Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
Galatians 6:7 ESV
Karma. Good old karma. Watch how you act or karma will get you back. How often do you hear someone referring to karma, generally as the ultimate source of justice? With the rise of eastern philosophy and ideology we are seeing a increase in the belief in karma, meditation and the likes. What is really interesting about this situation, and I’ll try to paraphrase Ravi Zacharias correctly here, is that in the West a line of eastern gurus have given us religion without a name and without a God. This leaves the religion without historic accountability and leave the people without accountability to a higher being. You become the highest being. And this becomes dangerous because when you become the ultimate authority, morality and all those critical things become subjective and start to crumble.
So why start this dive into philosophy for a verse about farming? The idea of reaping and sowing is found through out the bible as an illustration of what we do with our lives. This is the idea of whatever actions and words we say and do are like seeds which, when fully grown give forth fruit, and good choices/seeds provide good fruit and poor choices/seeds result in negative consequences. This sounds very familiar hey. The idea presented in this verse is remarkably similar to the idea of karma. We know this idea is biblically solid, it is a concept that even Jesus refers too but we also know that karma is completely false from a Christian world view.
So, how do we equate this conundrum? Well I believe it comes back to that all important part at the start of the verse, Do not be deceived: God is not mocked… I believe this is the key to understanding the subtle but vital difference between this verse and the concept of karma. God is the one who ensures that people are repaid accordingly. You see with the concept of karma, there is no greater, intelligent which distributes fairly, perfectly and is able to take into consideration the heart and motives behind words and actions. Where as in the Bible, judgement is the Lord’s and He will repay accordingly. Even Chirstians will be repaid either through earthly or more likely, eternal rewards but we also suffer the consequences of their poor decisions here on earth.
So long story short: karma takes God out of the picture leaving us with an unfair and also unloving and a philosophically weak position which leads to all sorts of chaos and lack of responsibility. Whereas God is both loving and just and is all knowing which enables Him to perfectly repay each person fairly and accordingly.
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Musings by Tee 