1. The Law of Sowing and Reaping

Actions have consequences.

Readership: All
Theme: Boundaries
Length: 1,200 words
Reading Time: 6 minutes

Actions have Consequences

The Law of Sowing and Reaping, also called The Law of Cause and Effect, states that actions have consequences.  Also, inactions too.

The most obvious divine purpose of this law is that it forms a feedback loop between conscious awareness and reality that teaches us how to live. 

This law naturally appeals to our sense of justice.  However, the consequences of some types of actions don’t show up until years later, others aren’t revealed for generations, and some consequences are not easily identified with the causative actions.  Because of the pause in time, people who do right are often impatient for the expected “rewards”.  Evil can use this situation to cause some to lose faith.  OTOH, if one’s whole paradigm of cause and effect is false (e.g. Covert Contracts, the Feminist Life script, YOLO, etc.), then one cannot interpret the consequences correctly, and it may take a long time and require intense suffering before they’re able to wake up from their delusions.

Meanwhile, people who do wrong often don’t want justice.  Instead, they want grace and/or mercy.  Women who have reveled in sin and/or a sordid sex life may “repent” for this reason if they think they can avert the consequences.

People can become disappointed when they feel like the consequences don’t seem fitting, or are not timely enough to be of meaningful consequence, or are not exactly what they expected.  Those who bear the consequences of the sins of others may grow bitter, chafe, and seek revenge if the actions and the associated effects are not quickly remedied or they find it difficult to forgive.

We see exceptions to this law when God forbears iniquities because of the transgressors ignorance.  I suppose this is why some egalitarian marriages are blessed.

Case Study — Broke Bob

Sometimes, people with no boundaries interrupt this law.  In this case, people don’t reap what they sow because someone else steps in and reaps the consequences for them.

Broke Bob is lousy with handling finances.  He doesn’t make much, and he is juggling a mortgage and several loans to satisfy his lifestyle.  Every time Bob overspends his budget, his mother sends him money to cover check overdrafts and/or high credit-card balances.  Bob is often annoyed by his mother’s control over his life, but he won’t change his ways nor place any distance between himself and his mother because she always comes to his rescue whenever things get out of his hands.

When other people reap the consequences for someone else this is called “codependency”.

This is not ‘grace’ nor ‘mercy’.  It is cruelty dressed up as being ‘loving’.  Bob’s mother has effectively interrupted the law of sowing and reaping in Bob’s life, thereby postponing and augmenting the consequences.  As it stands, Bob can never reap the consequences of his spendthrift ways and therefore he can never have an impetus to improve his spending habits and money management skills.

Eventually, there will come a day when Bob’s mother is too old or too dependent on Bob to bail him out.  Bob will be totally incapable of handling this shift of responsibilities.  Then Bob and his mother will both be living in the poorhouse.

When people in this mindset occasionally get a taste of the natural consequences, they jump to the conclusion that God is punishing them for abandoning their idols.  This would be like Bob suddenly growing a pair and telling his mother that he no longer wanted her help.  Then the next time the bank notifies him of an overdraft that he cannot pay, he gets the idea that God is punishing him for treating his mother coldly.

God’s law on this is not punishment.  It is reality.  Actions have consequences.

How to Deal with a Codependent

Cloud and Townsend wrote,

“It doesn’t help just to confront the irresponsible person.  A client will often say to me, “But I do confront Jack.  I have tried many times to let him know what I think about his behavior and that he needs to change.”  In reality, my client is only nagging Jack.  Jack will not feel the need to change because his behavior is not causing him any pain.  Confronting an irresponsible person is not painful to him; only consequences are.  If Jack is wise, confrontation might change his behavior.  But people caught in destructive patterns are usually not wise.  They need to suffer consequences before they change their behavior.  The Bible tells us it is worthless to confront foolish people: “Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you” (Proverbs 9:8).  Codependent people bring insults and pain onto themselves when they confront irresponsible people.  In reality, they just need to stop interrupting the law of sowing and reaping in someone’s life.”

If someone in your life is sowing anger, selfishness, and abuse at you, are you setting boundaries against it?  Or do you think you must bear the sins of others indefinitely and with no purpose nor recourse of action?  Are they getting away with not reaping (or paying the consequences for) what he/she sowed?  Could it be up to you to make sure those consequences are delivered appropriately?

Correlation to the 10 Commandments

The Law of Sowing and Reaping corresponds with the 1^st Commandment.

“I am the Lord thy God.  Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

Exodus 20:2-3; Deuteronomy 5:6-7 (NKJV)

When we try to take responsibility for other’s mistakes, or shield them from the natural consequences of their actions, we are playing savior.  Worse, we interfere with and postpone God’s intervention in using those consequences to correct, discipline, and teach them.

Correlations to the New Testament

The apostle Paul tells us the Law of Sowing and Reaping in his letter to the Galatians.

⁷ Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.  ⁸ For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.

Galatians 6:7-8 (NKJV)

The Red Pill Lens

Not all, but much of Chivalry and White Knighting behavior is an attempt to shield women from the natural consequences of their childish behaviors and poor decisions.

The widespread appeal for accepting an overreliance on Big Gubmint is essentially based on the idea of removing the consequences of foolish living by offloading the responsibilities thereof to Uncle Sam.  Women would rather rely on Big Govnah than on a man, because the government will fork over the dole as a matter of bureaucratic precedent, and women will never have to be held accountable or take responsibility for their lives.

Some previous posts describing more applications of The Law of Sowing and Reaping are listed below.  Readers are welcome to suggest other applications.

Related

• Σ Frame: The Wages of Sin are Paid in Marriage (2022/10/15)
• Σ Frame: How P0rn and Premarital Sex affects one’s view of Women (2023/2/20)
• Σ Frame: The TLDR on Suffering (2023/3/10)
• Σ Frame: Misplaced Motherhood (2023/5/22)
• Σ Frame: Dealing with the Mother-in-Law Curse (2023/5/24)
• Σ Frame (Thedeti): An open letter to Christian Wives (2023/5/27)
• Spawny’s Space (Jack): Cookies and Milk are for Obedient Sons and Daughters (2023/10/9)
• Σ Frame: Those Old Notions of Equality (2023/12/25)