Topic

Fairness

This Life isn’t Fair

Jason worked really hard on his English paper and received a ‘C’. He compared his paper to a friend who did less work but received an ‘A’. Jason didn’t think it was fair. Sharon was only 10 when her mother died of breast cancer. Sharon didn’t think it was fair that she had to grow up without a mother. Tim hit a great left fielder in the baseball game that should have won the game, but the ump called it a foul. Life just isn’t fair. So is God fair?

Is Life Fair? The Bible says …”The race is not to the swift, Nor the battle to the strong, Nor bread to the wise, Nor riches to men of understanding, Nor favor to men of skill; But time and chance happen to them all” (Ecclesiastes 9:11, NKJV).  It’s not fair that a young child loses a parent to disease or to a car wreck.  It’s not fair that a fire destroys someone’s house the week before Christmas.  English paper grades and umpire decisions are sometimes unfair.  Natural disasters like floods and hurricanes happen everywhere.  There is a lot of “chance” like the verse says.  Life is not always fair.  When sin entered our world, bad things began to happen – to everyone!

I thought that God was in control.  Is God really fair? The Bible shows us God’s character.  King David writes, “The Lord is righteous in all His ways, Gracious in all His works” (Psalm 145:17, NKJV).  Another verse in Psalm says, “Let the heavens declare His righteousness, For God Himself is Judge” (Psalm 50:6, NKJV).  God is The Judge and can only be fair, all the time.  Fairness is part of His character.  In Matthew, Jesus was trying to teach the people about God’s character.  Jesus said, “…for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45, NKJV).  God treats the good and the bad fairly.  God doesn’t always stop the bad things from happening, but He has promised to turn bad experiences into blessings.  A very familiar verse says, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28, NKJV).

Does God expect me to be fair? The Bible says, “These are the things you shall do:  Speak each man the truth to his neighbor; Give judgment in your gates for truth, justice, and peace” (Zechariah 8:16, NKJV).  Good things are promised to those who are fair.  "I will tell you who can live here: All who are honest and fair, who reject making profit by fraud, who hold back their hands from taking bribes, who refuse to listen to those who plot murder, who shut their eyes to all enticement to do wrong” (Isaiah 33:15, TLB).

Does God reward those who are fair? Yes! It’s in the Bible, “Blessed are those who keep justice, And he who does righteousness at all times” (Psalm 106:3, NKJV)!  Who doesn’t want to be “blessed” by God?

Will God be fair with me in the judgment? God would never expect you to be fair to others and then not be fair to you!  Paul says that “…we know that the judgment of God is according to truth…” (Romans 2:2, NKJV).  The great thing about having God as our judge is that the judge loves us!  Another verse in Romans says, “…If God be for us, who can be against us” (Romans 8:31, NKJV).  Farther along in that same chapter, the Bible gives us another wonderful promise.  “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38, 39, NKJV).

God understands what it is like to be treated unfairly because Jesus was treated unfairly. It’s in the Bible, “They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on him, and made a crown from long thorns and put it on his head, and placed a stick in his right hand as scepter and knelt before him in mockery…And they spat on him and grabbed the stick and beat him on the head with it” (Matthew 27:28-30, TLB). Jesus was then crucified.
 

“But Christ has bought us out from under the doom of that impossible system by taking the curse for our wrongdoing upon himself. For it is written in the Scripture, ‘Anyone who is hanged on a tree is cursed’ (as Jesus was hung upon a wooden cross) (Galatians 3:13, TLB).

Life on this earth will not be fair.  We are told in the Bible that right before God comes back to earth, more and more terrible things will happen.  There will be more frequent earthquakes, more diseases and Satan will work harder than ever to hurt God’s people.  We should continue to obey God and be fair to those around us, though.  I know that life won’t be fair on this earth but Jesus is coming soon and He will make everything all right in the end. Heaven will be wonderful!