Why do righteous people suffer, while people who are not righteous may have a good life?

People often wonder this: if there is a fair God out there, why does He often let good people suffer and bad people have a good life? There are many very kind people who have suffered a lot in life and many mean people who appear to be thriving a lot. Is there a reason for this?

I will start by explaining that the devil envies righteous people and people who respect God. For this reason he is trying to cause problems in their lives (Mitilinaios, 2022). In addition, people may dislike and cause problems to others who seem to be very good because this often reminds them of how they should be. Therefore, we can see some reasons why righteous people may suffer more than people who are not righteous.

Another reason why the former people often suffer, while the latter may not, is actually related to the fact that God in reality is fair (Mitilinaios, 2022). Religion teaches that every person is a sinner. There is no human who has never committed a sin. This can be understood if we look at simple things that everyone has done.

The story of Adam and Eve shows that humanity disobeyed God and that they also broke the fast that God told them to do (not eating an apple from a certain tree). Everyone has sometimes lied, disobeyed God, broke a fast, thought something bad about other people etc. There is nobody who is 100% pure. Even the people that we call “righteous” are not 100% clean from sin. They are not 100% righteous (Mitilinaios, 2022). In contrast, every human has a good and a bad side and this applies to both righteous and non righteous people.

Regarding non righteous people, many of them are “left alone” by God. He just leaves them to live their lives without troubles. He gives them a lot of good things in life (Mitilinaios, 2022); this is because they have a good side too and it is fair that they will receive some good things. They receive the good things that their good actions are worth during their lifetime (Mitilinaios, 2022). Nevertheless, after their lifetime they will pay eternally for the bad things that they did.

Righteous people have a bad side too. They may also often want to be saved and if they are saved, they will be in heaven after their death, as this is the fair reward that God gives to them. However, they have also done some bad things. Thus, God brings certain problems or hardships in their lives, so that they will pay for all the bad things that they have done during their lifetime and they will not have to pay for anything later (Mitilinaios, 2022).

We can see that God is actually fair when He brings troubles in the lives of good people, but not in the lives of bad people. I just wanted to say that we have limited knowledge about what is happening to the whole world and about what God is doing. A human has no knowledge about the plan of God and thus, he may easily think that God is unfair. Nevertheless, I believe that we should not be quick to judge someone. Nobody knows the reasons between God’s “behaviour” and people who have a lot of theological knowledge may also help us find the answers to some of the questions that we may have.

References

Mitilinaios, A. (2022). Why do righteous people suffer. [video] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzXkR4zjt0Y> [Accessed 13 March 2022].