in all fairness
“fair” is a word that is used and misused a lot. when i was younger, i remember complaining “that’s not fair!”, only to hear an adult respond, “life’s not fair.” and i would always wonder why they would choose to be unfair when they had the option to be different. i wanted life to be fair, and i used that word a lot!
however, i’m different now; i just think of ‘fair’ as a concept that is similar to ‘just’, but is a shade off. see, i can describe God as being just, but i wouldn’t describe God as being fair. hmmm… how would i explain… ‘just’ would be an absolute value, while fairness is more perception.
i’ll break it down with a super simple example: a father has two kids. one wants to go to the batting cages, the other wants to go to the driving range. well… if the dad was the only transportation/supervision available, and he wanted to please both kids, he might split the afternoon up and go to the batting cages for an hour and then follow it up with going to the driving range for an hour. that could be considered a just thing to do - give both kids equally what they asked for, while asking them to compromise and spend time with their sibling doing the other sport. yet, in both of the children’s eyes, the dad could be seen as unfair. the one who wants to go to the driving range might think his dad was unfair for making his sport the second choice, while the child who preferred batting cages might be mad at having to leave once he/she was warmed up. they could both complain that it was unfair… or… they could both see their dad’s attempt at accomodating both of them and see him as being ultimately fair. see what i mean?
i bring this topic up because last night someone was questioning me on my Christianity and at one point told me that i was being unfair. i, believing that fairness is perception, agreed that it might seem unfair. and then came the question: how could i be unfair when a basic tenet of Christianity was fairness?
well… honestly… what i said was, “Christianity isn’t fair.” i don’t think that’s the basis of my belief. i think instead, i believe that God is love, and that He is merciful and will do all he can to forgive people unworthy of forgiveness (now that’s unfair), just so that we can spend time with Him eternally. His law is just, and that’s why He can’t just give us eternal life without having someone pay the penalty for our sins, so that’s why He sent Jesus to die for us so that He can offer us that gift. fair? to Jesus? he could’ve been one of those children - “but why are you making me do that? i didn’t sin, why do I have to die? that’s not fair!”, but instead, He willingly accepted His role so that we could have eternal life…
fair? i don’t think so… but that’s what makes Him so great…
Just wanted to say hi, and that you made a really good point. God is probably the most unfair, praise God!
Posted by Daryl on 11/07 at 07:52 PMMatthew 20:1-16 is a classic example of this idea of God being “unfair”. Depends on whether you believe you’re the first guy or the last guy. God is either really unfair or ridiculously generous.
Posted by on 11/08 at 12:44 AM
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