Opus 2026-119: Equality Is Not Always Equitable

The Declaration of Independence declares that “all men are created equal.”  It is one of the great founding concepts of America.  It is also one of the most misunderstood.  People wonder how they could write such things when slavery was in existence.  They confuse equality before the law with egalitarian ideas.  They confuse equal opportunity with equal outcomes.

Some use this as an attack on the Christian culture that was ingrained in the Founding Fathers.  As usual it involves a lack of understanding and the inability to think beyond the basic three colors to purple and green.  I keep hearing people try to claim that the Bible is against slavery.  Not true.  Slavery was assumed as a part of life.  Why?  Because it was.  It existed, and was accepted in every culture of history before the modern era.  No one wanted to be a slave but they accepted that it existed.

The reason it was not impossible for the writers of the Declaration was that slavery existed within the legal structure.  It was covered.  Part of this was rooted in the Biblical acknowledgement of its place in society.  Some of the confusion was in the words of the ancients.  Take this Bible verse,

Proverbs 19:10 (KJV) Delight is not seemly for a fool; much less for a servant to have rule over princes.

The word for “servant” in both Hebrew and Greek can be translated either “servant” or “slave”.  The reason it covers both is that socially they were not that different.  What verse like this point out is that people are different.  They come in many flavors.  They make different choices.  Sometimes bad choices bring personal disaster.  Some people tend to make frequent bad choices.  Those people should not be in positions of leadership and will probably experience little success in life.

What brings this to the philosophy of the Founders is that in the eyes of God we all are created in His image.  There is a value in all human life.  You may have employees.  In a previous age you might have slaves.  They still are to be treated as more than just animals.  It is what makes the Christian West different from the rest of the world.

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-188: Agape/Chesed: Spiritual Now and Later

As I was reading through Proverbs 19 I came across this verse.

(Proverbs 19:22 KJV)  The desire of a man is his kindness: and a poor man is better than a liar.

I am writing my own Bible commentary as I read and reread scripture.  It will never be published except in places like this. 

Medley of Worship is sporadic.  I have another blog, Perpetual Proverbs, which is a daily discipline for me and part of my worship.  I write it about a month ahead which gives me time to reread, proofread and tweak it before it goes forth to history.  A line from yesterday’s post stood out to me.

“When we walk with Jesus, “kindness” (2617a) [chesed] begins to grow and be a part of our personality.  When we are not exhibiting it, we become dissatisfied with our performance and strive to improve.”

This made me think of how people grow in their spiritual walk with Jesus.  When we are saved we are not automatically remade in such a way as to make it impossible to stumble or make flat-out mistakes.  We are a work in process, but works with our heart made right.

When we are saved the Holy Spirit does a metamorphosis on our being.  It starts with a heart brought in tune with the love of God.  That is the “kindness” in this verse.  It is the Hebrew word chesed for the Greek agape, or love.  Our heart is changed.  Our habits die hard. 

So what happens is, the born again neophyte is going along as usual and becomes uncomfortable with behavior or choices that always seemed right before.  This is because he is different and the Holy Spirit is working with him.  This dissatisfaction spurs him to more change. 

I recently, on vacation, gained back some of the weight I had lost.  As big as I am you really can’t see the difference but little things began to tell me what was going on.  My watch was hard to get over my hand and was tight when I closed the clasp.  A coat the I wear infrequently did not button right.  Little things, but indications.  I am dissatisfied with what I am experiencing so I am changing.

Spiritual growth is like that.  In a way I have been remade in the image of Jesus.  In another way it is an ongoing process.  That is the source of the bottons we used to see:  PBPWM,GINFWMY.
Please be patient with me, God is not finished with me yet.

Happy spiritual growing to you.

homo unius libri