Do Smart, Hard-Working People Deserve to Make More Money? – The Baseline Scenario
This really got me to thinking. When the argument put forth in this article is set on the Biblical backdrop of God’s meticulous sovereignty over our lives as opposed to ‘chance’ or ‘luck’ (which does not exist) as asserted in the article; and when this argument is set on the backdrop of what man truly deserves for his rebellion against God (eternal conscious torment, not anything good, let alone wealth), I think James Kwak is certainly right in terms of people receiving a certain lot in life outside of their control, but it is owing purely to God’s good sovereign pleasure, not chance or luck. For who makes men to differ from others? Themselves or the grace of God or chance? “What have you that you did not receive?” (1 Cor. 4:7) “But by the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Cor. 15:10). All that we have has been given, as a gift.
It has been said of this parable by many teachers in our various camps that each of these instances are representative of different types of believers, the mature and immature, the unfruitful (yet saved) and the fruitful. Yet the text of Matthew 13:3-9 (the parable itself) and Matthew 13:18-23 (the explanation of the parable by Jesus Himself) negates this faulty understanding.