Bible Strands
Galatians 6:7
Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Paul, writing to the Galatian churches to correct their drift toward Judaizing teachers, closes the letter with a series of practical exhortations on mutual responsibility and spiritual accountability.
The words — μυκτηρίζεται (muktērizetai) is the source of English "mucker" (a pig); its literal sense is the squealing of a swine, making "God is not to be mocked" a deliberately coarse image rather than a polite one.
The thread — The sowing-and-reaping principle recurs in Job 4:8 (plow iniquity, reap the same), Hosea 10:12 (sow righteousness, reap devotion), and 2 Corinthians 9:6 (sow sparingly or generously, reap accordingly).
Why it lands — It removes the option of self-deception: the reader is told plainly that they are being misled, and the consequence that follows is mechanical, not negotiable.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Cross-references
- 2 Corinthians 9:6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.
- Hosea 10:12 Sow for yourselves righteousness and reap the fruit of loving devotion; break up your unplowed ground. For it is time to seek the LORD until He comes and sends righteousness upon you like rain.
- Job 4:8 As I have observed, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble reap the same.
- Romans 2:6 God “will repay each one according to his deeds.”
- 1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
- Proverbs 11:18 The wicked man earns an empty wage, but he who sows righteousness reaps a true reward.
- Proverbs 1:31 So they will eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
- Ephesians 5:6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.
- Hosea 8:7 For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. There is no standing grain; what sprouts fails to yield flour. Even if it should produce, the foreigners would swallow it up.
- 1 Corinthians 6:9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,