Fairness and Tolerance

Fairness

Let us say that you and I walk into a room and there are 18 other people in the room. I pull out a package of cookies with 20 cookies inside and decide to pass a cookie out to each of the 18 people. Then I come to you. I have two cookies remaining and instead of giving you a cookie, I eat one and keep the other. Therefore, you did not get a cookie and I got two. Your reaction might be to claim that my actions are unfair. Now, consider the same scenario, only this time instead of passing out a cookie to each individual except for you, I give you the entire package of cookies. What would everybody else say? Again, they may say something like that is unfair. So, what is fairness? Fairness is a claim on someone’s property or someone else’s time. In these two examples, there is one thing that was missed by all involved. Never did anyone take the time to realize that the cookies were mine! Thus, I can do whatever I want with my cookies. Nobody else had a right to my cookies, but I had the right to do whatever I wanted to do with my cookies. I could give them all away to one person, give them to everybody except for one person or keep them all to myself. There are people who don’t believe that I have a claim to my cookies. They believe that when I enter an environment like that the cookies belong to the whole group or maybe we should just throw the cookies away so that nobody gets disappointed. People can be so selfish at times that they don’t even consider that a person can do what they want with their own property or their own time. 

“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’ “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’ “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ “So the last will be first, and the first will be last (Matthew 20:8-16).” The Kingdom of Heaven is open to any and all who accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. Whether a person comes to the Lord as a child, in midlife or as an elderly person, they all receive the same reward; eternal life! Fairness is not about a debt owed to you by God, but He is the one who decides what He wants to do with His gift of salvation. Those being offered the gift have no right to tell God how He gives it and to whom He gives it to. Rather, we should rejoice in the fact that He was generous enough to offer it to us in the first place. 

Tolerance

I noticed a woman getting out of her car in the parking lot and my eyes were drawn to a bumper sticker on her car that read “Tolerance: Believe in it.” After a little research I found out what the letters used to write “Tolerance” represent. “The Tolerance Believe In It Bumper Sticker is a variation on the coexist design and includes a Christian cross, a peace sign, a Native American Indian pipe, the male and female symbols, Kokopelli (A fertility deity); Jewish Star, Baha'i 9 Pointed Star; Islamic Star and Crescent; Einstein's formula e=mc2.” It is no secret that the reason for putting all these symbols together is find some sort of compromise between belief systems as if they are all just as valid and just as true, or false, depending on what you believe about them. However, I put forth that the people who put these types of bumper stickers on their vehicles have never taken the time to investigate the belief systems represented on the bumper sticker. Since I am a Christian, I will address the use of the cross to represent my faith. I wonder if this woman has investigated the words of Jesus Christ when it comes to the idea of tolerance. 

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6).” To the unbeliever, this would seem to be a pretty intolerant statement because to them everybody’s religious beliefs are equally valid and whether or not those beliefs are true or not is immaterial. But, they do not understand why Jesus said what He said that makes Him the only means in which to get to heaven. You see, Judaism (although of God), the Baha’I faith and Islam are religious systems designed to modify the behavior of their adherents in an effort to reach up to God. The Indian pipe, male and female symbols, the fertility deity and Einstein’s theory of relativity must be representative of pagan, humanistic belief systems that originate from the mind of man. Never is the thought given that if there is a God, and there is, wouldn’t He have something to say about the subject of faith and how to spend eternity with Him? The reason Jesus said the only way to the Father in heaven is through Him is because He is the only one who dealt with the problems separating man from God; sin and spiritual death. Being God in the flesh, Jesus was the only who had a life to give that would satisfy God the Father as payment for our sins. Furthermore, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is God’s only provision God offers to give His life to the spiritually dead. No religious system or other man-made philosophy can address these problems. If what Jesus Christ said of Himself is true, by definition, anything in opposition to what He said is false. God does allow people to believe in error, so in that sense He is tolerant. However, for those that refuse to come to faith in Jesus Christ, God will honor their choice by not allowing them to enter His Kingdom and face eternal separation from Him in hell. In that sense He is not tolerant. It is your choice what you “believe” in.