Bible Reading: Revelation 15:1-4
Great and marvelous are your actions, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, 0 King of the nations. Revelation 15:3
WHAT DO THE following people have in common?
• A black-robed judge
• A baseball umpire
• A police officer
• A football referee in a black-and-white striped shirt
• A schoolteacher
Yes, they all have jobs; what else? OK, so they all have brains. Anything else?
Each of those people is expected to be fair. A judge who isn’t fair isn’t a very good judge, right? An umpire who treats one team differently from another is going to have to deal with a lot of angry players and fans. A police officer who only arrests people he doesn’t like isn’t doing a very good job. And nobody likes a referee who calls complete passes incomplete or a teacher who gives bad grades to girls and good grades only to boys!
We expect judges and schoolteachers to be fair, right? Because fairness is right, right? That’s why a good judge is a fair judge; an unfair teacher is a poor teacher. But why is fairness right?
Because God is fair.
Fairness isn’t right because you say it’s right or because your friend says it’s right. It’s not right even because your parents and teachers say it’s right or because the government has decided it’s right. Fairness is right for one reason and one reason only: God is fair.
Psalm 9:16 says, “The Lord is known for his justice.” Isaiah 30:18 says, “The Lord is a God of justice” (NIV). And the saints in heaven sing a song that says, “Great and marvelous are your actions, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, 0 King of the nations” (Revelation 15:3).
God is just; it’s part of his nature to be fair. That’s why he values justice. And that’s why he commands us to be fair. When we’re fair with others, we’re like our God, who is “just and righteous, whose love is unfailing” (Jeremiah 9:24).
REFLECT: Why does God command justice? Why does God value justice? How do you know that God is fair? How would you complete the following statements?
“When others treat me unfairly, I________________.”
“When others treat me fairly, I_________________.”
“When I treat someone unfairly, I________________.”
“When I treat someone fairly, I_______________.”
PRAY: Pray (or sing) the words of Revelation 15:3-4, the song the saints in heaven sing, as a prayer of praise to God.
