3 Things God Always Does to a Cheater

What does the Bible say about cheating?

“Why did God let my ex cheat on me and then get into another relationship before he blessed me with a new relationship?” “Why did God allow me to get hurt so bad while it seems like this person who was unfaithful is happy and blessed?” “What will God do about this person’s sins against me?”

It may seem like this person who cheated is getting off with no consequences from God. But according to Scripture, nothing could be further from the truth. When someone cheats in a relationship, bad things always happen.

Therefore, here are 3 things God always does to a cheater.

1. When Someone Cheats, God Sees This as an Abomination

While the Bible talks about adultery in the context of marriage, certainly God is displeased when a boyfriend and girlfriend cheat on each other as well. Additionally, while the common definition of cheating in a relationship usually involves an act of sexual activity with another person, let’s first talk about an even more general form of cheating that goes beyond sex.

When cheating takes place, there’s usually some form of verbal lying. Proverbs 12:22 states, “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.” The word abomination means “a thing that causes disgust or hatred.” When someone sexually or emotionally cheats on their significant other, this outrages God. Why?

Because as humans, we are supposed to reflect God’s image (Genesis 1:27). When we lie, we are bearing a false testimony about the image of God because God is true and never lies (Titus 1:2). Therefore, when people lie to their significant other, they are not just hurting their relationship with that person. They are actually profoundly hurting their walk with God too. 

Thankfully a cheater’s fate is not sealed because of past unfaithfulness. Through the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can be forgiven and actually mature in the Lord (1 John 1:9). As much as God hates lies, he loves when his children return and speak the truth, “those who act faithfully are his delight” (Proverbs 12:22).

If, however, someone remains in their wickedness and does not repent, they must pay for their own abominable sins.

2. When Someone Cheats, God Ignores Their Other Forms of Obedience in Other Parts of Their Life and They Don’t Reap the Rewards They Could Have Reaped

In Malachi 2:13-14 (NIV), the word of God states:

Another thing you do: You flood the Lord’s altar with tears. You weep and wail because he no longer looks with favor on your offerings or accepts them with pleasure from your hands. You ask, ‘Why?’ It is because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant.”

Flooding the Lord’s altar with tears is a sign of submission. Weeping and wailing because one lacks God’s favor is a sign of repentance. Making an offering was an act of obedience. However, God said he was unhappy with these good things because these men were cheating on their wives.

While obeying God’s word will bring blessings into our lives, when we disobey parts of God’s word while we obey other parts, God will allow the one area of sin to infect the other areas of our obedience. Our obedience in one area never cleanses our sin in the other parts of our lives. Rather, the disobedience in one area infects the obedience in the other. James 2:10-11 explains:

For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.”

Cheating is a sin that cannot be paid for by human obedience. No matter how much good we do, we can never outweigh the bad we have done. If someone cheats and does not repent to Christ, they will never have God’s favor.

Christ alone, not our good works, is the true atonement that God recognizes (1 John 2:1-2).

3. When Someone Cheats, They Reap Double the Pain that Always Comes from Hurting People Who Were Good to You

What makes cheating especially hurtful and evil is that it is a moral crime done against someone who did good to you. It’s still wrong to do something evil to a stranger, but the evil is even worse when you do something wrong against someone who showed you love (Psalm 41:9-10). Proverbs 17:13, “If anyone returns evil for good, evil will not depart from his house.”

Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” This means the worse the moral wrong, the worse the consequence will be. Since cheating has the double moral wrong of not only hurting someone but hurting someone who did you good, the cheater will reap a double portion of the evil they have sowed.

Most notably, the cheater feels this pain in the area of his or her own relationships. Not only does their act damage the relationship with the person they cheated against, but they are also forming habits that will hurt their future relationships as well.

One reason we always reap what we sow is because our actions become our patterns. When someone acts unfaithful to you, they are training themselves to be unfaithful to others; thus, they are increasing the odds that they will always lack the joy of a healthy relationship with another person.

While cheating is extremely hurtful to people, the person who is always damaged the most through cheating is the cheater themself. As Proverbs 6:23 explains, “He who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself.”

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