KARMA OR REWARD AND JUDGMENT OF GOD.
The thought of God rewarding or punishing us is sweet because it encourages us to do good deeds. However, we easily forget that we reap whatever we sow (our deeds are seeds that bear fruit).
The Principle of sowing and reading: When God created the world, He placed the principle of reward and punishment into the created order and the society (Gal 6:7-10; James 3:18)
Thus, by nature, action and reaction are equal but opposite. Every society or country has rules on rewards and punishment. Other religions use the term KARMA to express the concept of God’s judgement and reward, that people will answer for their actions, if not in this life, then in the next.
In Christianity, we don’t talk about Karma; God rewards those who do good and punishes those who do bad.
Text Judges 1:1-7;
From our text today, this king, Adoni-Bezek, although not a worshipper of God, acknowledged that he deserved the punishment because he had also treated seventy kings unfairly. In fact, what gets us into trouble is not important. When you don’t sow good seeds, you always have problems to solve.
Mordecai was honoured because of his good deeds (Esther 5:1-4 ). In the same way, your good deeds will be rewarded (1 Cor 15:58).
God ensures that human beings have the knowledge of what is good and what is not.
God gave the first couple knowledge of what is good and what is not, so they may CHOOSE the good path. (Genesis 2:15-17).
By nature God, put has the knowledge of His reward and judgement of humans, the created order and every society like software (Rom 2:14-15).
God gave a message to a king through a dream not to do anything terrible (Genesis 20:1-7).
God sent His written word even to believers in exile who were confused (Jer 29:1- 32)
God sent Philip to go and explain the gospel to a man struggling to understand His word (Acts 8:26-40).
God has sent the church to preach the gospel everywhere, to baptise those who will believe, and teach them His word for the salvation of their souls (Matthew 28:19-20).
The disciples asked Jesus their reward for preaching the gospel, and Jesus said they would be handsomely rewarded ( Matthew 19:27-30).
Sowing good seeds is very simple, yet people find it difficult to do ), e.g. What to do to be saved (Romans 10:9-10).