Just Payment (Proverbs 11:31)

There will be payment for our actions on this earth, for the sinner and the saint alike.

"Behold, the [uncompromisingly] righteous shall be recompensed one earth; how much more the wicked and the sinner! [And if the righteous are barely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the wicked?]" Proverbs 11:31, Amplified

If the righteous are promised recompense while still on this earth, then how much more true is this for the wicked and the ungodly. To put forth an analogy I would have to say that every man is given the same building materials. What type of shelter he chooses to build is complete his choosing. The type of foundation is solely on his shoulders. It is like the man that built on the rock and the other that built on the sand in Matthew chapter six. Both built houses, but one withstood the trials of this life, the other fell.

The second part of this verse has perplexed me. The brackets indicate it is an addition that was not there. The amplified version attributes this to First Peter 4:18, "If the righteous is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and sinner appear?" (NKJV) Peter pulled this from Proverbs 11:31. It is a but confusing. Here we have a verse in the Old Testament that attributes its contents to a book in the New Testament. And we have a book in the New Testament attributing its contents to a book in the Old Testament. A bit circular.

I read many different version of Proverbs 11:31 and none read like I Peter 4:18. The answer is quite simple. Though Proverbs speaks about recompense and Peter speaks about salvation, the contents of both are almost identical in idea and substance. The righteous will be recompensed and so will the sinner; is the righteous are barely saved then what about the sinner? We have to remember as well that the Bible has gone through many different translations. Peter was a Jew who spoke and read Hebrew, it is quite possible that this is how the verse in its original context read. In either case, the Holy Spirit allowed for two different versions of this one verse to appear in the context of the Bible.

The recompense of the righteous is that salvation as though through fire. And if the righteous are barely saved then the recompense of the sinner will surely be death.