A common question I receive from people—and I’m sure people ask you too—is, “Why do evil people prosper in the world?” Other forms of this question are asked as “Why do good things happen to bad people?” Or “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Scripture reveals four reasons evil people prosper in the world.
The first reason evil people prosper in this world is because of the Fall. When Adam and Eve ate fruit from the tree God told them not to (in Genesis 3:1-6), they invited evil to enter into the world. As a result sin entered the world and a sin nature is part of every person (Psalm 51:3-5; Romans 5:12).
A second reason that evil people prosper in the world is because of the role of Satan in our world. Satan’s position is “god” of this world. Paul tells us, “Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving” (2 Corinthians 4:3–4a, emphasis added).[1] John tells us, “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19, emphasis added). In other parts of Scripture we learn that Satan’s activities in this world are to tempt and seduce (Genesis 3:1-6; Matthew 4:1-11), to deceive, falsify, and counterfeit (2 Corinthians 4:3-4; Revelation 20:3, 7-8), to destroy (1 Peter 5:8-9; Luke 8:12; Revelation 12:13-17), to war against believers and the church by sending false workers (Matthew 13:36-39), to thwart God’s work (1 Thessalonians 2:18), to send pain and physical ailments upon believer’s lives (John 2:4-7; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10), to through defame and slander (Revelation 20:10), as well as to persecute and oppress believers (Revelation 2:10, 13).
A third reason that evil people prosper in the world is because of the mistakes others make. This is the context of Israel in the book of Malachi. In Malachi 3:16-18 and Malachi 4:2-6 we learn about a righteous group of believers that have been faithful to God, but most of the nation had abandoned God. Most of the nation were bringing blemished and poor sacrifices to God that didn’t meet the criteria required in the Law for offerings (Malachi 1:6-14). The priests were not following their call to lead the nation of Judah in a way that brought the people close to God (Malachi 2:1-9). The men were divorcing their Jewish wives and marrying ungodly pagan wives from neighboring nations (Malachi 2:10-16). The people were not giving their tithes and offerings to God as they were supposed to do (Malachi 3:7-12). The Israelites were experiencing problems because of their many sins, but the remnant of faithful believers in Israel were experiencing problems that they did not cause. This small group of people faithfully followed God but suffered because of the ungodly actions of others. That is true in our day sometimes too. Bankruptcy, health problems, broken marriages, loss of jobs and income sometimes fall on us because of the ungodly behavior of other people related to us.
A fourth reason that evil people prosper in the world is because of the mistakes that we make. Sometimes bad things happen because we have played a part in it. God talks to Israel and says, “Your words have been arrogant against Me”(Malachi 3:13). These were shameless words of harsh criticism against God. The Message puts it this way, “You have spoken hard, rude words against me.” And this is what the people said, “It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked in mourning before the LORD of hosts? So now we call the arrogant blessed; not only are the doers of wickedness built up but they also test God and escape.” (Malachi 3:14-15). These people were saying God was either too weak to stop evil or He was not interested in punishing the wicked. They were accusing God of being apathetic and disinterested in them. Like the Israelites, sometimes there are things that we have done to bring about the problems we have.
Why evil people prosper in the world is a common question. The answers are not easy to hear, but the answers are true to Scripture. I pray God’s Word will comfort you and minister to you as you wrestle with God’s Word and His answers to your questions.
[1] Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.