Is Reaping What We Sow the Same as Karma?

Is reaping what we sow the same as karma? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Well, hi, I'm Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

This is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us right now with your question. Here's our number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 25 minutes or so. 1-833-843-2673. Of course, you can always post your question on one of our social media sites, and you can always email us at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to a voicemail we received from one of our callers a couple days ago. Hi Pastor Adriel. Thank you so much again for your ministry. It really, really helps me a lot.

Bless you. Um, so my question is about Mark 4, 24 through 25, and he said to them, Pay attention to what you hear with the measure you use. It will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. For the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. Can you just elaborate on what exactly that means?

Because obviously I have my own theory on what it means, but I don't want to misinterpret the Bible, so if you could just help me and give me clarity, that would be great. Thanks. Bye.

Yeah, I'd love to talk about this. Great question. So this comes in the context of Jesus's parables. Oftentimes he'll say, as he's giving these parables, verse 23 there of Mark chapter 4, If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. Now that language is actually taken from the Old Testament, particularly from the prophets, when the prophets were speaking to the people of God, the people of Israel, calling them to repentance. Because of impending judgment, really, and so that language sort of signals a warning, if you will, from God. I mentioned it comes from the prophets, Isaiah chapter 6, verse 9. God says to Isaiah, Go and say to this people, Keep on hearing, but do not understand.

Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed. And then also you have similar language in Ezekiel chapter 3, and in verse 27, But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord God, He who will hear, let him hear, and he who will refuse to hear, let him refuse, for they are a rebellious house.

And so this language comes, typically, when you have warning. Oftentimes we think of the parables as just Jesus trying to help people understand, but there really is a judgment that was being spoken there as well. And so he's saying, Look, some of you are going to hear this and receive it. To you it has been given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God, Jesus says to his disciples. But for some people, these parables lead to a hardening. They don't receive the word of God, but they turn away from the Lord.

And as a result, they're judged. And so as that text continues there in Mark chapter 4, where Jesus says, Pay attention to what you hear with the measure you use. It will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. For to the one who has, more will be given from the one who has not. Even what he has will be taken away.

Right there is just this idea of stewardship. Those who receive the word of God are given understanding, continue to grow in grace and knowledge in the truth. But those who harden their hearts, who close their ears, that understanding is taken away. They're blinded. And that was what was happening with the religious leaders in the days of our Lord Jesus, as he was preaching the gospel, as he was giving these parables.

Instead of receiving the truth, their hearts were further hardened, and they turned away from the Lord, and they came under God's judgment. And so that's what that text is all about. And I appreciate your question. Thank you for the voicemail. This is For Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Kristi calling in from Missouri. Kristi has a question for us, and what would you like to ask him? Hi. Hi, Kristi.

Hi. My question is from the book of Daniel, reading through Daniel, and I see that in Daniel 9, chapter 9, verse 4, I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed, and here, Lord, in my Bible, is all caps. And then continuing, O Lord, the great and awesome God, that Lord only is the first letter capitalized. So I was wondering, why is it different?

Great question. Yeah, so the reason that's different there is because when you see Lord in all caps in your Bible, that's translating the Hebrew divine name Yahweh. When you just see the word Lord there, you know, capital L, lowercase O-R-D, as Daniel continues in verse 4, that's translating the Hebrew word, oftentimes Adonai, Master or Lord. And so when it's all caps, that's a reference to the divine name Yahweh as God revealed himself to his covenant people. He is the self-existent one, the one who is.

I am that I am. And then the word Adonai in the Hebrew Bible means Master, Lord, this kingly title. And so that's why there's a difference there.

It's two different Hebrew words, and the way that they communicate that is not by transliterating the divine name and just putting Yahweh in there, but by using the capitals there. And so the context of Daniel 9 really is quite amazing. Daniel is praying this prayer of repentance, calling on the name of the Lord because of the sin of the people, and he's met by the angel Gabriel, and Gabriel gives him this amazing prophecy of the Messiah. So a really wonderful text to dig into. But that's the answer to your question, Christy.

Thank you for giving us a call. Hey, Christy, thanks so much, and thanks for listening to Core Christianity. By the way, we have produced some great Bible studies here at the Core, and we have a new one to tell you about today.

Yes, we are excited about this Bible study. It's on the book of Ruth. Ruth is oftentimes a book I think that we overlook, and it's easily overlooked for many people because there's so many more dramatic, at least in our minds, longer Old Testament books with all of these prophecies. Now, what's the point with the book of Ruth? Why should we study the book of Ruth? Well, without the book of Ruth, there would be no line of David, there would be no Gospel, and there would be no Savior. This Bible study will help you to understand Ruth as a part of the larger story of Scripture by providing tools for studying the Old Testament while opening our eyes to God's redemptive workings throughout history.

While many have focused on the love story between Ruth and Boaz, the book of Ruth also provides us with a larger love story showing us how God intends to bring beauty out of ashes. So we really hope that you get ahold of this study, a great resource to go through on your own if you're wanting to dig into the book of Ruth or with a group of people in your church. It's yours for a donation of $20 or more. You know, all of our studies are set up to work well for personal use, but also in a group format, and they're available in bulk quantities. It'd be great to consider as you plan for your Bible studies or Sunday school classes, maybe for the fall. You can receive a copy of our Ruth Bible study for a donation of $20 or more at corechristianity.com, and you go to corechristianity.com forward slash studies to find our Bible studies, corechristianity.com forward slash studies.

You can also call us at 833-843-2673 for help getting any one of our offers that number 833 the core. Well, let's go to a voicemail from one of our listeners. This is Patricia. I have always, always been faithful that when I find things, I always, always return them. I go out of my way and don't give up till I find the owner or someone related to the owner. Recently I lost my cell phone.

It had a lot of important information on it that I needed. I was expecting it to be returned because I have never kept anything that I find. When God says you reap what you sow, I believe we reap what we sow. So I would have expected God to move with his angels and his Holy Spirit.

I'm devastated. I don't understand why the word of God isn't working. I have a lot of faith. I believe my Bible, but when things like this go wrong, I don't understand. You reap what you sow. So I expect to reap what I have found.

You can explain that to me. Thank you very much. Hey, Patricia, thank you for that call. Let me just pray first that, you know, the Lord would intervene here and that you would find this cell phone. God, we come before you and just pray for Patricia. Pray, Lord, that you would comfort her, that you would be with her. Pray that this cell phone would turn up, Lord, that she would be able to recover those precious pictures that are on the phone.

And, Lord, that you would minister to her and meet her need here and be with her, I ask in Jesus' name. Amen. You know, one of the big issues, I think, is that many of us, Patricia, we look at scripture, we look at these promises that we see in the Bible, and we say, God, I'm holding you to your promises.

You said this. Therefore, I should experience X, Y, or Z. And we have to ask ourselves, you know, am I rightly understanding the promise first and foremost? Because if I'm not, then I might be expecting something from the Lord that maybe I shouldn't be expecting. We see this issue in particular with theologies like the prosperity gospel movement where people say, you know, if you're being faithful to the Lord and walking with Jesus, well, then God promises to bless you with health and wealth and so on and so forth. And then people, you know, devote their lives to Jesus as they try to be faithful, and then they experience sickness and poverty.

They think God has not made good on his promise, and they get upset, they get angry at the Lord, and some of them even turn away from the Lord. And the issue is not God. You know, has God been unfaithful to his promises?

No, the issue is we've misunderstood his promises. Yes, it is true that we reap what we sow. That is a true scriptural principle. But that does not negate the fact that sometimes, even for God's children, even for God's faithful children, we experience difficulties.

Bad things happen to us. I mean, what is Paul getting at when he makes that statement, we reap what we sow? It's found in Galatians chapter 6 in verse 9.

Or actually, let me just go a little bit earlier in verse 7. He says, Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

And then he explains it. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But for the one who sows to the Spirit, he from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Now, sowing to the flesh and sowing to the Spirit, in the context here, earlier in Galatians chapter 5, Paul talked about what the fruit of the flesh was and what the fruit of the Spirit is. The fruits of the flesh are things like sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, those are the works of the flesh. And he's saying, if you do those things, you're going to experience judgment, condemnation, you're going to reap what you sow. If, however, you sow to the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, so on and so forth, we're going to reap the good fruit of that.

And sister, you, by doing the right thing, when somebody else loses something and you return it, you are going to reap the benefit. It may not be what you think it is, but honestly, at the end of the day, in obedience to the Lord and following the Lord, we are reaping the sense of God's presence, his blessing, following after the Lord. And so there is good that you're experiencing, but again, we can't say and shouldn't say that based on this promise, well, I did this, so then God owes me that.

That's just not how it works, at least in terms of the specific example that you gave. And so while my heart breaks for you, I do pray, and I think you ought to continue to pray, that the Lord would cause this to turn up, that you would be able to recover those images. I just want to say to you that the Lord loves you, that he's not keeping his promises to you. No, on the contrary, he is going to continue to keep his promises to you and to be with you and to bless you in his Son Jesus with all of those wonderful things that he said he gives to us, the forgiveness of sins.

We might not have every temporal blessing that we want, the cell phone that we want, the things that we feel like we really could use, but that doesn't mean that God is not being faithful to his promises. And so may Christ be with you and encourage you and bless you, and I do pray that that cell phone with the images would be recovered. God bless. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

Let's go back to the phones. Dale is on the line from Lincoln, Nebraska. Dale, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Yes, this is regarding my mother. She is very close to death. She's in a hospice care thing right now. Anyway, she was raised Catholic and went through First Communion and Confirmation.

And then after raising us kids, she fell away from the church. And now I ask, is there going to be any mercy for her upon death? Well, Dale, let me just take a moment first to pray for your mother. Can I just do a follow-up question with you, Dale? Are you able to communicate with her right now? Yes.

Okay. Well, let's pray for her, and then I'll answer your question. Father, I want to pray for Dale's mother as she approaches the end of her life. Jesus, I pray that you would be with her. I pray that you would be with Dale.

I pray, Lord God, that even if she fell away from church for her entire life, Lord, was not walking with you, that now, in this final hour, that the light of your countenance, the light of your gospel would shine upon her and that she would understand it and receive it and experience, Lord, even in this moment, your grace be with her, Lord, be with Dale as well. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. We're saved, Dale, by grace through faith. There is mercy for all those who call upon the name of the Lord. Even at this last hour, even in these final moments, I mean, you think of the thief on the cross who was hanging on a cross next to Jesus and said to Jesus, Remember me when you enter your kingdom.

This is a criminal, somebody who was being condemned for something. He had probably done something pretty bad and yet he realizes how much he needs God's mercy and God does not withhold his mercy from him in that moment. Jesus says, Today you will be with me in paradise. And so what I would say to you, Dale, is in these days, while you're able to communicate with your mother, talk to her about the grace and the mercy that can be hers in Jesus. I don't know her situation, I don't know her background, I don't know what she believes or if she even claims to believe in Jesus Christ, but this is an opportunity for you prayerfully to come alongside of her and to care for her and to talk with her about the mercy that is for all of those who call upon the name of Jesus, that there is forgiveness no matter what we've done, no matter what kinds of lives we've led, no matter how long we've been out of church. When we turn to the Lord and we say, God, be merciful to me, a sinner, there is mercy. And that mercy is for all who call upon the name of the Lord, as I said, including your mother.

And so I would say in these days, be with her. If you can be with her, if you can spend time with her, read scripture to her. Read those beautiful gospel presentations that we see in places like the Gospel of John.

John chapter 3, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. And so I would say use this time that the Lord has given to you because God is merciful and will use your words and ultimately his word above all else to draw people to himself. And I pray that the Lord blesses you and gives you wisdom and courage to do that, my friend. Thank you for giving us a call, Dale, and may the Lord be with you and with your mother. And Dale, we'll continue to pray for you with those conversations with your mom. Thank you so much for listening to Core Christianity.

Well, let's go back to the phones. Wallace is on the line from Nashville, Tennessee. Wallace, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Yes, Pastor, how are you doing today? Doing well.

Thank you, Wallace. Listen, this is what I want to know. Polygamy was okay for David and Solomon and other people during the biblical days. And I would like to know why it was okay for them during that time and when did it end and why did it end during this time?

Hey, great question. I think we have to make a distinction here, Wallace, between what God permitted and what God prescribes in his word. Polygamy was never, I think, God's intent for his people.

I mean, you think of the initial creation when God made Adam and Eve, one man, one woman, to be brought together, to be made one flesh together. And oftentimes in the Old Testament, especially with the kings in Israel, there were warnings associated with the taking of multiple wives. I mean, it was in part, you know, Solomon's downfall.

They began to marry women, foreign women. They began to draw his heart away from the Lord. And he was engaged in idolatry. And so, yes, there was a season in redemptive history where God was permitting these things, where he didn't just bring judgment. But this has never, again, been what God, I think, prescribed, what he called or intended for his people. I think of Jesus' words when he speaks about marriage and divorce in Matthew chapter 19. The Pharisees came up to him and tested him, saying, Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause? And Jesus answered, Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?

So there are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. And they said to him, Well, why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away? And Jesus said to them, Because of your hardness of heart, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. It's often our hardness of heart, sinfulness, human sinfulness. And God put up with certain things, if you will, even though he gave warnings, right? He permitted, in one sense, the kings in Israel to do these things, the patriarchs as well.

But again, from the very beginning, this is not how it was supposed to be. And so I think that's how we have to look at it, distinguishing between what God permits and what God prescribes that is what he commands in his word. Thank you for your question, Wallace. Hey, Wallace, thanks for listening to Core Christianity.

Great question. Well, if you have a question for Pastor Adriel about the Bible, the Christian life doctrine or theology, you can call us 24 hours a day and leave a voicemail. Here is our phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Tony calling in from Nebraska. Tony, what's your question for Adriel? Hi, Pastor Adriel. My question was if there is any scriptural justification for women in leadership roles in a church, specifically as a pastor of a congregation.

Hey, thanks for that question, Tony. I do believe that women can serve in leadership roles in the church, but I think that the office of pastor or elder is reserved for men, called and qualified men in the church. I take this from places like 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 where Paul gives the qualifications for elders, for pastors, for teachers. There are people who will make a case from scripture for female pastors. They'll appeal to different things in the Old Testament and also in the New Testament, so I wouldn't say that it's something where it's people who believe this are just sort of pulling it out of thin air.

No, I think we want to be charitable and respectful. I just don't think that it's a very strong case, personally. I don't think it's as strong of a case as the one that I hold to as a pastor and as a Christian as well. Sometimes people will point to the prophets in the New Testament, the fact that there were female prophets who were in one sense teaching the church, bringing a word from the Lord.

I don't read about them in places like the book of Acts or in Paul's epistle to the Corinthians. That's one place that people will point to. But as far as I'm concerned, it seems to me that in terms of the teaching office of the church, and specifically for what's happening on a Sunday morning when Christians are gathering together for worship, that teaching office, that the preaching of the word must be conducted, must be conducted by a called and qualified man who is serving as a minister. And so I think that's really important. In part, just because a person is male doesn't actually mean that they're qualified as well. There's competency. There's having learned in scripture and being learned in the scriptures and understanding theology and being able to rightly divide the word of truth. Just because someone is a man doesn't mean that they're qualified to pastor a church or to lead a church either.

But I do think that that's one of the prerequisites. And so thank you for your question, and God bless. You know, Adria, we've sometimes talked about calling to the ministry. And if an individual feels, well, God is calling me, and yet there's no confirmation from the local church body, how would you respond to that?

Yeah, this is a really important thing, right? There's a lot of people today who just sort of call themselves into ministry. And maybe they're charismatic.

Maybe they're, you know, people really like them. They're good communicators and whatnot. But that doesn't mean that you are called to the ministry or that you should be a pastor. We have the internal call, a sense of desire. If anyone desires after, you know, the office of an overseer, desire is a good thing, Paul says. But there's also the church that comes alongside and says, God is qualified based on what Paul says in 1 Timothy 3, Titus chapter 1. They're qualified to pastor in the church.

And so the church calls a minister, and that's how God does it as well. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar. Or call us at 1-833-843-2673. 1-833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.