The Moral Concept of “Fair”

There are many Gospel topics with meanings related to the concept of “Fair”, such as just, merciful, kind, understanding, loving, gracious, forgiving, equal etc. All of these appear in the scriptures in the context of actions, where God relates to His children.

Yet nowhere in the section of Study Helps of the scriptures was I able to find a reference to “Fair” except in the context of describing the beauty of an individual or a group of people.

Could it be that the human concept of “Fair” is simply not a part of the Divine Dictionary?

Let me illustrate the problem by comparing a present-day work situation with the parable Christ gave of the laborers in the vineyard.

Two men are hired by a company to do a certain job. Both are happy, they like the work situation, they like the fellow workers, they are happy with the salary until one discovers that his friend, doing the same job as he, earns twice as much. He is upset with the unfairness of his salary.

In a parable, Christ compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a householder who hires workers for his vineyard. He hires them at different times of day and in the evening pays each a penny as agreed.

The murmuring on each case is the result of selfishness. The main difference is the fact that the first situation is based on human values, the second relates to eternal values. The ultimate prize in the kingdom of Heaven is Eternal Life, a commodity which cannot be earned. Try as we might, we can never meet a divine standard on our own, “by grace are we saved after all we can do” (2 Nephi 25:23). Christ makes up for the difference between where we are, and where we need to be, for all who accept Him and His atoning sacrifice by making the sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit, with all that means in terms of repentance, love of God, love of fellow men and serving Him with all our heart, might, mind and strength, as well as accepting and obeying the principles and actions associated with saving Gospel ordinances.

The question of fairness never enters the picture. Paul, in the first epistle to the Corinthians lists the characteristics of charity, the pure love of Christ. Among them he states “Charity seeketh not her own”. In other words, if we have charity, we do not insist on receiving that, to which we are entitled, but rather step back to give an opportunity to someone in need.

The fact, of course is, that in view of eternal issues, the two are not that different. The Kingdom of Heaven represents the purpose of life, and unless we apply eternal standards to our earthly values, we will not have done “all we can do” and we will not “be saved by grace”.

In the spring General Conference of 1978 President Kimball suggested three fundamental things needed to build “Zion”. “First, we must eliminate the individual tendency to selfishness that snares the soul, shrinks the heart, and darkens the mind”. (General Welfare Session, General Conference April 1978, Becoming the pure in heart, Spencer W. Kimball)

If we truly learn to cease being selfish, we will begin to love our “neighbors” and a concern for fairness will no longer be an issue in our personal relations, racial or otherwise.

The Love of our Heavenly Father for His Children

The question arises: What must we do to qualify for God’s love?

Clearly that is an absurd question, since the scriptures tell us that God loves all of His children, and you and I are among His many children.

Because of His love for His children, His plan of Salvation included the opportunity of spiritual growth which is only possible with free choice coming through the blessing of agency. This in turn results in inevitable mistakes requiring payment. While we cannot make full payment, repentance is required to access our Father’s grace through the atonement of Jesus Christ. (John 3:16, 2Nephi 25:23)

The question, therefor, is not what can we do to earn His love, but rather: how can we think, feel, and behave to recognize His love for us? 

Let me illustrate this with an example from music. Consider a piano. A piano has many strings. Each string is made to vibrate by a hammer which hits the string when the key, attached to that hammer, is hit by the hammer when the key is depressed. When the key is depressed, a damper is lifted from that string, so only that string vibrates. The lowest frequency with which that string can vibrate corresponds to vibrational motion which looks like one loop, since the string is tied down between two fixed points. This looks a lot like a jump rope. When you wiggle the jump rope twice as fast you end up with two loops, with a point in the middle, that point doesn’t seem to move. Thus, when one side moves up, the other side moves down. The same double loop picture applies to the piano string when hit by the hammer, the string vibrates with frequencies corresponding to multiple loops. So, for the A in the middle of the piano, A4, we have a frequency of 440 Hz (cycles per second) and the string actually vibrates with all whole number multiples of that frequency, that is A5 = 2x440m, E6 = 3x440, A6 = 4x440, C#7 = 5x440, E7 = 6x440. These notes are called harmonics, and a string hit by a hammer will vibrate only with those frequencies. On one end of the string the string is fixed on the bridge, which transfers the vibration to the sound board which amplifies the sound so we can hear it. The lowest frequency is the loudest, but all the other frequencies are present. If I depress the A5 string so gently that the hammer does not hit the string, and then play the A4 string and then release it, I will be able to hear the A5 note, because the soundboard vibrations will make the A5 string vibrate. The same will happen for all the other harmonic notes. Only the notes whose frequencies are in a harmonic relationship with the note struck will be heard.

So, it is with us. If we want to feel the love of our Heavenly Father, we need to be in harmony with Him. We feel the love of our Heavenly Father when we truly love Him. How do we show Him that we really love Him? There are many ways. The following comments are certainly not exclusive, nor are they listed in order of importance. 

We need to be sincere in our prayers. While concerns occur repeatedly, they cannot be rote memory, they must come from the heart each time. Gratitude for the blessings of the gospel is always appropriate. Thanks for love by and to friends and family always helps us to understand and feel the love of our Heavenly Father. We need help in our repentance. Awareness of specific shortcomings, and a plea for assistance will help us to do better in the future. Any effort to relieve someone’s burden will bring us closer to our Heavenly Father, and we feel the warms of His love penetrate our souls.

As we experience that, we feel a calm peace fill our heart despite the turmoil of illness, injury, animosity, material loss, and all the ills the world can provide. He tells us that “. . . . in me ye might have peace. In the world you will have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

With my nearly 90 years of living I feel more joy associated with the love of my Heavenly Father, and the values of alternatives increasingly fade in significance.

Introductory Comments to Musings on Gospel Themes.

 Introductory Comments to Musings on Gospel Themes.

During my nearly 90 years of living, I have had many opportunities to be instructed, uplifted, and inspired by the scriptures. This began for me at about age 7, when the president of our Kiel branch sat my brother Klaus and me down, gave us a Book of Mormon, and the pamphlet wherein Joseph Smith tells his own story. He encouraged us to read those regularly, and then extracted a promise that we would do so, a promise which I gladly made and kept.

The occasion for that interview was a result of the war. Kiel was a major base of the German Navy with a large Submarine base. The banks of the harbor also housed many shipyards. Consequently, Kiel was a natural target for the RAF. With nightly bombing raids, the German government instituted a program to relocate children away from immediate danger. The “Kinderlandverschickung” sent Klaus and me to Ebermannstadt in northern Bavaria. Klaus was placed with the local director of the Bank, and I became a member of the Schruefer family, which lived on the cemetery, where they were hired by the city as caretakers and managers.

I had the Book of Mormon and the Joseph Smith story on my night stand next to my bed. An aunt came to visit. She was more Catholic than the Pope. She picked up the Joseph Smith story, rummaged through it and commented: “What a sweet story for Children”. I was furious, “That is not a story, that is the Truth”.

Later as a 15-year-old, I discovered 2 Ne 2 and marveled at the depth of the philosophical content in the context of the Gospel. Since then, a few years ago, I decided to read all standard works yearly. I counted the pages, divided that number by 365 and discovered that if I read 7 pages a day, I could easily read the entire canon of our scriptures by only reading each day for 15 minutes. Furthermore, that left some time for pondering. I followed that plan for three years, then the following years I decided to search for nuggets. Rather than reading carefully, word for word, I skimmed through the pages until a verse touched me, I wrote it down on a spread sheet along with some comments. In this manner I have gone through the Old Testament, the New Testament, the Book of Mormon, and I am now halfway through the Doctrine and Covenants. The result of this effort is added to the appendix.

The sole reason for writing these Blog Posts is to share the joy I have experienced as I have pondered the scriptures which have given purpose and direction to my life. 

The thoughts expressed in these posts are entirely my own. They have not been reviewed or edited by “Scriptorians”.  I alone am responsible for thoughts expressed. While I hope that principles discussed do not go counter to official Church position, no such inerrancy is claimed.

I hope that you will feel the warmth associated with attempts to draw near to our Savior as you study and ponder. It is my hope that these musings will stimulate you to do so.