Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
Parallel translations
- KJV Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
- BSB Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return.
- 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: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
- Hos 10:12Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap according to kindness. Break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek Yahweh, until he comes and rains righteousness on you.
- Job 4:8According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity, and sow trouble, reap the same.
- Rom 2:6–10who “will pay back to everyone according to their works:”
- 1 Cor 15:33Don’t be deceived! “Evil companionships corrupt good morals.”
- Prov 11:18Wicked people earn deceitful wages, but one who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward.
- Prov 1:31Therefore they will eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own schemes.
- Eph 5:6Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.
- Hos 8:7For they sow the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind. He has no standing grain. The stalk will yield no head. If it does yield, strangers will swallow it up.
- 1 Cor 6:9Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals,
- Prov 6:14in whose heart is perverseness, who devises evil continually, who always sows discord.
- Job 15:31Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself; for emptiness shall be his reward.
- Luke 16:25“But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you, in your lifetime, received your good things, and Lazarus, in the same way, bad things. But now here he is comforted and you are in anguish.
- Jas 1:22But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves.
- 1 Jn 3:7Little children, let no one lead you astray. He who does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.
- Obad 1:3The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high, who says in his heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’
- Gal 6:3For if a man thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
- Jas 1:26If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn’t bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is worthless.
- Job 13:8–9Will you show partiality to him? Will you contend for God?
- 1 Cor 3:18Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become wise.
- Prov 6:19a false witness who utters lies, and he who sows discord among brothers.
- Jude 1:18They said to you that “In the last time there will be mockers, walking after their own ungodly lusts.”
- 1 Jn 1:8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
- Luke 21:8He said, “Watch out that you don’t get led astray, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is at hand.’ Therefore don’t follow them.
- 2 Th 2:3Let no one deceive you in any way. For it will not be, unless the departure comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction,
- Jer 37:9“Yahweh says, ‘Don’t deceive yourselves, saying, “The Chaldeans shall surely depart from us;” for they shall not depart.
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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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