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Question Summary:

Why do people who are sinful get blessed? Why do people who are godly have trouble? Why do people believe sin causes trouble and blessings? How can we make sense of all the mess and injustice in the world?

Reply:

This is actually a combination of several questions whose answers have the same basic root. I have been asked this question in one form or another ever since I became a minister. It comes from the heart of hurting people or angry people who cannot understand how the world, Satan’s kingdom, and the eternal, God’s Kingdom work. Jesus is our example for all things so I will use situations surrounding Jesus to address these questions.

The first point I will make, regarding the evil aspect of the question, is that people can be rewarded, bribed, or compensated by Satan in this world. He can do nothing that has not been allowed by God, Job is an example of that, but Satan can in fact provide worldly blessings for sinful people. We have seen some of the most corrupt and depraved, sometimes privately, individuals and families receive blessings in this lifetime. Their ultimate cost however, for those evil blessings is something much deeper that they lack inside and their eternal souls many times. Satan even tried to bribe Jesus.

Matthew 4:8–11 (NKJV)

⁸ Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. ⁹ And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”

¹⁰ Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”

¹¹ Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

The first point I will make, regarding the godly aspect of the question, is that people can know God, people can profess all the right things but still be deeply rebellious in their hearts and that rebellion will cause them problems in life. Even Jesus chose obedience over rebellion. Scripture referring to Jesus, states how He had to hear the Father and choose not to have a rebellious heart. If Jesus had to consciously make that choice, while He was here in human flesh, of course we each must do the same every day. If we remain in rebellion, either inwardly or outwardly, against God’s Will we will not be consistently blessed in life.

Isaiah 50:5 (NKJV)

The Lord God has opened My ear;

And I was not rebellious,

Nor did I turn away.

Another reason we see both groups blessed and both groups suffer is because God has chosen such for His own purposes. Jesus taught that, when He walked the earth in the flesh.

Matthew 5:45 (NKJV) Jesus speaking

that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

For a True Believer any suffering or difficulty they go through that is the type, which Jesus taught about above, has a guaranteed redemptive purpose. God wants to use what they went through. For the Unbeliever any difficulty they go through that is the type, which Jesus taught about above, are magnets meant to draw them to Him.

For the True Believer any blessings they obtain from the hand of God that is the type, which Jesus taught about above, are meant not merely as a form of reward but as a source to be used to glorify God further. For the Unbeliever any blessings they obtain from the hand of God that is the type, which Jesus taught about above, are intended to draw them to God through His goodness. Those blessing given to both groups are almost always removed one day if the Giver is not acknowledged and glorified.

There is much injustice, evil, and wrongdoing in the world. It is often hard to make sense of it all but people, most especially Christians must keep in mind this world is currently under Satan’s dominion and Satan can afflict people, including True Believers, with harm, disease, various afflictions, and general difficulties.

2 Corinthians 4:4 (KJV)

In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

John 14:30 (NKJV) Jesus speaking

³⁰ I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.

Luke 13:16 (NKJV) Jesus speaking

¹⁶ So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?”

Most dedicated Believers make claims about wanting to be like Jesus and to live for Him. They aspire to resemble their Savior but then are shocked and backslide when life, the world, and the Devil brings about difficulties. Yet, do they really know their Jesus, who He really was and is, as well as what He went through while walking the earth. I will end with passages form Isaiah, one of which that addresses some of what Jesus was to expect, and received, when He came to the earth. The passage also reflects how He responded.

Jesus knew and knows who He was and is, He knew and knows His power and ability, yet, He states what He choose to allow people to do to Him and how He chose to respond. We should pray for the grace of God to do likewise when we find ourselves in difficult circumstance for there is abundant life to be found in that type freedom, strength, and power.

Isaiah 50 (NKJV)

The Servant, Israel’s Hope

50 Thus says the Lord:

“Where is the certificate of your mother’s divorce,

Whom I have put away?

Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you?

For your iniquities you have sold yourselves,

And for your transgressions your mother has been put away.

² Why, when I came, was there no man?

Why, when I called, was there none to answer?

Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem?

Or have I no power to deliver?

Indeed with My rebuke I dry up the sea,

I make the rivers a wilderness;

Their fish stink because there is no water,

And die of thirst.

³ I clothe the heavens with blackness,

And I make sackcloth their covering.”

⁴ “The Lord God has given Me

The tongue of the learned,

That I should know how to speak

A word in season to him who is weary.

He awakens Me morning by morning,

He awakens My ear

To hear as the learned.

⁵ The Lord God has opened My ear;

And I was not rebellious,

Nor did I turn away.

⁶ I gave My back to those who struck Me,

And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard;

I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.

⁷ “For the Lord God will help Me;

Therefore I will not be disgraced;

Therefore I have set My face like a flint,

And I know that I will not be ashamed.

⁸ He is near who justifies Me;

Who will contend with Me?

Let us stand together.

Who is My adversary?

Let him come near Me.

⁹ Surely the Lord God will help Me;

Who is he who will condemn Me?

Indeed they will all grow old like a garment;

The moth will eat them up.

¹⁰ “Who among you fears the Lord?

Who obeys the voice of His Servant?

Who walks in darkness

And has no light?

Let him trust in the name of the Lord

And rely upon his God.

¹¹ Look, all you who kindle a fire,

Who encircle yourselves with sparks:

Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks you have kindled—

This you shall have from My hand:

You shall lie down in torment.

Isaiah 55:1–13 (NKJV)

An Invitation to Abundant Life

55 “Ho! Everyone who thirsts,

Come to the waters;

And you who have no money,

Come, buy and eat.

Yes, come, buy wine and milk

Without money and without price.

² Why do you spend money for what is not bread,

And your wages for what does not satisfy?

Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,

And let your soul delight itself in abundance.

³ Incline your ear, and come to Me.

Hear, and your soul shall live;

And I will make an everlasting covenant with you—

The sure mercies of David.

⁴ Indeed I have given him as a witness to the people,

A leader and commander for the people.

⁵ Surely you shall call a nation you do not know,

And nations who do not know you shall run to you,

Because of the Lord your God,

And the Holy One of Israel;

For He has glorified you.”

⁶ Seek the Lord while He may be found,

Call upon Him while He is near.

⁷ Let the wicked forsake his way,

And the unrighteous man his thoughts;

Let him return to the Lord,

And He will have mercy on him;

And to our God,

For He will abundantly pardon.

⁸ “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.

⁹ “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

So are My ways higher than your ways,

And My thoughts than your thoughts.

¹⁰ “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,

And do not return there,

But water the earth,

And make it bring forth and bud,

That it may give seed to the sower

And bread to the eater,

¹¹ So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;

It shall not return to Me void,

But it shall accomplish what I please,

And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

¹² “For you shall go out with joy,

And be led out with peace;

The mountains and the hills

Shall break forth into singing before you,

And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

¹³ Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree,

And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree;

And it shall be to the Lord for a name,

For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”

 

Regarding worldviews:

Secular sources – self-help, advice, mass media – some of these resources can be useful in obtaining knowledge about what is going on in our world but they are not credible sources for a Believer when it comes to establishing beliefs, opinions, and directives for life. The gap between the two foundational platforms (biblical vs. secular) is too vast at this point in our present day society to bring reconciliation between the two. A Believer should seek out Christian lifestyle training, godly counsel, and Christian forms of mass media using those to shape their approach to life.

Spiritual/Political Disclaimer:

This blog will not be for the faint of heart or the easily offended. It will not be in any way politically correct. It will make every effort to share the truth in love, [Ephesians 4:11-16], to a decaying and dying society and church. I share what I share not to hurt, harm, or offend any person[s] or group; I do it because Christ’s Standard and Truth is not being represented by enough of His Followers and I do it out of love. I love enough to tell His Truth.

Ephesians 4:11-16 NKJV

¹¹And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹²for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; ¹⁴that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, ¹⁵but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— ¹⁶from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.