God Is Not Fair
Change My Mind
Steven Crowder, a former Fox News contributor turned podcaster, publishes a recurring segment on his YouTube channel called Change My Mind where he invites street traffic to stop and engage him in debate on controversial topics. This viral concept has been turned into a treasure trove of memes and wormed its way into the modern zeitgeist and for good reason. People, especially today, do not change their minds. Americans are less unified and more tribal and religious than we have ever been. Therefore Crowder’s offer of a chance to change someone’s mind is tempting because we see it as a chance to win a convert to “our side.”
This behavior bleeds into churches as well and we become attached to dogma that we have learned or been taught often with the same religious fervor reserved for the doctrine of salvation. But the exercise of evaluating our beliefs and considering whether we should change our minds is worth repeating regularly.
It should not be an unusual thing to change your mind. While the apostle James does caution us against blowing with the wind and being unstable in our minds, our core beliefs should not be changing every day. With that said, humble people will be willing to recognize when they are wrong and adjust course.
“I’m not perfect” - Most people
In general, you will not have a hard time getting most people to agree with this statement. The reason is found in Proverbs 20:6. We are aware of our flaws but we choose not to dwell on them in favor of our strengths and good behavior. The by-product of this thinking is an overinflated view of our goodness to the point where we will proclaim it in the streets!
Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: But a faithful man who can find?
The problem with “I’m not perfect” is in what it implies between the lines. Someone who thinks this way all too often silently inserts the phrase “…but I’m pretty close” at the end. Those most vulnerable to this way of thinking often have experience, past success, and a track record of good works behind them. They’ve forgotten who they once were and what still lies inside their flesh.
A more accurate statement, albeit less agreeable to the masses, emphasizes our flaws instead.
“I’m a deeply flawed person” - Very Few
While it is difficult to reframe ourselves this way, the more we understand and acknowledge our flaws the more we can grow. It breeds humility instead of pride and creates an environment in our hearts where God can get the glory and we can experience necessary changes.
It is in this spirit that I would invite you to try to change my mind. I know that I am a deeply flawed person, prone to mistakes, and often too full of myself. So when I make my assertion that God is not fair, I recognize that you, dear reader, may already have an air tight rebuttal with neat citations from both the old and new testaments ready in waiting. I welcome it and will even try to make your argument for you in the next section.
“God is extremely unfair” - Dan Safee
Wait, What is “Fair”?
We can’t get too far down the road before we start to struggle with the meaning of the word “fair.” This word is a great example of how far our modern English has drifted from older English of the 17th and 18th centuries when KJV was written (a time when spelling was still being standardized!)
Consider a modern, online dictionary which considers the most common use of the word fair in the Bible as obsolete today.
Merriam-Webster Online 1
“Fair” originally only meant “Beautiful; handsome, Favorable; prosperous (fair wind blowing)” as outlined in the most complete historical dictionaries that we have available. This linguistic metamorphosis can be common in scripture and can often lead to confusion if not addressed. For example, I don’t think Solomon had a sense of moral equity on his mind when he said “thou art fair” in Song of Solomon.
Behold, thou art fair, my love; Behold, thou art fair; Thou hast doves’ eyes.
Similarly Abraham recognized that his wife was getting an undue amount of attention and not likely because of Sarah’s reputation for justice!
And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair.
Today, fairness implies a sense of justice, impartiality or some kind of equal outcome. We want a jury to be fair in their verdicts, for athletes to get a fair chance to win, to be fair with our children, and most importantly to be treated fairly by others.
A Biblical Substitute for the Modern “Fair”
Since we need a Bible equivalent of the modern “fair”, Proverbs 1:3 provides that for us with three handy synonyms: Justice, judgment, and equity.
To receive the instruction of wisdom, Justice, and judgment, and equity;
I think the Bible word “equity” is the most similar to the concept we have today of fairness. Equity is giving every man what he is due according to reason and the law of God to man. It is the impartial distribution of justice, and it’s something everybody wants.
So when I am making the claim that God is not fair, I am really saying that God does not impartially distribute justice and does not produce equitable or equal outcomes. Woah, that felt weird even to write, and there’s a good chance I’m wrong! Go ahead and prove it though!
No, God IS Fair!
At this point, your argument against me is a slam-dunk. You just need to trot out verses like Psalms 98:9 and the arguments write themselves!
Before the LORD; For he cometh to judge the earth: With righteousness shall he judge the world, And the people with equity.
The king’s strength also loveth judgment; Thou dost establish equity, Thou executest judgment and righteousness in Jacob.
Can there be anything more fair than the God of all earth who promises to come and judge the world and all the people in it with equity (fairness)?
He is the Rock, his work is perfect: For all his ways are judgment: A God of truth and without iniquity, Just and right is he.
God is just and, in his judgments, holds everyone to the proper standard without partiality. And what’s more, there is no iniquity in our God! He is perfect and does not need to begin with the same “I’m deeply flawed” premise that we ourselves must undertake.
And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.
From Genesis to Revelation and everywhere in between we see the argument being made by the patriarchs, by the prophets, by the song writers and even by God himself that he is just and equitable, sinless and pure, unequaled and supreme – how is it possible then for my thesis that God isn’t fair to be correct?
Unfair… in Whose Favor?
If something is unfair, we are automatically trained to think of being on the losing side. We don’t care if something is unfair, generally speaking, if we benefit from the outcome. If one of my kids eats the last donut, they won’t worry too much about the scoreboard of life, but for those later to rise, fairness will be of utmost concern. It is important to remember that for every unfair event there is both a winner and a loser.
If the government calls me up and says, “Due to a new federal program you need to give $100 to support low income families.” That is an unfair situation that favors “low income families” at my expense (leaving aside the political and moral implications of such a rule).
So when discussing fairness we must be very careful to track who is receiving the benefit of the unfairness and who is taking the loss. To say that someone is unfair does not necessarily imply that they are always the one benefitting in the arrangement.
Unfair in God’s Favor
It is likely in life that the Christian who will live for God will have opportunity to suffer. I know that because Paul told Timothy that all who will live Godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution, but I also see that in the example of great men of the past like Job. In Lutheran tradition, Martin Luther has claimed that the Christian will be tasked by God with either much to do or much to suffer, both pathways offering an equally noble service to His kingdom although one seems far more unfair than the other.
By any reasonable standard, Job did not seem to deserve the treatment he received at the hand of Satan with God’s consent. I know solid Christians today who struggle with the story of Job especially as it relates to the loss of life. If I’m being honest, deep reflection of the events recorded make me uneasy as well. Most of Job’s servants died in horrific accidents on the same day that his children were killed. It is a complicated outcome that causes reasonable people to question God allowing Satan this kind of power over Job’s life.
Yet God used the story of Job to establish key doctrines early on in the history of humanity. The gospel is found in Job 33. We learn facts about the world that Job could not have known at the time in Job 26:7. The story of Job gives us deep insight into human suffering and frankly curbs a lot of complaining (how many of us can say we have suffered as Job has?)
But suffering unfairly for God extends well beyond the first time it was recorded in Job. What about the man who was born blind? Surely this was an extremely unfair situation that benefited God at the expense of this lame man. I am grateful every day that I was not born blind. However we see that this man’s life was used to bring glory to God in a way that few of us will get to experience.
And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? 3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
Ezekiel ate cow dung as an object lesson for the Israelites still yet to be deported to Babylon. This benefited God at Ezekiel’s expense. I’m not sure if Job or Ezekiel had it worse! God caused suffering in Ezekiel’s life for his purposes which seems grossly unfair.
Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow’s dung for man’s dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.
If I asked for volunteers in a church environment for anyone who would like to sign up to serve God with their life, the room would be full of volunteers. One of the ways we can do that is to sign up for unfair events in our life in God’s favor where he can get the glory, use us as object lessons, and teach us great lessons about who he is. Are we ready to be Job, Ezekiel, or the blind man?
Look Who’s Talking
Let’s suppose that I think it would be funny to walk down the street, ring the doorbell of a random neighbor and then punch them in the face. While they would surely suffer unfairly with a broken nose and a bad day, I would get the benefit of a good laugh and a story to tell. If your sense of equity is feeling violated by that thought experiment, it is working properly!
We will return to the topic of God’s fairness, but it bears mentioning that we have our own problems with the idea of fairness and equity in our lives. While it is unlikely that anyone would actually sucker punch a stranger for their own enjoyment, we engage in the spiritual equivalent of that behavior to varying degrees each time we sin against someone else.
Take a moment and reflect on all the ways you have made the lives of other people unfair. As a ridiculous example, I was driving an hour back home once and stopped to get some fast food. After eating it in my car, I felt too lazy to walk the trash back to the trash can and just tossed it out onto the parking lot. I made the world unfair for whoever had to pick that up! (I regret it now for the record!)
We throw out trash onto the floor of marriages, churches, and friendships causing extreme unfairness in the world each time we do it. How ironic that those of us who complain about the injustices around us never stop to think about how much we contribute to the problem. Will you add to your prayer list, “God, help me to reduce the problem of unfairness in the world?”
Maybe We Should Create Unfairness
When your husband comes home from work, grumpy and irritable, and snaps at you and the kids, is that unfair? Well, maybe. If your response is a biting retort that returns the favor then you have successfully equalized. Congratulations on your fair outcome and I wish your marriage all the best! What do you value more though, a fair relationship or a great relationship?
There has been a trend in social media where a wife will air her grievances with her husband online for her followers to suggest ways she should hit back. These content creators are hoping for a fair relationship and they will likely get exactly that. That is the fundamental problem with being a deeply flawed human. If we get what we deserve to make our life fair, we may find that we don’t actually want that in the first place.
It is unfair to suffer in humility when you are unfairly treated, but Solomon admonishes us that we will have peace if we do.
Only by pride cometh contention: But with the well advised is wisdom.
It’s unfair to you to hold your tongue and not confront your husband or wife with their “obvious hypocrisy”, but you’ll have a home with a lot less anger if you can abide that unfairness.
A soft answer turneth away wrath: But grievous words stir up anger.
We say that we want life to be fair, but if it was we must also abide the unpleasant consequences of our deeply flawed human nature. The reality of what fairness actually means if we had it helps foreshadow the incredible benefits we receive if it is indeed true that God is not fair.
God is Really, Really Unfair
The cross of Christ represents the greatest example of the asymmetric fairness experienced by two parties. If unfairness means that one party benefits at the expense of another then take a look at the disparity in Romans 5.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. 8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
I confess that the concept of the trinity is too difficult to understand. Jesus is God but also God’s son. While I don’t understand how both of those things can be true, I do understand that God’s concept of the trinity allows us to see the sacrifice on the cross through the lens of a father giving up his son. If scarcity drives value, then the emphasis that Jesus was God’s only son adds weightiness to the loss. To lose a child must break the heart of any parent, yet the circumstances contemplated in Romans 5 are much more unfair than any father on earth has ever endured.
In every movie or TV show, the hero father is willing to die to ensure success of the mission. It is only when his wife, son, or daughter is threatened where he will confess, hand over the valuables, or give up on the quest. Even in our cultural stories where the most courageous archetypes are tested, our heroes draw the line at our family. We might consider giving our life for our country, our honor, or our mission, but we cannot fathom sacrificing our children.
Yet God did that. He gave up his only son in exchange for… it must be something with astronomical value! It was us – me and you – and we are nothing but dirty sinners having come from the womb speaking lies and violating God’s commandments. That is what God gets in exchange for his Son. Sounds pretty unfair to me!
The Cosmic Timeline of Unfairness
If we limit ourselves only to the timeline of this earth, there are and have been great injustices and examples of unfairness. But we do know that the timeline of this earth has an end. After we die there is the judgment, the books will be opened, everyone will give an account and God promises that he will judge the world with equity. There is a great promise that God, who keeps score, will right all wrongs.
Before the LORD; For he cometh to judge the earth: With righteousness shall he judge the world, And the people with equity.
The souls of the saints slain for their testimony long for this justice in heaven and plead asking, “How long?” before their unfair treatment is brought to an equitable outcome.
One of the best arguments for enduring unfairness against us on this earth is that, in the resurrection, God will reward us for our faithfulness and bring justice to every situation where it is deserved. This is true and is part of the hope we have in Christ.
But if we pause to consider the final moment of time where all is made right, there is one injustice that will never be made right for all eternity. In many people’s minds, fairness is everyone receiving exactly what he or she deserves. If God were completely “fair,” by this definition, we would all spend eternity in hell paying for our sin. It is because of this great gap in our favor at God’s expense, that I make the argument that God is extremely unfair and may he be praised and glorified because of it!
Footnotes