Those who rebel against God do not seek justice, and that is one reason why life is not fair. He gives them the freedom to disobey, if that is their choice. God has commanded that His people also act fairly (Leviticus 19:36 Deuteronomy 25:15 Proverbs 21:3 Isaiah 56:1), but people do not always obey God’s commands. God is just, and He always acts in accordance with what is right (Deuteronomy 32:4 Revelation 15:3 16:7). When unfair people are in positions of power, then life is unfair for the multitudes. He was a wicked judge, and Jesus called him “unjust” (verse 6). His rulings were not based on justice or anyone’s best interest except his own. This judge “neither feared God nor cared what people thought” (Luke 18:2). Jesus told the story about the unjust judge.
As a result, people are treated unfairly. When people are selfish, impatient, or greedy, then they tend to act in ways that secure an advantage for themselves, with no thought of others. The basic reason that life is not fair-that is, life is not guided by truth, reason, and justice-is that we live in a sinful world occupied by sinful people. Our responsibility is to use the gifts God has given and “be content with what have” (Hebrews 13:5).įairness, properly defined, is “freedom from bias, dishonesty, or injustice.” To be fair is to be just that is, to be “guided by truth, reason, and justice.” Whatever our outward circumstances, we can always choose to treat others fairly and thus make life a little more fair for those around us. God, who is eminently fair, gives different gifts to everyone: “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” (Romans 9:20). In each of these cases, fairness is not truly the issue. Some people have inherited money through a family business, which is not “fair” to those whose parents were not entrepreneurs. Some people possess a natural ability for athletics, which is not “fair” to those with poor muscle coordination or a congenital heart condition. Some people define fair as “equal in every way.” But this is not an accurate picture of fairness we cannot equate “fairness” with “sameness” or “congruency.” Some people have curly hair, which is not “fair” to straight-haired people who wish for curls.
No, life “under the sun” is not fair, leading many to ask, “Why not?”īefore we give some reasons why life is not fair, we should probably define the term fair, because much hinges on that word.
Centuries ago, King Solomon noticed that life is not fair: “I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned but time and chance happen to them all” (Ecclesiastes 9:11). We see those who flaunt the law yet get off scot-free, and we see others who are innocent yet are punished unjustly. We see people throwing money around as if it were confetti, while we struggle to pay the doctor bills and keep food on the table. As adults, we are surrounded by evidence that life is not fair: in our ten- to twenty-year-old cars, we drive past multi-million-dollar homes with pristine lawns and ridiculously expensive sports cars parked in the driveway. How many of us, as children, were admonished with the self-evident truth that “life’s not fair”? It’s a hard lesson, but it’s one we all learned, usually before we got out of kindergarten.
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