bs33 Equity and Responsibility

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bs33 Equity and Responsibility Explains how God deals differently with different people, and not the same with everyone.

Equity and Responsibility: What God owes you and what you owe God

By David Cox

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Psalms 98:9 Before the LORD; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.

Today, there is a lot of talk about equity. The world has changed its historic definition, equity is being just to everybody, to a new concept, we all deserve to receive much good from God. Truthfully, this is based in a wrong concept of our relationship with God. We confuse equality with equity.

Isaiah 1:21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness (equity) lodged in it; but now murderers.

Equity has to do with rectitude, what is correct and just. God has given different things to different people, and God considers this when He judges. Each person has a job to do, the best that they can do it. We should not desire the best of the world with little to no effort.

A Good Character Brings us to God

Proverbs 2:1 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; 2 So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; 3 Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; 4 If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; 5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. 6 For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. 7 He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. 8 He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints. 9 Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.

The objective that God has for us in these verses is that we do not get angry at God over our lives, but that our lives please God. It is very important to acknowledge that God is angry with those who break his moral principles. Psalms 7:11 God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. There is good character that causes God to look on us with pleasure, deal favorably with us, and there is character in which God gets angry with us over that bad character.

The Parable of the Talents

Matthew 25:14 For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. 15 And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey. 16 Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same and made them other five talents.

This parable corresponds in our thinking with equity. Some want to say that no matter whatever other considerations are valid, everybody should end up the same. In other words, their idea is that God owes them to be rich and in good health for all of their lives. But this is not how God thinks or functions, and this is not how it is in life. God gives good things according to how we demonstrate ourselves and our abilities to be faithful and compliant with what we already have, our present ministry.

If you study the image on the front of this tract, you will see that there are two factors or different elements between the three boys. Firstly, is what God giving to each one of them (their height), and then there is the box which each one finds for himself. But people today want the result of being equal, and they call this justice, equity, and what is correct (rectitude). But the parable of the talents is as how God treats us. There is an important factor that these people ignore, and that is the force of the will of each person.

Matthew 25:18 But he that had received one went and digged in the earth and hid his lord’s money. 26 His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant… 30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

The useless servant had his own priorities for his life, and the point is, the priorities and important matters of his lord were not important to the servant. IN HIS THINKING AND ACTIONS, HE WAS NOT THE LORD’S SERVANT, REALLY. In the end, the lord threw him as an unbeliever into hell.

As a pastor, I hear many tell me that they don’t have time nor interest in attending and participating in church, neither in worshipping their Creator and Redeemer, nor participating in the work of God. These things are not “THEIR” priorities and, they are not their interests either.

In the day that God will judge the life, actions, and moral elements of every person, the important question is what have you done with what God has given you? The principle at that moment on that day will be what has been your participation and activity, not what God has given you. If God has given you little, He will take that into account, just as if He has given you much.

  • We are servants of God, and we should be useful for the purposes of God, not seeing ourselves as “owners” of our own lives, possessions, and talents.
  • With purpose, God gives different amounts and qualities of talents to different people. This is not a defect on the part of God, but rather, this is how God functions.
  • God distributes as He sees that we can handle things. How God treats us in life, is that you have little because you have been unfaithful with the little that God has given you. God knows that if he gives you more, you will probably misuse the more in your life. But in many cases, God’s will is to give you little, and see what you do with it.
  • If all that we have we receive from God, then we should live without boasting and without depression because there are others that have even less than us.
  • The rewards in eternity are based on how you live in the present.
  • 2 Corinthians 5:10 declares that we will all be judged for our works. This causes rewards and punishments to depend on if the person is saved or not. For the saved, he will not receive rewards if his works were not good as a child of God. But he won’t be punished, all his sins are under the blood.
  • Nobody is saved through good works. But your relationship with God is reflected in what you do to please God (how you work).

The servant of one talent DID NOT STRIVE TO LABOR IN WHAT GOD GAVE HIM TO DO. There is where true justice enters in. He that does not strive in his own life serving God is not even a child of God in the first place, and according to the parable, God knows this and has decided that such a “servant” (for a single moment he is named among the true servants, but as chaff among good wheat), and he ends up in hell.

Showing Equity

Matthew 25:28 Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. 29 For unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. 30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Many will complain against God because this servant lost everything he had in the end. But wait a minute. In the beginning, the lord was loaning these talents (a measure of gold or silver) to them, and this money or talent is not a gift to them to do whatever they want to do with it. They have a stewardship to work the talent towards the end that the lord wanted, his will (but within a limited range of activities that were acceptable).

Luke 16:1 And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.

1 Corinthians 4:1 Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.

God is totally within his rights (and even having equity and rectitude within him) to take away from a person what he has previously given him, especially if God sees that person is “wasting what God has given him.” What was the charge to us? The minimum is to be saved and have life. You should contribute to the work of God by attending a good church and inviting others to go with you, to know Christ. You should pray for your brethren and the work of God. Romans 9:3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Paul is an example of his desire to see others know Jesus as their Savior. His extra effort in pleasing his Redeemer is obvious. Why do people have so little interest in pleasing God? It is because many are “useless servants.” They name themselves among the Christians as a “brother” or “sister” in Christ, but by their actions, they deny their Savior.

Complaining About your Life

Exodus 16:7 And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the LORD; for that he heareth your murmurings against the LORD: and what are we, that ye murmur against us? 8 And Moses said, This shall be, when the LORD shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the LORD heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him: and what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against the LORD. Moses admitted that the difficulties and the difficult situation of their lives were in the will of God for them.

Philippians 2:14 Do all things without murmurings and disputings: 15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;

Complaining does not serve God’s purposes. It is to say, “God, give me (it is your obligation to give me this) a soft life that I see others have. Give me riches, luxuries, and pleasure without end.” But God knows what He is doing. He gives us what is just and right.

2 Corinthians 10:12 For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.

We should not think that God will give what is “just and right” in our eyes to everybody the same. God has the right to do with us as He wills, and He will give us what we deserve. Consider Job. Was what God did to Job “fair”? If God makes most people blind, “equality” would mean you want to be blind also? God does not treat everybody equally in giving out the things in this life, and praise God for this!

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