God, Mocked? Not Going to Happen

I remember occasions when I was a little girl when my brother and I did something we’d been told not to do. We somehow thought we’d get away with it.  Usually, there were consequences assigned to what we’d done. More often than not, the price we paid was being grounded. Sometimes we were told we’d have to spend an entire week of our summer inside instead of playing outside with our friends.  We were never happy about being caught and having this sentence passed down.

But we knew it wasn’t as bad as it seemed. Our parents were pretty predictable in the way this went. We would be grounded, told we wouldn’t be outside for a whole week. But after about 2 days we somehow found favor and were miraculously released from our sentence early. Now you could call that inconsistent parenting or you could look at it as an example of grace and mercy. But the fact was, we had come to expect to be let off the hook early. In a sense, we were mocking our parents’ authority.

Galatians 6:7 says “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.” While God is a God of mercy and His grace is amazing, He is also a just God who means what He says.

Mocking God is no small matter. We see many examples of scoffers in the world. Sometimes I read a headline in the news about someone spouting off toward God and I just cringe knowing that God will not ignore such actions.

But what of us? What of God’s children? Are we still in danger of becoming mockers? Or is it just the ungodly who wear that label? God warns us that their poison is contagious, for we are told not even to sit with them.

 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, – Psalm 1:1

As with my disregard for my parents’ rules as a child with no real fear of the consequences, perhaps we can get easily deceived into believing that we can expect God’s mercy no matter what we do and He will always rescue us from the consequences. But that is not the case.  Someday we will all stand before God.

Jesus calls us out when he says in Luke 6:46, “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”  Is this any different than being a mocker?  God knows our hearts, we are only deceiving ourselves.