Why Do Good Things Happen to Bad People?

Nope. I didn’t write that backwards. I have seen the “bad things to good people” approached so many different times that I couldn’t beat that horse any deader.

We have all heard or even said at some point that we didn’t understand why God allows something bad to happen to someone good. It seems extremely unfair when a pastor, a good friend, a great mother, a caring husband, someone who volunteers a lot, or goes on mission trips dies. We lament the loss of that good person and we question God’s wisdom. But what if we have it wrong? What if bad things don’t happen to good people? Ever. What if there is no such thing as a good person?

In general, even Christians know that there is a worldly definition of good. Caring parents=good, neglectful parents=bad. Of course, since the world has no standard of absolute morality, these definitions vary greatly from place to place, but you will generally know what is considered good in your culture. But Christians shouldn’t be taking their definitions from the world, and neither should we be putting God on the same moral ground as ourselves. So who does the Bible say is good?

Mark 10:18b No one is good except God alone.

That is right, NO ONE. There is no such thing as a good person! When we start to look at ourselves from a biblical perspective, it becomes much easier to look at circumstances from a biblical perspective. God has never allowed bad things to happen to good people because good people don’t exist. However, He does allow good things to happen to bad people. In His infinite wisdom, grace and mercy, God himself has allowed everyone what they don’t deserve. Merely our existence is a direct view of God’s grace. The fact that we are not all instantly struck down is evidence of His mercy.

Psalm 86:15 15 But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

 God is not without compassion for us through our suffering and while our fleshly state requires His perfect justice, He is also a loving God who does not leave us with no hope. We will never understand the mind of the all knowing God. We will always struggle with accepting that "the Lord gives and He takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord!", but we can come out of our grief knowing that God will be glorified.

Psalms 46: 2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, 3  though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah

Hebrews 11:11 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

I Timothy 4:10  For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.