- Symptomatic Words: "Fair," "Unfair"

WORDS MEAN ONLY WHAT THE USER INTENDS them to mean, and I do not want to make any word “guilty by association.” Yet every mood has its characteristic verbal expression and when a given word is used we may with some accuracy assume that a certain mood is present also. For this reason words may be said to be symptomatic. They are not themselves health or disease, but they may well indicate the presence of either. They may also indicate what kind of disease the user is suffering from or the degree of health he or she enjoys.
This observation is the result of listening to religious people talk. After hearing some Christians talk for a while, one begins to sense the presence of health or disease in their souls. Certain words keep cropping up that tell us more about the speakers than they dream we know, and certainly more than they want us to know. Words are symptomatic.
One such word sometimes used among Christians is “fair,” or its unpleasant sister “unfair.” People use these words to describe the treatment accorded them by other people, and on the surface they would seem to be altogether innocent, even indispensable words. Nevertheless, they indicate an inner attitude that has no place among Christians. The man who refers to one or another act as being “unfair” to him is not a victorious man. He is inwardly defeated, and in self-defense he is appealing to the referee to note that he has been fouled. This gives him an alibi when they carry him out on a stretcher and saves his face while his bruises heal. He can always blame his defeat on the fact that he was treated unfairly by others.
Christians who understand the true meaning of the cross will never whine about being treated unfairly. Whether or not they are given fair treatment will never enter their heads. They know they have been called to follow Christ, and certainly Christ did not receive anything remotely approaching fair treatment from mankind. Right there lies the glory of the cross—that a Man suffered unfairly, was abused and maligned and crucified by people unworthy to breathe the same air with Him. Yet He did not open His mouth. Though reviled He did not return the hatred, and when He suffered, He did not threaten anyone. The thought of His shouting for fair play simply cannot be entertained by the reverent heart. His whole life was dedicated to restoring that which He had not taken away. Had He sat down and calculated how much He owed and then carefully paid no more, the whole moral universe would have collapsed.
The victorious Christian is not concerned with getting his or her fair share of things. Love is not self-seeking, and the odd thing is that the happy saint who opens his or her hand to be robbed at the will of others will always be found to be richer than those who do the robbing.
Sometimes, it is true, God allows His people to suffer unjudged wrongs and waits for the day of reckoning to balance the scales. But usually His judgments are not so long postponed. And even granted that Christians must suffer wrongs here below, if they take them in a good spirit and without complaint, they have conquered their enemy and won the fight. It is their first desire to be inwardly victorious, and if they are able to laugh and love and praise when they are being mistreated, they have attained their hearts’ desire. Who could ask for more?