PODCAST
God Values Fairness
October 20th, 2011
Leviticus 19:11-25
In his book, Mere Christianity,* C. S. Lewis argued that the concept of fairness is so universal to human societies that it can function as evidence of God’s existence. To people who live in modern civilized society many of the instructions in Leviticus 19 seem self-evident: to paraphrase Jesus, “Even the worst people in society know that!” (Matt. 5:46-47).
I would offer two comments: First, the nation to whom these instructions were given had lived as slaves in a foreign land for over 400 years: they knew what it was to be “owned” but not what it was to be free. Their new Owner had values different from those of their previous owners! They had never experienced fairness.
Second, even as culturally advanced people, we need to be reminded that fairness is one of the characteristics of God’s holiness and that he expects his people to behave fairly toward each other and all people.
March 3rd, 2016 at 2:27 pm
What about Jesus’ parable of the workers in the vineyard from Matthew 20? The entire point of the parable seems to be that ‘fairness’ is not an aspect of God, at all.
May 27th, 2016 at 3:59 pm
The worker set the wages for each group of workers before they went to work. Each group of workers agreed to the set wage before they began working. That is fairness. If the employer had broken his word with any group of workers after making the agreement, then you have injustice. The entire point of the parable is that the worker has the right to set the wages through a contract with his employees. Once the employees sign the contract, justice is established. The very point of the parable is that justice or fairness is keeping your word; not whether after the fact you decide you “ought” to have made a different agreement. That is where many so called “social justice” activists miss the point. They confuse resentment over making a stupid deal with justice.