Cheaters and the Absence of God’s Discipline

If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all.

-Hebrews 12:8, NLT

Cheaters and the Absence of God’s Discipline

Faithful spouses–present company included–struggle when we watch our cheaters seem to not miss a beat in their lives experiencing apparent success with no negative consequences due to their sins.

We feel like they are “getting away with it.”

Cheaters aren’t!

In fact, I would argue from this verse out of Hebrews 12 that their souls were never in more serious peril of hellfire than when God ignores their sins and allows them to go on their “merry” way with no discipline or negative consequences.

Do not envy the sinner who is able to continue in his or her sin without a serious spiritual spanking!

The writer of Hebrews reminds us that this person is not a true son or daughter of God. If they were, God would bother to discipline them for such serious sin.

Counter-intuitively, this is why praying the cheater experiences the discipline of God is a prayer for their well-being. It is not a curse but a prayer of blessing.

The faithful spouse is asking God to grab the cheater’s attention and help  her turn from her sinful ways before it is too late for her soul.

Contrary to the op-ed piece I engaged yesterday, I would argue a state of forgiveness would include a wish for God to discipline our cheater.

A truly bitter and unforgiving faithful spouse would simply wish God ignores the cheater so that the cheater is assured to experience the “raging fire that will consume the enemies of God” (Hebrews 10:27b, NIV).

In sum, a cheater experiencing seemingly no negative consequences in this world is in a spiritually perilous place. God is not disciplining him or her. And that means–according to Hebrews 12:8–the cheater is not a true child of God.