Who are you? At the most fundamental level, what defines you?
We live in a culture that promotes identity derived from victimhood. We are told that we are victims of censorship or discrimination or oppression. Sometimes, this really may be the case and, in such cases, it is OK to strive for equality. However, we must take care that we do not make equality an idol and begin to derive our identity primarily from what we could call our equality group. What I’m calling an equality group may consist of things such as our sex, our race, our political affiliations or ideologies, our income level, etcetera. We should find our identity, first and foremost, as a follower of Christ. When we find our identity elsewhere, that invariably leads to all sorts of problems.
We can classify these equality related problems in different ways. For purposes of this discussion, I would like to place them in two broad categories, related to the type of equality striven for. These categories are covetous equality and truth equality.
Let’s talk about what I’m calling covetous equality and let’s start by defining it. This would include things like equality of abilities, equality of men and women, equality of races, Equality of income, etcetera, basically equality between people. When we want to be equal with someone, we covet what they have, their abilities, their strengths, their money, their possessions, their status, their influence, their experiences.
Exodus 20
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
1 Thessalonians 5
16 Rejoice always,
17 pray without ceasing,
18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
19 Do not quench the Spirit.
When we are too focused on what others have, we are not focused enough on what we have, on what God has given us, and this lack of thankfulness limits the ability of the Spirit to work in our lives.
For example, let’s talk about equality of abilities. I am completely blind, in both eyes. This means that I am disabled which, by definition, means that my abilities are not equal to those of most other people because those other people have abilities that I lack. Although I am now doing what God has called me to do, previously, my blindness has made it much more difficult for me to get employment. Many social situations are more awkward and difficult for me than for most people who can see. In such a situation, it can be tempting to covet the abilities of others, their income derived from their jobs that they are able to get easily, relative to me, and their relative ease in social situations, as compared to me. It can be really easy to do that in a situation like mine and, in fact, I have done that for much of my life. No wait, that’s not quite right. It wasn’t really their abilities that I coveted. It was my disability, first and foremost, that defined me to many others. What I coveted was the perception that I thought others had of these fully able people, that they had strength, that they had real worth. That is very understandable, right? Perhaps but it is also wrong.
God has also given me many blessings and, if I dwell too much on the inequality caused by my disability, then I will not be sufficiently thankful for those blessings, which will hurt my walk with Christ, and I will not as effectively use those blessings to bring Him glory and to help Him to reach others. If I do focus on the blessings He has given me and I do allow Him to work powerfully through me to reach others, then I will empower others to have peace, regardless of perceived or actual inequality in this life, and, after this life, they will go to a place where equality will no longer be an issue.
Now, let’s talk about what I’m calling truth equality. This could refer to three basic things. Let’s discuss each one.
First, we are commonly told, even within Christian culture, that there is equality of sin, which is to say that no sin is worse than any other sin. This may be comforting to believe, because one can use this principle to make themselves feel better about their own sin. For example, someone who commits adultery might think that it is no worse than, say, over eating, because all sin is the same. However, equality of sin is not Scriptural. For more about that, see my article entitled “God’s Truth Concerning Sexual Sin”.
Second, our culture tells us that there is, or should be, equality of prospectives, which is to say that all truth is relative and there is no absolute truth. However, this is also not Scriptural and any society simply cannot function for long under such a delusion. For more about that, see my article entitled “God’s Constant Standard in an Unstable World”.
Third, and most damaging, we are taught that we can set our own truth, which, in effect, makes us equal with God, but only in our own minds. The consequences of this are disastrous. Consider the story of the fall from grace, when sin first entered the world.
Genesis 3
1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden;
3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.
Eve saw that the tree was desirable to make one wise. What wisdom was she thinking of? She and Adam talked to God every day. They could ask Him anything they wanted. This tree offered a different kind of wisdom. The Devil told her that, if she ate from the tree, she would be like God, knowing good from evil. He was telling her that she could set her own standard for right and wrong. Eating the fruit made Eve wise in her own eyes. Then she gave to Adam and he ate and, through that single act of disobedience, sin entered the world. Ultimately, that’s what all sin really comes down to, thinking we know better than God, or at least thinking we know as much as God, thinking that, in terms of knowledge, that we are equal to Him.
We most certainly are not equal to God but, when we think we are, we try to do things our way, rather than His way. Where has that gotten us? Nowhere that is good. For more about that, see my article entitled “Our Truth and The Way of Death”.
Equality cannot be our main goal. Being like Christ must be.
Matthew 6
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Proverbs 3
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
If we will seek to pursue the things of God and His righteousness, if we will do that in His way and not our way, then things will work out, in His way and in His time.
John 14
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Jesus, the Christ, is the way, the only way, the only way to Heaven and the only way to true and lasting peace. We must not find our primary identity as man or woman, as black or white, as liberal or conservative, as able or disabled. Seeking justice for these groups has its place but must not be our primary focus and not our primary source of identity. First and foremost, it is as followers of His that we must identify, not only through words but through actions, and it is His Truth which we must defend.
