Is God Unfair?
“The Lord frustrates the plans of the nations; He thwarts the devices of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the purposes of His heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His inheritance!
The Lord looks down from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From His dwelling place He gazes on all who inhabit the earth. He shapes the hearts of each; He considers all their works.” Psalms 33:10-15 BSB
Do you ever get tired of doing the right thing when others around you do not? God’s plan and purpose often seem unfair in the eyes of us humans. Certainly suffering in this world is unequally distributed among the people of the earth. Jesus told His disciples that it was given to them to understand the kingdom, but it wasn’t given to those outside their group, much less those not of the Jewish community. Not all in this life are drawn to the Father through suffering, unenable to comprehend the depths of His nature and wisdom.
Jesus chose twelve men whom He planned to minister and teach more deeply than the crowds of people who followed Him for a time. Is this unfair prejudice from our Lord and Savior? Jesus had His inner circle sitting at His feet, close to Him. Jesus even had special times with just a few, like Peter, James and John. Think about this. Many a believer today would be loudly objecting to what appears to be exclusivity, a division of those who were good enough to be chosen and those seemingly less worthy.
Yet this cannot be true in the heart of Jesus, Who only did what Father God showed Him. God loves all and is no respecter of persons.
“For there is no respect of persons with God.” Romans 2:11 KJV.
God knows no partiality in His love and mercy. So, how shall we understand and be like the Lord in this? Many are called, some go on to become chosen, and then a few faithful continue to fulfill their calling.
“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the crossroads and invite to the banquet as many as you can find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered everyone they could find, both evil and good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
But when the king came in to see the guests, he spotted a man who was not dressed in wedding clothes. ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ But the man was speechless. Then the king told the servants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
For many are called, but few are chosen.’” Matthew 22:8-14 BSB
While His love extends to all without partiality, we are to make our specific calling and election sure. He has different ranks, different callings, and differing eras of His plan that in no way come from the better than/less than mentality of humans about such things. Did He not say, ‘In my house, I have many mansions, many dwelling places’ for various ones by His choosing?
“For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: ‘I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.’ Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden.
One of you will say to me, ‘Then why does God still find fault? For who can resist His will?’
But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, ‘Why did You make me like this?’ Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use?” Romans 9:17-21 BSB
Let us consider the purpose and plan God has for each person, knowing He will have favor on those He chooses. We accept that it is His business whom He calls. The idea of unfairness is a human concern, and Jesus experienced this life challenge throughout His earthly ministry. He absolutely had many unfair things happen to Him that He might have complained about, but He knew better and trusted His Father.
We must accept our lot because the Potter has the right to form us as He chooses. It is only our own fearful human hearts that see another’s calling and believe it is a negative reflection of our own status and position. God’s calling and election is sure. Our callings differ, just as our paths do. Differentness is not badness, nor is it a sign of one being better or less than another.
When we are envious of how another believer is used by the Lord, we need to consider how much is required for many used in His ministry.
“The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows.
From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” Luke 12:47-48 NIV
The disciples of Jesus were given much, taught intimately at His feet, saw everything the Father did through Him. They were privileged but much more was indeed asked of them as they fulfilled His will. When others suffer, we need not assume that it is punishment from Him. Suffering works holiness within, just as Jesus’ sufferings proved the character of the Father in Him. God has a path and purpose for each one He calls for the work of His kingdom.
The refinings of some are more costly in preparation for the work God has called them to do, as clearly revealed in the lives of saints and martyrs through the centuries. God knows His servants, what is required in preparation for obedience to His callings. Calling is translated “invitation” from the Greek. All were invited to the wedding feast in Jesus’ parable, but not all came and at least one that did was without a wedding garment. This guest came unprepared, not clothed with the pure nature of Christ, described as a gown of white linen in Revelation.
Many are called and, like Paul, are determined to go higher, as far as God would have but God is in charge of the invitations and the callings! While we admire another’s gifts and callings, would we really want to have what they have if we knew the price they paid to get it? When I first heard my future husband ministering God’s word during a meeting of the saints, I recognized was in awe of the powerful word he had. I found myself wishing I had something similar. God told me, “My child, would you want to go through what he has to get it?”
Only God knows it all the ways He chooses to prepare His ministers. It was a sobering lesson. It is good to admire and honor another’s calling but we need not think God is unfair when we do not have what someone else in the kingdom has received. When we are in the center of His will for us, we are able to be satisfied and content. This reveals another way we Christians can unwisely judge by outer circumstances.
We see the results of God’s hand on another without knowledge of the tests and purging that brought about that gold we so admire. We envy or even covet. We may go further in accusing God of unfairness at the distribution of His gifts and callings.
“The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows.
From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” Luke 12:47-48 NIV
We are held accountable by God for what we know spiritually. When we know but do it not, that is sin. Are we to revel in any superior knowledge, holding it over others as if we, ourselves, gained it rather than it being of God’s choosing? That is sin as well. Would God allow any son He called to enter into His highest calling, to be among the kingdom priests destined to change the world, to rule and reign with Him, if that person had one speck of a superior attitude, thinking “I’m better than, superior to, closer to God, more in the know, than you?”
In Revelation, we see just how significant the calling and the cost is for the overcomers. There is much required of those who have their hearts set on qualifying for this highest calling. Priest-kings are the servants of all. When the enemy of God’s people makes war against the saints, Jesus and all those who have qualified, go to war spiritually, together:
“They will make war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will triumph over them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and He will be accompanied by His called and chosen and faithful ones.” Revelation 17:14 BSB
Jesus clearly said that the mark of a son is to be a servant to all. To minister is to serve, not to rule over the people. Kingdom authority is granted to those who have overcome all within them so that only the Christ within rules. Does not division in the body of Christ come from envying another in leadership? It happened with the Old Testament leaders as well as the early New Testament churches Paul established and Paul called it immaturity.
That is the qualification, the price to pay for further steps in God. Paul called the high calling a prize, something that is earned through overcoming all as Jesus did. It is not a free gift. The unfairness of gifts and callings, positions of leadership and honor that humans may complain about requires a deep commitment to God Those who are called, chosen and remain faithful must be refined into wise and loving servants of God’s own precious people.
There is a price for this prize for which we run this race! Salvation is free, but following on to know the Lord requires a death to self, over and over again, until self is fully submitted to the Father. Sonship is not a calling to be grasped at nor demanded. Like it or not, it is God’s choice who is called to this order in Him. Some who have the knowledge of this sonship message have filtered it through their soulish realm, letting the pride of life draw them to a better-than attitude amidst self-congratulatory proclamations of their own sonship.
No wonder some resist this message or even search for a way to deny it when they see such fleshly behavior revealing soulish arrogance. It behooves anyone called to spiritual leadership to learn humility. God will teach it to you, willing or not, as part of your calling. God never promised equality of position or to fairly match the callings amongst us, but He certainly desires us to be like Him. We are to be conformed into His image and likeness.
To be like Him requires that we, too, become no respecter of persons. Jesus chose humble people of no stature to follow Him intimately in the days of His earthly ministry. They became mighty men of God who changed the whole world, at great price to themselves. They humbly served their Master unto their deaths. We, too, must allow God to purge envy and jealousy. leading to strive and division in the Body
Then we are able to honor all parts of the Body as necessary for the operation of all. We are granted love and peace toward all men, even our enemies, preferring others over ourselves and our needs. I like how The Message says it:
“But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn’t be a body, but a monster.
What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, ‘Get lost; I don’t need you’? Or, Head telling Foot, ‘You’re fired; your job has been phased out’?
As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the ‘lower’ the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it’s a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons.
If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn’t you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair? The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t.
If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.” 1 Corinthians 12:19-26 MSG
How clear this is, setting a standard for how we are to regard one another in our differing requirements and callings. There will always be those who were given more and may be more visible than others in this Body of Believers. Without the characteristics of the Lord’s nature, hearts are envious or resentful of others’ gifts and callings. We are to be tried and purified by fire, keep faithfully walking with the Lord, to see the end from the beginning for each of us.
“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.” Galatians 6:9 KJV
What are we reaping? Why, the fruit of the kingdom at the time of the harvest, displaying the full character of Christ Who descends with a shout. God’s called, chosen, and faithful wait with patient endurance, along with the saints in spiritual Zion, for the full redemption to be completed as promised. Two thousand years of the church age have passed, and the third day, the new day, the Day of the Lord, is now shining upon us. We are preparing for this Day of the Lord.
He has prepared a great Feast for all:
“And Yahweh of hosts makes for all peoples,in this mountain, a feast of oils, a feast oflees, of oils from marrows, of filtered lees. And He swallows up on this mountain the face wrap wrapped over all the peoples, and the blanket blanketing all the nations. He swallows up death permanently.
And my Lord Yahweh will wipe every tear off of all faces, and the reproach of His people will He take away off all the earth, for the mouth of Yahweh speaks. And they will say in that day, ‘Behold! This is Yahweh, our Elohim. We expected Him, and He will save us! This is Yahweh! We expected Him, and we will exult!’” Isaiah 25:6-9 CLV
It is sad when we, His people, have never been able to fully become what He created us to be. We all fall short of showing forth the Christ nature within us. Without the Lord bringing the mind of Christ, the fullness of all He has done for us, into each person’s heart, we continually fall short of His glory. Jesus Christ our Lord will not stop until He has returned all to His Father and we are together in the Lord.
In the great Day of the Lord, some will consider His plan unfair after all they’ve done for God. They will list all the works they had done, the ministries in His name, the miracles and healings, the prophetic words given to others, but Jesus will say He never knew them.
“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Matthew 7:21-23 KJV
Iniquity is a deep character flaw that has not been dealt with by God. There is a mixture of flesh and spirit in the person who is doing all this work for God without the intimate relationship required for true nature change. It is seen in humanity, including all realms of religion. There are many who preach things without living them. None of us can unless God changes us from within, in our hearts, as we experience knowing Him in intimate fellowship.
In the parable of the Master hiring laborers for His vineyard, Jesus taught that the last will be first.
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denariusa a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’
And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius.
And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’
But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.” Matthew 20:1-16 ESV
Why do the last become first? That certainly sounds unfair. Why is God allowing a servant’s labor, their ministry to come to an end, to be burned up into stubble and waste? Why can’t things continue as they have been, with prosperity and honor in the eyes of others? Many wonder how satan’s power and authority have caused all these woes and begin to question God about it. When God moves on, the great ministries of that era fade and die. Is this really the work of the enemy?
When you absolutely know that your life is in God’s hands, no human can take from you what God wants you to have nor bless you in anything that God has not destined for you. There is no point in coveting another’s gifts or callings. God has brought many powerful ministries to an end when their season is over. It’s better to surrender than to hold on in vain when God has moved on. Many ministers find themselves sitting in a great pile of ashes as they continue in a calling that God is wrapping up to enter a new phase of His plan.
God brings works and ministries to a close, firmly closing past doors in our faces when we serve Him with a willing heart. There are seasons for certain things, times of ministry and fellowship that come and go. There are ages in God, one closing out when another begins. The more quickly we recognize and surrender to the truth that it is God whom we serve Who is bringing about an end to something, rather than satan attacking our ministry, the easier our walk becomes.
When a season in God ends, it can seem unfair that we have to move on, that our church has split or even died, that we cannot continue as we have been. We humans will cling to the known, the familiar, even more strongly when the blessings have been great for us. The more we have to lose, the harder we may hold on to the old, while missing the new He is bringing. Endings are beginnings in God, as He makes all things new.
God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, but what He does changes according to His plan. As Job said when God chastised him for his complaints, we often speak of things too high for us. Yet God promised He would reveal his treasures to those who love Him and are called for His purposes. We are conscripted into this army, we cannot just volunteer because we admire and yearn to have another’s calling.
Paul spoke of this to the Corinthians, quoting from the Old Testament:
“Rather, as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.’ But God has revealed it to us by the Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of man except his own spirit within him? So too, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. And this is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.
The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
The spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is not subject to anyone’s judgment. For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 2:9-16 BSB
Do we want to know God, even His very heart? This is how our Lord and Savior will be able to say that He knows us. We long to get past God’s actions that we can see to truly understand His ways, as He showed His faithful servant, Moses:
“He made known His ways to Moses, His deeds to the people of Israel.” Psalms 103:7 BSB
Moses came to know God intimately and was pronounced a Friend of God. Many would love to hear that they, too, are considered a Friend of God, someone with whom He talks face to face. But that is God’s decision, based upon His plan and purpose for the ages. This calling requires an intimate, ever progressive knowing of God deeply and well. Moses needed this to handle the great responsibility to lead God’s own.
There were Israelites who envied Moses without understanding the weight of responsibility and, yes, the grief of their continual rebellion that Moses carried. The leadership of God’s people is an incredible gift as well as a weight only to be carried by the Lord within. Moses even dared to disagree with God, advocating for the people when God wanted to destroy them all. He also told God about his frustration and distress concerning these rebellious folk he had to lead.
Moses destroyed the first ten commandments wrought in stone that God had given him on the mountaintop, angry and devastated that in his absence and on Aaron’s watch, the people had created a false idol, a calf to worship. Yet Moses still interceded for the people he had loved and was serving as leader. Read about it in the book and you will see that many of God’s saints were intimately acquainted with Him and endlessly real in their conversations.
When we struggle with the portion God has given us, either wanting more or wishing for less, when we consider His acts as unfair, God is not surprised. Our Lord is never caught unprepared to respond, though it does matter how we approach Him and what our hearts are prepared to receive in understanding His ways. God said some would not approach him correctly in the spirit because they are using fleshly ways and human understanding to approach a spiritual God.
There is more of the fiery presence coming to us in such times and that’s a good thing! God is spirit and we must learn to understand His ways by the spirit, higher than human ways. His plans and designs differ from what we’d design with our human understanding. He does not distribute His gifts and callings from the framework of human fairness. If that were the case, the martyrs through the centuries surely were treated unfairly in their deaths by torture and fire.
We learn to lay aside our human concept of fairness to come to worship Him in the way that pleases Him:
“But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” John 4:24 KJV
If we do not learn this lesson, truly coming to know God, desiring to understanding more of His ways, including those that seem unfair to our human eyes, we miss out on a great deal of peace and rest. We can have faith even though we lack understanding of all His ways, as we continue to seek Him above all. Or we can waste our religious energy on works while God looks at the heart lacking in intimate fellowship with Him. It matters whowe are inside much more than what we do externally.
We can continue to wonder why we do not obtain mercy while being reluctant to offer mercy and compassion to others. We can rebuke the devil all day long without turning our focus to God and asking what He is teaching us through it all. There are multiple lessons brought to us by Father God, as He teaches His sons and daughters to follow Him alone.
When you read the Old and New Testaments, seeking truly for spiritual understanding, it is impossible to sustain erroneous, sinful beliefs about the unfairness of God. How long will we be distracted by outward appearance, judging by what we see rather than learning God’s way of looking at the heart? When will we see as God sees, understanding more of His ways? When will we fully surrender because He is God and we are not?
God help us all!