Everything in the material world seeks equilibrium. Every action has an effect. This is true whether we are talking about throwing a baseball, or heating a beaker in the lab, or singing to God or harboring resentment toward someone.
The scales of Justice must balance in the long run. There is no slippage in that system.
As “justified” text is lined up all nice and tidy at the margins, so must our lives be. We engage in spiritual practice to hasten this process, but whether conscious or not, we are always being brought into alignment.
According to our own perceptions, this may often seem not to be the case. It’s not a simple matter of easily and clearly recognizable cause and effect. We experience our lives in relationship to others, and to a world, all of which is in the process of flux. We are all working out our karmas at the same time.
When we interact with others who are disagreeable or unpleasant, we should bear several things in mind and heart. Firstly, we are seeing them and judging their actions through our own relatively limited lens of perceptions. Secondly, they have their own karmas to work out, and sometimes this does not mean becoming more calm and kind and pleasant, at least in the near term. Third, we can rest assured that whatever they are generating will make its way back around to them eventually.
So who are we to judge?
Love everybody, and let God sort out the details.