Is God Fair?

Recently I was sitting in church and the speaker was speaking on the attributes of God and he mentioned that God is fair and just.  I think I heard a hearty “amen” from the Amen section of the church, but for some reason, that just did not feel right to me.

So I looked up the word Fair(ness) in a number of dictionaries and these are a few of the definitions I came up with: Free from discrimination (World English Dictionary); Marked by impartiality (Merriam-Webster); and Equality in a society (Wikipedia).  There are other definitions to the word fair, but I believe the definition that is most commonly applied to our language today is that everyone is treated the same.  How many times have we heard children wail “That is not fair!” when one gets three cookies and the other only gets one.  It is pretty obvious from these definitions that fair(ness) includes the concept of everyone being treated the same.

In government, fairness is a main tenant of how our country works.  The constitution says that all men are created equal.  This is where we get the idea of “fair housing” “equal rights” and eliminating discrimination.  Our government does try to be fair and treat everyone the same and get the same opportunity.  This may be ok for government, but the question is: Is God Fair?

I believe the answer to that question is no.  God is not fair, by our current understanding of the word fair.  If God were completely fair, we would all spend eternity in hell paying for our sin, which is exactly what we deserve.  Romans 3:23 and Romans 6:23 say we have all sinned against God and we deserve eternal death. If we received what we deserved, we would all end up in the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:14-15)  But, as followers of Christ we don’t get what we deserve. (John 3:16) If some get what they deserve and some don’t, that is not fair.  

So why is it important to wrestle with the question about the fairness of God in a blog that is mainly about finances?  Understanding who God is and what His attributes are is fundamental in grasping our responsibilities as believers.  This applies to how we look at money.  Paul tells us in Philippians 4:11 to be content in whatever circumstances we are in.  This of course includes our financial condition.  We must be content with how much money God has entrusted us to manage, no matter what the amount. 

If we are thinking that God is fair, impartial and treats everyone the same and we are sitting next to someone in church that drives a Lexus, is wearing at $2500 Rolex watch and lives in a 1.5 million dollar house, contentment is pretty hard to come by.  The best we can do is to believe is that God has not gotten to our street with our share of the riches.

God is just, holy, wise, infinite, sovereign, triune, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, faithful, immutable, self-sustaining, loving, merciful, eternal, good and gracious.  God is one incredible God, but by our definition, God is not fair. The key to understanding who we are, is understanding who God is.  When we see what God has blessed others with, He wants us to be content.  For God never promised us every blessing He may bestow on others.

Praise God for who He is!!