I frequently hear people use the word ‘Fair.’ As in, “It’s only fair,” and “That’s not fair.”
‘Fair’ is rarely a useful standard. It works when you tell one kid to cut the donut in half and let the other kid choose which half to eat. I used to tell our kids that if you want fair you should look for a different universe. I admit it took me years to figure out that fair most often means one side got what it wanted in a way the other side couldn’t complain about.
Unequal distributions are the norm of the world. 80/20 (or 70/30 or 95/5) distributions are everywhere in the universe. My reading of Scripture is that there are unequal distributions of rewards in heaven, too. Frankly, given the wickedness in my life and the holiness of God, I don’t want ‘fair.’ I’m grateful for grace!
Rather than ‘fair,’ which is incredibly subjective and doesn’t fit a world of unequal distributions, we need to bind ourselves to imago dei, personal responsibility, truth rather than lies, and equal treatment under laws.
