The kingdom is filled with both inequality and equality. In some ways, all citizens share equally. In others distinctions and destinies are unequal, by human standards of measurement. The kingdom functions in abundance, so having equal shares so no one has
“too much” or “has some of mine” is foreign to kingdom culture.
Peter says, for example, that husbands should live with their wives with knowledge that they are weaker vessels but equal heirs of the grace of life. Unequal. Equal. Being the weaker vessel doesn’t create inequality in inheritance, only designates the role, responsibility, and relationship dynamics of gender.
Jesus says seed sown in good ground produces unequally in terms of harvest, some thirty, some sixty, some one hundred. Good ground. Different harvest. Equal. Unequal.
Paul says Holy Spirit distributes gifts to whomever He decides. Are all apostles? Are all prophets. Are all teachers? Paul clarifies that gifts of the Spirit are not distributed equally but all have gifts. All have some leadership but all are not equal in leadership. Equal. Unequal.
Beware the tendency to assume that equality is justice. It is not. Equality of life and liberty? Yes. Equality of role, responsibility? No. Equality of opportunity to receive seed and produce harvest? Yes. Equality of harvest? No.
The enemy leverages envy within the kingdom to press people toward demands of equality in things God has no interest in making equal. The phrase “all things being equal” doesn’t enter into His equations. Things are not equal. By design. Such equality would destroy variety, undermine destiny, produce uniformity at the expense identity.
Jesus tells the story of the man who hired workers to work the whole day for a certain wage. Later, the man hired people to work various parts of the day, some working only three hours. All were paid the same wage. Of course, those who worked all day had a fit about it! “We worked all day and you paid everyone the same.”
The man replied, “I paid you what we agreed upon, so what does it matter what I decide to pay others?”
Such thinking would cause the politics of envy to call for a strike and straighten out the man. To what end? To force him to pay the others less? This is the focus of amazing amounts of energy in many people’s minds. They are more concerned that no one else gets something than they are about enjoying what they have. Such thinking leads eventually and inevitably to less for everyone.
Some aspect of this thinking creeps into the kingdom now and then, the idea that no one should have too much authority, too many gifts, too much leadership, too much return on investment, that every believer should be equal at the expense of variety, identity, strategy, and destiny. Such thinking always leads eventually and inevitably to less for everyone because a system must be installed to govern the measurements and enforcements of “equality.”
God has designed His kingdom with both equality and inequality. On purpose. His purpose. In you. In the whole kingdom. He is God, so He can do whatever He wants. Relax. Trust. Rejoice.
