The Balancing Act

It's amazing the contrasts that the bible uses, and it seems like a good way to sum it up is balance that can only be achieved in God. Today I realized 2 aspects of this, and would like to hit them one at a time. Personal responsibility vs equality. These are two things that don't mesh well in our modern society, This almost Marxist view that everyone is equal in every way and deserves equal treatment combined with an almost capitalist view that your responsible for your own mistakes. It's strange really. I'm to care for the poor, even if they made themselves poor. I'm to care for the fatherless even though I'm not the man who ran out on the child. I was raised to believe that people were responsible to do right, and if they didn't then they should be made too. If a man bet everything on the stock market and lost it all it was his fault, and his job too make it back. If a father ran out on his child then he should be forced by society to take on the responsibility of father hood or be an outcast. If someone is poor, the work another job. I have this view that people are responsible for changing their own things, and when it fails, they are responsible for the failure. Yet I'm called to meet people at the same level that Christ met me. That means taking them as they are, forgiving everything, and continuing to forgive. Yet a part of me wants to see justice. After all if their to be held accountable then saying go and sin no more wont do it. Many times I forget how small and insignificant I am, and that it's God in control. That it's sin that makes us all equal in debt and God that holds us accountable. That we truly are all the same. Ryan uses the phrase Imago Dei, or image of God. We are all made in the image of God, and it's only in God that true equality, and true justice exist and are found. The answer isn't a political belief, or money, or anything we can do.... The only answer that truly makes a difference is God.