All Men Are Created Equal

     In schools today, students are graded like produce.  If you take tests well you may be grade A and if not maybe grade C. The IRS will categorize into different graduated levels based on your income.  In India, people are sometimes viewed in different castes, and even in the west peoples lives are thought of as being more or less valuable based upon their abilities, achievements or backgrounds.  But the fact is that God is not a respecter of persons.  this means that God does not view one person as being more important than another based on his position.  

     This truth has application for how we view others.  People are prone to be intimidated in the presence of a dignitary.  A person might be intimidated in the presence of someone like Bill Gates, because he has been involved in so much and made so much money.  But, we should not be intimated by people of position in science or law or government or whatever else, because all men are created equal.  And for this reason we should also not idolize a personality in Christendom or someone of wealth lest we become respecters of persons.  Neither should we despise the weak or poor.  An elderly person who is close to the end of life may not have the same capabilities as one who is young but he is just as important and so is the child who has not been born.  Some think that abortion may be okay to save the life of the mother, but when considering difficult situations we must remember that each person created in the image of God is equally important.

     This should also affect the way we see ourselves.  Gideon and Saul seemed afraid to do what God desired for them because they thought that they were to low.  We can look at people of God in history or the Bible and think that they were somehow higher than us and we can't expect or do things like them but God has made us just as He did them and He will be just as faithful to us and will use us if we obey Him.  On the other hand we need to recognize that no matter who we think we are or what we have done we are not better or more important than anyone else.