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In Order. That's Not Fair!

November 1, 2017. Matthew 20-21.

 

 

Several times in the movie, God’s Not Dead, there is this quote, “God is good all the time, and all the time God is good.”  Great quote, so what do we do with it?  How will the truth of that quote impact our daily life?  Well, the first impact is to remove from our vocabulary the phrase, “But that’s not fair!”

This is something that Jesus teaches, at the beginning of chapter 20, in His parable of all the laborers getting the same pay no matter when they began to work.  When those who had worked all day complained that they received the same pay as those who had only worked an hour, the landowner responds,

Matthew 20:13-15 “Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?  Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?”

With their complaint of “That’s not fair!” the landowner shows how they were now redefining the landowner’s goodness as evil.  This is also true when we cry out “that’s not fair” to the One who we say is good and we believe controls every aspect of our lives, God. It is not something we ever declare when things are going good, but it easily creeps into our thoughts when things continually seem to involve one bad event after another.  

Therefore, if we do not want to imply God is evil, we remove “That’s not fair!” from our thoughts and vocabulary.

The second thing we do, if we believe “God is good all the time, and all the time God is good,” is follow the instructions Jesus gives to His disciples as He “unfairly” heads to Jerusalem to die, “to give His life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28)

We keep ourselves busy.  Busy being a servant to others.  Busy living by faith.

Matthew 20:25-26 Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave — just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.

Matthew 21:21-22 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ’Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done. And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

We can quote, “God is good all the time, and all the time God is good” but the way we will see this personally is when we are living by faith and serving others.

Robert McClendon

Bob McClendon grew up in Pennsylvania, spent most of his adulthood in Colorado, and is now ready to learn how to be a Texan. He married his high school sweetheart, Tracy, in 1975. They have two...more