Is God Fair?

(Before you read this, if you haven't done so already, scroll down and read my earlier post on this subject of fairness: "That's not fair!")


Is God fair? Is FAIRNESS an attribute of God? If you mean "fairness" where everyone is treated the same, then the answer is no. 

Let me give you two examples from the Bible so you can decide for yourself whether or not FAIRNESS is an attribute of God (an attribute is a quality or characteristic of a person). Trust me, there are many more examples than these two I am offering up today.

For your consideration (thank-you Rod Serling), I submit example numero uno:

In Genesis 25:19, God tells Rebekah that she will have twins, and that the older will serve the younger. Before her children were even born or had done anything good or bad, God chooses and says that the older (Esau) will serve the younger (Jacob). Why? In that day, the first born was the leader of his family and received a double inheritance. Before they are ever born, God decides that the inheritance will go to the younger as well as the birthright. Now, where is the fairness in that?

Example 2: In Matthew 20:1-16, Jesus tells a parable about a landowner who hired several shifts of men to work in his vineyard, promising each of them a denarius (which is thought to have been the daily pay for a Roman soldier).

At the end of the day, all the workers received their denarius, regardless of whether they had worked only an hour, or had worked the entire day. The workers who had been hired first thought they would be given more than the others. But when they were given the same, they began complaining to the owner of the vineyard.
They said, “The ones who were hired last worked for only one hour. But you paid them the same that you did us. And we worked in the hot sun all day long!”

The owner answered one of them, “Friend, I didn’t cheat you. I paid you exactly what we agreed on.
Take your money now and go! What business is it of yours if I want to pay them the same that I paid you?
Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Why should you be jealous, if I want to be generous?”

The workers who worked hard all day for the same pay as the one's who only worked an hour, thought their employer was being unfair. He felt that he was being kind and generous by paying the late-comers the same rate of pay. This is our God. He doesn't act based on fairness. He is gracious and generous, and His ways are far above our ways.

We think in terms of fairness, He thinks in terms of grace, mercy & justice. We think in terms of getting our fair share and making sure we aren't cheated out of anything that is rightfully ours. God thinks in terms of being a servant who does not complain but chooses contentment. This is a far cry from the ranting and ravings of the mobs protesting against Wall Street. They are wanting their fair share. But what is their fair share? What's your fair share? What do I deserve apart from God's grace and mercy? What have I earned? What do I deserve apart from eternity in hell? That's what we all deserve. Apart from that, everything else is the grace and mercy of God.

In 1 Timothy 6:4-8, Paul is giving instruction to his disciple, Timothy. He says that anyone who opposes his teaching is arrogant and lacks understanding and such individuals will stir up arguments and bring about division, slander and evil suspicion because their minds are corrupt, and they have turned their backs on the truth (sound like anything you see going on today in Washington DC, or in NYC?).
Then, Paul leaves Timothy with this:

⁶ Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth.
⁷ After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it. ⁸ So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content. 


I am thankful that I serve a God who is not FAIR, but He is JUST and full of GRACE and MERCY. He chooses and elects. He chose Abraham out of all the men on earth at the time. He chose tiny Israel to become a nation, His people, His prized possession--out of all the nations on earth. It's always God's call and He is sovereign and His thoughts and ways are higher than ours. He sees the big picture, even in my life.

Knowing this, I will not lobby for "fairness" but for God's goodness and mercy. Moving forward, I want to take on each new day with contentment, trusting God to take care of me. I want to be seen as a servant to others, not a victim, or angry malcontent. I want others to know that my God is gracious and loving, and He will take care of me.

That's Not Fair!!

Have you ever heard someone say, "That's not fair!" Of course you have. Maybe you've said it yourself. Today, in our government schools, alongside the values of diversity and multiculturalism, there is also the enshrined value of "fairness."

I don't know who defines what is fair or what isn't, but it's everywhere you look: In our schools, in our government, in the entertainment industry, in sports. And here is the sad state of affairs. All this effort at "fairness" is doing nothing to make us a better people or nation. It's counter-productive. 


Life isn't fair. I've known that for a long time. When I was a kid, I often wondered why I had freckles and fair skin while other kids had bronze tans. Why did I have to lather up with 60 spf sunscreen just to go to the beach for a few hours while my friends with natural coppertone tans never ever got sunburned? My friends would call my bottle of sunscreen "bar-b-q sauce" and they were right. Without it, I would become red meat.


I wasn't very good in sports but I knew other kids who were all-round athletes. Any sport they tried, they excelled at it. Where's the fairness in that? Why wasn't I born with good looks? They say that if you are good-looking, you will be given advantages, basically a place at the front of the line throughout your life. So why wasn't I born looking like Brad Pitt? Where's the fairness in that?  Why wasn't I born with a silver spoon in my mouth? Why am I 5'9" and someone else towers over me at 6'4". In our society, being tall is admired. Have you ever heard a girl say that she was in the market for a guy who was short, fair and ugly?


Don't tell me that life is fair because it isn't. But, I accept that fact. Unfortunately, there are many in our country today who want to cry "foul" over unfairness or injustice. They take it upon themselves to make life as fair as possible. While they're at it, if they could figure out a way so that I could have a killer tan and great looks, I'd give it some consideration. But I digress....

One example of this foolishness at "fairness" made the headlines last week: The story of Demias Jimerson, the 11-yr old who scored too many touchdowns for his school's undefeated team, so his principal invoked an obscure rule which limits Demias from scoring if he has already scored three touchdowns and his team is ahead by 14 points. Why do Jimerson's teammates need to be protected from this awesome display of talent? 


Once again, this is an indictment against the government "educational" system which permits the truly gifted to be held back to make the rest feel better by not being challenged. At least their self-esteem will remain intact. Under the guise of fairness, the children at Wilson Intermediate School in Marlvern, Arkansas will never have the chance to achieve greatness because the bar is being lowered every day, just to make it "fair." The principal, Terri Bryant, is doing his best to shelter his students from the real world. 


We have a President who believes we all should pay our "fair share" of taxes. But who determines what's fair? The government? Do you want Uncle Sam deciding what is fair and what isn't? It's not the government's job to determine what is fair but rather, what is just. Where is fairness mentioned in our Constitution or Bill of Rights? It's not there. But we have a government that has invoked all kinds of legislation in an attempt to promote fairness. 


Some examples that come to mind are:

• Title IX (which supposedly leveled the playing field, giving female students equal access to sports). However, 2,200 men's athletic teams have been eliminated since 1981, and thousands of male athletes have been prohibited from participating in college sports and men's scholarships and coaching positions have evaporated. This law that was originally intended to prohibit discrimination against women is now discriminating against men. What's interesting is that this gender proportionality doesn't apply to the arts or music. 
• Affirmative Action (The government's attempt at leveling the playing field for blacks. Unfortunately, it hasn't worked out all that well. It has become more of a stigma for blacks than a blessing. After all, do you want a black surgeon who was the product of affirmative action doing your heart transplant? Think about it?) The foolishness of Affirmative Action was on display recently in Atlanta when we learned that teachers and administrators in 60% of the Atlanta's public schools were fixing grades, changing grades, changing D's to B's, C's to A's if an effort to boost their standing. IMHO, Atlanta is an "affirmative action" city and that scares me, and makes me wary of the quality of anything that comes out of Atlanta, except for maybe Coke Zero.

• EEOC (The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission). These guys make sure there is no discrimination, and that everyone plays fair. Again, they are the arbiters of "fairness." If you have a certain skin color and are fired because you were a lousy worker, or just plain dumb, you can go to the EEOC and file a discrimination lawsuit. If you don't get your old job back, you can at least walk away with a settlement and a pocket full of cash.
• NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) Speaking of pockets full of cash, these guys are in the pockets of the unions. The National Labor Relations Board is alleging that Boeing violated labor laws by locating its new 787 Dreamliner facility in North Charleston, S.C. For years, Boeing has operated predominantly in Washington state, where it has invested billions of dollars and created thousands of jobs. Why are the unions and the NLRB trying to shutter this plant in S.C.? Because South Carolina is a "right to work" state. You don't have to join a union. So here you have the NLRB, a government agency trying to dictate to private companies where they can do business, and all in the name of "fairness."

I could list other examples, but your eyes would glaze over...so for today, I'll leave it at that.  

In my next post (on Saturday), I will attempt to answer the question: "Is God Fair?" What's God's take on the issue of fairness? Where did Jesus stand on "fairness"? Stay tuned...and until then, be fair and play fair.