Monday, August 3, 2020
716 - A Fair Hearing
Spirituality Column #716
August 4, 2020
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
A Fair Hearing
By Bob Walters
“Keep it fair, keep it fair!” Rodney Dangerfield
character Al Czervik as he bribes the “referee” in the movie Caddyshack (1980)
Sorry to reference a low-brow comedy movie – classic, yes, but
low brow – in a discussion of fairness as the notion appears in the Bible. But just as golfer Al Czervik is bribing for
favors – not “fairness” – so too does most of the world seem to think that “fairness”
means God giving us a gratuitous break and seeing things our way.
If something isn’t fair, humanity says there is something
wrong with God. No. If something isn’t fair, there is something wrong with
us. Maybe not in every instance is it
something specifically “wrong with me,” because we as a species are regularly
and obviously quite mean and unfair to each other. And the natural world also serves up the darnedest
challenges to our personal survival. In
any case, no one is getting out alive.
As much as the world wants to, or says it wants to, “keep it
fair,” pleas for “fairness” are typically pleas of self-interest, “help me
out,” or honest, loving concern for our fellow human beings. Nothing wrong with wanting fairness; it’s
just that the Bible doesn’t say a whole lot about anything being “fair.” “Fair” is whatever God does.
Many ideas and doctrines appear in Christian faith and
practice that do not appear in the Bible.
“Trinity,” for example, is not a Bible word at all (Tertullian, writing
in Latin, came up with it a couple centuries after Jesus) but Father-Son-Spirit
is bedrock doctrine. Christmas, Easter,
Lent, “Saints’” days, Sunday worship?
Not in the Bible. On the topic of
fairness and charity, modern folks reverently cite “social justice” all the
time but it’s not in the Bible. They
wish it were, but it isn’t. Humans
invented it.
“Fair” – the word – in the King James Version of the Bible
is referenced several dozen times but almost all of them refer to either human
skin complexion, womanly beauty, or weather (e.g. “fair skies” in
Matthew 16:2). Forms of the Greek
equivalent for “fairness” – isotes – translated as the noun “equality,” appear
only a handful of times.
As for Bible teaching, nothing in all history is less fair
than what happened to innocent Jesus on the cross. It was obedient, necessary, glorified God,
proved God’s existence and truth to the faithful, signaled God’s forgiveness of
sin, and saved us.
Much of what happens with those that we love is not measured
by “fair.” We give freely, love freely,
and don’t spend much time thinking about “fair” if our motivation is love and
selflessness. When we look outward for the less fortunate and declare that in
fairness we must help, that’s true. To
honor God and love others, we must help them.
The catch? They must
help us too; not to “keep it fair,” but because it is right.
Paul says it almost perfectly in 2 Corinthians 8:13-14. The Corinthians had a good previous year, and
should give up their excessive wealth to help the less fortunate. Paul notes in verse 14 that in return, when
the Corinthians had hard times, the others could help them so there would be
equality (NIV) or fairness (ESV).
Who says the world is fair? Well, not Jesus. But in great love and sacrifice, the fairest
thing in all Creation is God sending His Son to redeem fallen sinners God
himself had cursed.
Maybe there is
nothing fair about any of it, but in love, it’s the right thing.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com)
notes how often folks demand God’s fairness without accepting God’s eternal and
absolute righteousness. Satan, BTW, traffics in “unfair.”
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