Pastor Ryan of Palm Valley Church: In order to answer the question of why do good things happen to bad people, we first need to determine: What categorizes a person as “bad?” Who are these bad people? How bad do you have to be to fall into this category? Where is the line? The more you think about it, the tougher it is to draw it. I mean, we can sort out extreme cases pretty easily in our minds: Adolph Hitler, Charles Manson—both are unanimously bad people. But what about people like you and me? I do bad things and you do bad things. Does that make us bad people? If not yet, how many more bad acts do we get in our lifetime before we fall into the “bad” category? It’s a slippery slope.
Here is what the Bible says about God’s standard:
“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” Romans 3:23
There it is—everyone is bad. That makes it easy. There is no gray area. Good is being perfect. Since no one is perfect, we have ALL missed the mark.
So the question becomes: Why do good things happen to anyone? Good things happen because it’s God’s character to love us. It is who He is. God is love.
Check out this passage from Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount:
“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in Heaven. For He gives His sunlight to both the evil and the good, and He sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:43-48
Here, we see that we are called to love “bad people” because God does. God doesn’t love us based on what we do. He loves us based on who He is. God loves like a father.
In this conversation about God’s love for all humanity, please do not confuse this unconditional love as God excusing our bad behavior. God loves us AND He is perfectly just. This means He cannot excuse our sin. Our sin separates us from God and must be punished (justice). However, His love for us is so great that He chose to pay the penalty for our sin himself. This forgiveness is available to anyone who would receive it.
“If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9
This also means that anyone who does not accept Christ’s forgiveness will not be saved. They will remain eternally separated from God. This doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love them. He has given us a chance, but the responsibility to accept forgiveness falls on us.
“The Lord isn’t really being slow about His promise, as some people think. No, He is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed but wants everyone to repent.” 2 Peter 3:9
Good things happen to all of us because of God’s love. No one is good enough to deserve it—and no one is bad enough to lose it.
Jennifer: The last part of that last sentence is the best news we will ever get! That is, we get to Heaven by grace and NOT by our deeds or works, however good they may be. (Romans 3 talks more about this if you’d like more information.) Even though we make bad choices at times, there are plenty of good things that happen to us. This includes the BEST thing: being eternally united with God in Heaven if we simply choose to accept him as our personal savior.
Over the years, I’ve seen many people in my office who are frustrated and saddened by what they perceive as good things happening to bad people. The idea here that we are all “bad” at times should be used to shift our focus to the good things that happen to us, despite our behavior.
The other thing many struggle with is perceiving these “good things” as a reward for “bad behavior.” For example, it’s difficult for many people to understand why someone who is disloyal gets a promotion at work, why someone who is unfaithful in a first marriage goes on to a happy second marriage, why someone who steals doesn’t get caught or even becomes wealthy. It’s important for us to see the bad and good in each of those examples as independent of one another. For instance, the spouse who cheats is not being “rewarded” with a happy marriage; they are two separate things, two separate events. The “bad” happens because there is sin in the world; the “good” happens because God loves us in spite of our sinful choices.
