20 Bible Verses About Karma

Galatians 6:7-8

“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”

Reflection: Paul writes this to the Galatian churches, just after telling them to restore gently anyone caught in a sin and to share good things with those who teach them. “God cannot be mocked” puts God behind the harvest, and the two kinds of sowing lead to two ends, destruction and eternal life. The next verse turns the warning into encouragement: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

Hosea 8:7

“They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.”

Reflection: The Lord speaks through Hosea against Israel, which has set up kings without his consent and made the calf-idol of Samaria. The harvest is larger than the seed: wind is sown and a whirlwind comes back. The rest of the verse describes a failed crop: “The stalk has no head; it will produce no flour.”

Proverbs 22:8

“Whoever sows injustice reaps calamity, and the rod they wield in fury will be broken.”

Reflection: The rod in this proverb belongs to the oppressor, who swings it in anger, and it will be broken. The proverb that follows sets out the opposite case: “The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor.”

Proverbs 11:17

“Those who are kind benefit themselves, but the cruel bring ruin on themselves.”

Reflection: No one else is named as repaying in this proverb; kindness and cruelty come back on the person who shows them. The next verse keeps the farming language of the other passages: “the one who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward.”

Proverbs 26:27

“Whoever digs a pit will fall into it; if someone rolls a stone, it will roll back on them.”

Reflection: The setting is an enemy who hides deceit behind charming speech, and verse 26 says that “their wickedness will be exposed in the assembly.” The pit and the stone are traps set for someone else, and they catch the one who set them.

Proverbs 5:22

“The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them; the cords of their sins hold them fast.”

Reflection: A father is warning his son against adultery. The verse before this one says that “your ways are in full view of the Lord, and he examines all your paths,” and then the wicked are held by cords of their own making. Verse 23 finishes the thought: they die “led astray by their own great folly.”

Matthew 7:1-2

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Reflection: Jesus is teaching his disciples on a mountainside (Matthew 5:1). Jesus applies the measure to judging other people, and the verses that follow explain the target: someone who points out the speck in a brother’s eye while ignoring the plank in his own. “You hypocrite,” Jesus says, “first take the plank out of your own eye.”

Luke 6:38

“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Reflection: In Luke’s account this comes at the end of Jesus’ teaching on loving enemies, directly after “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” A few verses earlier he tells his listeners to lend “without expecting to get anything back,” and gives the reason: the Most High “is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.” The return in this verse is pictured as a measure filled past its brim and poured into the lap.

Matthew 5:7

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”

Reflection: This is one of the blessings that open the Sermon on the Mount. Mercy shown is answered with mercy received, and the verse does not say through whom, though the blessings around it speak of the kingdom of heaven and of seeing God (Matthew 5:3, 5:8).

2 Corinthians 9:6

“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”

Reflection: Paul is writing about the gift the Corinthians had promised for “the Lord’s people” (2 Corinthians 9:1-5), and he uses sowing for giving. The verses after it say what the harvest is for: God “supplies seed to the sower,” and the givers will be “enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion,” with thanksgiving to God as the result.

Romans 2:6

“God ‘will repay each person according to what they have done.’”

Reflection: The NIV sets the words in quotation marks because Paul is quoting Scripture; Psalm 62:12 reads, “You reward everyone according to what they have done.” Paul addresses the person who condemns others while doing the same things, and says that God’s kindness is meant “to lead you to repentance” (Romans 2:4). The chapter places the repayment on “the day of God’s wrath” and adds that “God does not show favoritism” (Romans 2:5, 2:11).

2 Corinthians 5:10

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”

Reflection: Paul includes himself and the church he is writing to in “we must all.” The verse before gives the response he draws from it: “So we make it our goal to please him.” The repayment is tied to one occasion, an appearance before Christ, and covers both good and bad.

Revelation 22:12

“Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done.”

Reflection: The speaker is Jesus, who names himself a few verses later: “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony” (Revelation 22:16). The reward comes with him when he comes. Two verses on he adds, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life.”

Romans 6:23

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Reflection: The verse sets two kinds of payment side by side. Sin pays wages, and they are death; eternal life is called a gift, something not earned. Just before it Paul asks what benefit his readers reaped from the things they are now ashamed of, and answers, “Those things result in death!”

Job 4:8

“As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it.”

Reflection: Eliphaz the Temanite says this to Job, and the verse before sets out his argument: “Who, being innocent, has ever perished?” Earlier the Lord himself has called Job “blameless and upright” and said he was ruined “without any reason” (Job 2:3). At the end God tells Eliphaz, “you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has” (Job 42:7).

John 9:2-3

“His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ said Jesus, ‘but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.’”

Reflection: The disciples assume the man’s blindness must repay someone’s sin, and ask only whose. Jesus rejects both choices they offer. He gives a different purpose for the blindness, “so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

Luke 13:2-3

“Jesus answered, ‘Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.’”

Reflection: People had told Jesus about Galileans “whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.” Jesus denies that the dead were worse sinners, and says the same of the eighteen killed when the tower in Siloam fell (Luke 13:4-5). He then turns the warning on his listeners.

Psalm 103:10

“He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.”

Reflection: In this psalm of David, the line comes two verses after “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.” It says in plain terms that God does not repay according to iniquities, and verse 12 says where the sins went: “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”

Isaiah 53:5

“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

Reflection: The verse before this one records what onlookers assumed about the servant’s suffering: “we considered him punished by God, stricken by him.” Verse 5 corrects them. He was punished for their transgressions, and verse 6 adds, “the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” 1 Peter 2:24 applies the words “by his wounds” to Christ’s death.

Romans 5:8

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Reflection: Paul measures this love by who received it. Verse 6 says Christ died “for the ungodly,” verse 7 notes that someone might dare to die for a good person, and verse 10 says the reconciliation happened “while we were God’s enemies.”