Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.
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Clement Of Alexandria
AD 215
And for you he will pray purely, held in high honour as an angel of God, and grieved not by you, but for you. This is sincere repentance. "God is not mocked"
Be not deceived. Do not, says Anselm, excuse yourselves from the duty of helping your catechists on the plea of poverty or family calls. This may deceive men; it cannot deceive God. So Jerome and Theophylact.
These words, however, may perhaps be better referred to ver4Let every man prove his works honestly before God. In this let him not err. He may throw dust in the eyes of men; he will not elude the vigilance of God. The words that follow show that this clause is to be taken in the wider sense.
God is not mocked. The Greek word here is very vivid. It denotes the action of those who turn their back on a person, and then put out the tongue or point the finger at him.
Whatsoever a man soweth. Our life is the seed-time; the future life is the harvest. What we sow now we shall reap then in blessing or in cursing.
But if Basil ides could deceive men, he cannot deceive God, since it is written, "God is not mocked." Or of certificate, yet, since they have even thought of such things, with grief and simplicity confess this very thing to God's priests, and make the conscientious avowal, put off from them the load of their minds, and seek out the salutary medicine even for slight and moderate wounds, knowing that it is written, "God is not mocked."
Some Galatians, who thought that they ought to adopt the Jewish way of life, so as to observe the sabbath and undergo circumcision and do other things of this sort in their carnal understanding, could have hope in the flesh and from the flesh. Anyone, therefore, who has hope in the flesh and sows his own hope in the flesh will have a harvest from the flesh, that is, fruit from the flesh. But what fruit? Corruption, he says; for indeed the flesh is corrupted, and this is its end, that it grows corrupt and putrid. It perishes and dies. All things, then, that are of the flesh grow putrid and suffer corruption…. Therefore it is better to have hope in the Spirit, so that we may have hope [in what comes] from the Spirit: the hope and the fruit of the Spirit. This is what it means to sow in the Spirit—eternal life. For this present life indeed is life but not life eternal. But the one who lives here in the Spirit and acts according to the Spirit and does nothing corrupt sows for himself etern...
He adds another principle which is generally stated but is relevant to what he said above to prevent their following anything beside the gospel (that is, adding also a legalistic way of life and works). Do not err, he says, for all those things which are grounded apart from the gospel are errorprone. And he has added the force of necessity to his precept: “God,” he says, “is not mocked.” He does not say, “God knows all,” lest they should hope for some sort of cheap pardon for their error or for something that might be hidden. Rather “God is not mocked,” and Paul clarifies what will happen to those who err and those who hold fast to worldly life.
This is addressed to the avaricious, who, under various pretexts, excused themselves from contributing to the support of their teachers. But they are here informed, that their excuses will not screen them from the anger of God.
Foreseeing in the Spirit that those who ought to furnish sustenance for the necessities of life to their teacher might plead poverty … he adds, “Make no mistake; God is not mocked. “ .
The one who sows with his body luxury, drunkenness and insane desires will reap what comes from these. And what is that? Punishment, vengeance, shame, ridicule and destruction…. For as these things themselves perish they corrupt the body with them. The fruits of the Spirit are not so but quite contrary. Consider now: If you sow merciful acts, heavenly habitations and eternal glory await you. If you sow love, a crown of honor waits for you—the blessings of angels and the athlete’s victory.
God is not mocked.".
be mocked; for he knows not how to be angry, or how to take vengeance. "For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.".
And is One who is not contemptuously derided
