truth and the law of reaping what we sow. We cannot violate this law with impunity. As Paul wrote, Rom 6:1-2 –“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? --Rom 6:15-16 “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” NKJV

Randolph Gonce