God’s Correction
“Where you have a misplace in trust, you will have a misstep in life.” (from Tears from a Lonely God - Chapter Fifteen: Armor of Light.)
As Christians, God will chastise us when we go astray so that we will learn to trust in Him. So if we begin to walk down a path that isn’t good, sooner or later, God will show us the error of our ways, and correct us. God is at His most loving and most merciful when He brings swift and timely correction: in this life rather than in the next.
But to the unbelievers, this isn’t always the case. Those that are walking in their own desires, and don’t even know God or His Son Jesus, their “correction” comes much too late: after death, when they are judged.
If they walk in a hurtful or wrong way in this life, God may punish them, but He also may not. What would they learn? They are as the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32, who has rebelled against his father, and lives in the excesses of his own lusts. Yet, though the ungodly appear unchecked and unrestrained, God surely has justice with such sinners: though it is at this time hidden from man’s eyes. For the unbelieving, judgment and justice is served after death:
“For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish. They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High? Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning. If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.” -Psalm 73:3-19
