How can children escape a bad environment, and how does God judge them?

The cycle is broken above all by a good example seen up close, because human nature remains good at its core. God judges every person by His perfect knowledge, and He also knows the environment in which they grew up.

Some children grow up in surroundings where wrongdoing, lovelessness or indifference are normal. If they stay trapped there, they often reap the same bitter fruit later on. This cycle has to be broken at some point, at the latest when they grow up and understand that their path is not a good one.

How can that happen? Through kind advice, patient persuasion and love. But the strongest influence of all is a good example. Words alone often fail to reach such people. Whoever simply tells them they are living wrongly is usually ignored. Yet when they see from close by how someone lives honestly, kindly and in awe of God, it almost always moves them.

The reason lies in the first verse above. God created human beings with a good nature, and that nature is never lost. At most it is buried. That is why even people from a bad environment are drawn to goodness when they truly encounter it. Any one of us can be that example for such a child.

And how will God judge them? Not by our knowledge, but by His. People judge quickly and see only a small part of the picture. God knows every influence a person was exposed to, how their childhood shaped them, and which chances they had or did not have. No one bears the burden of their parents, and no one is burdened beyond their strength. In this way everyone is judged with perfect justice.