Youth Group Tough Question 2

[Wynteriii]

I'm thinking about doing this weekly. That is, the posting of my Youth Group's tough question. The answers were helpful last time.

This week seems to be a simple question but when asked, the majority of the Youth looked like they struggled with this question.

"If I do bad things, will bad things happen to me?"

I think the actual question that was meant to be asked was

"I do things that go against God, will God cause bad things to happen to me?"

I look forward to the responses

 

[Andres]

Sorry if you've already covered this in the first question, but are these questions that the youth are asking you or that you are asking of them? Are you just trying to see how others on the board would answer or are you asking for help in answering the youth?

 

[Wynteriii]

These are questions given to me by Youth that I answer in a weeks time. I'm just curious how the board answers the questions I post.

 

[Jack K]

I'd probably answer that question in four steps:

1. A believer does not receive punishment from God for bad behavior. Jesus took our punishment.

2. But a believer may receive loving discipline from his Father for bad behavior, and this may often appear as "bad things happening" in his life even though the discipline is actually good for him.

3. Such discipline often takes the form of consequences that naturally flow from disobedience of God's law. The law is good for us. Obeying God is not just something we do because he tells us to; it's something commanded for our good. So we can expect that when we don't obey the law, the consequence will be bad things.

4. Don't make the mistake of trying to connect everything "bad" that happens to you to some sin you did. Although they can be connected, they often aren't. You live in a fallen and evil world. Bad things happen even to good people. You will have trials even if you do what's right—sometimes because you do what's right.

Young disciples often need encouragement to see God as their loving Father who only blesses them even though his blessings sometimes come in the form of discipline for sin or allowing trials by which we grow. The question "why has this bad thing happened to me?" ought to quickly lead to the question "how will I respond?" The best answer usually involves deeper repentance and/or deeper faith.

 

[Gage Browning]

I think David and Saul in Samuel are a good example of a proverbial truth- disobedience brings blessing and disobedience brings judgment. There is a broader theme of blessings and curses based on behavior in the O.T. For instance Deuteronomy 28. I'm not interpreting here but merely pointing to a broad theme in Samuel and Deut. It is also obvious in Prov. What I would illustrate to a student would be to say: that if I speed for instance I will get a speeding ticket. Did God give me the ticket? Yes through the means of a government agency which he ordained. If a man goes to work everyday he will draw a paycheck- if he is lazy and stays home he won't. If i rob a bank i will go to jail etc....But these are blessings and punishments for all people both believer and unbeliever. These are temporal blessings and punishments that are obvious. In this sense disobedience brings punishment and obedience brings blessing. But they are temporal.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

"If I do bad things, will bad things happen to me?"

This can be answered a number of ways depending on the person:

1. Give me an example of something that you do that is "good" that merits reward from God.

2. Yes. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and so, yes, unless a person repents very bad things will happen to a person in the life to come for the bad things they do now.

3. The Curse has brought sin and misery upon all Creation. People are sinned against and people sin against others. Sometimes people do bad things and seem to prosper so, on one level, it's not always the case that bad things happen to bad people. Also, because sin is in the world, sometimes terrible things are inflected upon others due to sin or calamity and it can't really be said that the person who was sinned against "had it coming" from that person or event so sometimes bad things happen to people.

4. The real problem of evil is this: why does God allow any good to happen to me, as sinner? How can I be saved from the wrath of a holy God that my sins deserve.

"I do things that go against God, will God cause bad things to happen to me?"

1. Yes, unless you repent, you will face the eternal wrath of God.
2. Christ has died to pay the full penalty of sin and so the bad things that you deserve are meted on the Son if you place your trust in Him.
3. As above, we can't just say that "Joe was hit by a falling tree because Joe did bad things" nor can we say that "Sally was stolen from because she does bad things" and so, when we're talking about sinning against others and being sinned against we need to talk more broadly about the sin and misery in the world that sin has brought upon us.

 

[py3ak]

This presents an opportunity to help them think seriously about the reality and inevitability of suffering. Since that is such a pervasive theme in Scripture, and since our society, including many of our sub-Christian churches, have nothing helpful to say about this, I might begin by saying that bad things will happen to you regardless of what you do, and point out that the most upright man in the OT endured possibly the worst trials, and that the only perfect man in history was a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs.

Then I would question the definition of "bad things". The only thing absolutely bad is sin; the only thing absolutely good is holiness. But that understood and acknowledged, there are certainly painful or stressful things that happen to us. How do we think about those? Well, our stupidity often does create problems for us. Disobedience to God's law is often attended with fatherly discipline on his children, which discipline may take the form of afflictions. But given that they are going to happen, the question is how we approach them. We will profit from them more if we learn to view God as our Father in them - indeed, if we learn to view discipline itself as a covenant-right purchased for us by Christ's blood. We will be able to endure them as we see ourselves united to Christ, and having his sympathy and support under them. And we will use them well when we learn to be tender, gracious, and patient towards others who are afflicted, becoming in this way ministers of God's comfort to them. I think it is more important to break off sin whether we feel beaten for it or not; it is more important to bless God in trials, and ask him to make them beneficial to us, than to be able confidently to say, e.g., "This disease is because I skipped church last week."

Will bad things happen to me if I do bad things - yes, absolutely, we reap what we sow, though not always right away, and not always in ways that make the connection between the harvest and the sowing patently obvious. But given that bad things are going to happen to me, I think that the emphasis should be on facing those bad things in a godly manner, whatever their historical connections may be. Part of that is understanding the concepts of curse and of chastening; but part of it is understanding the sovereignty and providence of God and fellowship with Christ.

 

[Don Kistler]

Thinking that these questions may not necessarily be deep theological ones, I'd answer this way:

1. You can do "good" things and bad things may still happen to you. Jesus did everything right and they killed Him anyway. We live in a fallen world.

2. There are consequences to all behaviors. Consequences are not the same as punishments. As someone has already said, Christ took our punishment if we are believers. But if I jump off a tall building, I will most likely die when I hit the ground from the fall. That's a consequence, not necessarily a punishment.

Two cent's worth...

 

[Tim]

Also make sure that they understand that these matters are not the same as "karma".

 

[Mushroom]

As a barely literate layman, when I see a professing brother start to engage in the common dishonesty/disobedience of this world, I tell him that while he will see worldlings do those things and prosper, it would be counter-productive for our heavenly Father to allow His own children to do so without consequence. There are far more well-thought-out replies above, but for this simple mind, that explanation will suffice. Our Father won't just sit by and allow His children to prosper in sin.

 

[irresistible_grace]

I asked my five year old the question above...

If I do bad things, will bad things happen to me?

You should have seen her face. PRICELESS!
She said, "Mom, the wages of sin is death! BUT the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Her facial expression said, "Duh! Sin is bad & death is worse than bad!"

 

[Wynteriii]

I could use some scripture to back your comments as well. A few quotes from past theologians would be nice to.

 

[jwithnell]

An over riding general principle needs to come out: God's ways are wise. Even without specific discipline for sin, consequences catch up. You can only maintain a lie for so long. If you are violent, someone will eventually respond with greater violence. If you are dishonest, folks won't trust you and you may not be able to get a job ... Proverbs will give you a boatload of scripture to demonstrate these points.

 

[py3ak]

The principal Scripture I would turn to in support of my points is Hebrews 10:26-12:13.