Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return.
Parallel translations
- WEB Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
- KJV Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
- NKJV Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
- NASB Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a person sows, this he will also reap.
- NLT Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Do not be deceived; God cannot be mocked, for whatever a person sows he will also reap. Our actions have real consequences under God's just governance.
Overview
Paul states a sobering spiritual principle: God will not be treated with contempt, and the moral choices we make yield a corresponding harvest. This warns against the self-deception of thinking one can live for the flesh without consequence. The verse calls believers to take seriously how they live, knowing God's justice is sure.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 26
- 2 Cor 9:6Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.
- Hos 10:12Sow for yourselves righteousness and reap the fruit of loving devotion; break up your unplowed ground. For it is time to seek the LORD until He comes and sends righteousness upon you like rain.
- Job 4:8As I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same.
- Rom 2:6–10God “will repay each one according to his deeds.”
- 1 Cor 15:33Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
- Prov 11:18The wicked man earns an empty wage, but he who sows righteousness reaps a true reward.
- Prov 1:31So they will eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
- Eph 5:6Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.
- Hos 8:7For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. There is no standing grain; what sprouts fails to yield flour. Even if it should produce, the foreigners would swallow it up.
- 1 Cor 6:9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,
- Prov 6:14With deceit in his heart he devises evil; he continually sows discord.
- Job 15:31Let him not deceive himself with trust in emptiness, for emptiness will be his reward.
- Luke 16:25But Abraham answered, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here, while you are in agony.
- Jas 1:22Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves.
- 1 Jn 3:7Little children, let no one deceive you: The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as Christ is righteous.
- Obad 1:3The pride of your heart has deceived you, O dwellers in the clefts of the rocks whose habitation is the heights, who say in your heart, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’
- Gal 6:3If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
- Jas 1:26If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not bridle his tongue, he deceives his heart and his religion is worthless.
- Job 13:8–9Would you show Him partiality or argue in His defense?
- 1 Cor 3:18Let no one deceive himself. If any of you thinks he is wise in this age, he should become a fool, so that he may become wise.
- Prov 6:19a false witness who gives false testimony, and one who stirs up discord among brothers.
- Jude 1:18when they said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow after their own ungodly desires.”
- 1 Jn 1:8If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
- Luke 21:8Jesus answered, “See to it that you are not deceived. For many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them.
- 2 Th 2:3Let no one deceive you in any way, for it will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness—the son of destruction—is revealed.
- Jer 37:9This is what the LORD says: Do not deceive yourselves by saying, ‘The Chaldeans will go away for good,’ for they will not!
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Christ at the center
Christ became a curse for us to redeem us from the law's curse, that we might receive the Spirit and be sons — justified by faith in him, not by works.
How Galatians 6:7 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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