What exactly is privilege?

You may have heard the expression the "upside-down gospel."  What exactly does this mean? The gospel is counter-intuitive. We are told to become weak is to be strong, to find your life you must lose it and to be exalted you must be humbled. The meek, not the demanding, inherit the earth. This cuts against common sense and everything within us. 

But the gospel is what we are called to build our lives on by Christ himself, no matter who we are or what ethnic group we belong to. Why do I raise the race question? Because the current racial tension is due to men ignoring the essence of the gospel. To self identify or identify others by a certain race is divisive - and I would suggest often intentionally so. Our true identity can only be found in a relationship of perfect love with our Creator, not some group. Race in today's climate is a destructive label unless in reference to the human race. Then it is uniting. We are all made in the image of God and therefore all equal in the eyes of God. And if we are in Christ and under His rule-kingdom, we are brothers and sisters in Christ. This is our identity, not the pigment of our skin regardless of what others think, say, or do to us. 

In God's economy, the gospel takes privilege - used in the present political sense - and puts it on its head. What is that message? In God's gospel ruled kingdom, the 1st shall be last and the last shall be 1st. This says that those who are last - from the

world's perspective - are more privileged than those who are first with all their earthly advantages and benefits. This is not the message we are given by the world, more so now than ever. 

We must be careful not to forget God's ways are not ours, and ours are not his. Man seeks to understand his world independent of infinite wisdom, i.e. God's wisdom, expressed above. Why? Because he seeks to be his own god and believes his own independent understanding of himself and the world around him is right and sufficient, i.e. it alone can lead him to the truth. But only God is infinite in knowledge and ¹in every other way; man is not. Finite man can never gain access to the infinite on his own. He needs help from someone far greater than himself i.e. someone infinite in knowledge and wisdom. The finite - you and I - can not reach up and bring the Infinite down to us. The Infinite must come down and reveal Himself. And He did in Christ! Yet man rejects God's Son and the wisdom and revelation he offers.

To operate contrary to our design - i.e. to ignore our limits - is foolish. This is like trying to care for a delicate plant or rare animal or operate a complex machine to the maximum of its potential and ignore the manual that tells us how to do so. Man can observe himself and the world around him and definitely discover certain things. But can he discover all that needs to be known unaided? Is there a difference between facts and truth? 

There is. Let me illustrate.

We can all see the sun - unless we are literally blind, but even then we can feel its warmth. No one would dispute there is something bright or warm in the sky. Over time, with enough study, we can discover the specifics of how the sun operates; all are important facts, they are just not all the "facts." 

As hard as science tries, science has never been able to answer the why question. This is different from the "how" questions. Why is the sun there? Why are we here to observe it and experience the benefits that come from it? We may try to find the answer to the why questions through science but discovering the facts of what is, is the role of science, why something exists is not. To this day science has not concluded with certainty why anything is, only how it works. The why must be found elsewhere. We must go to the Designers manual and see what He says about the why of His creation. 

There is man's way of seeing and doing things. Depending on one's worldview, those ways could be the polar opposite of each other. Why? Because man is limited in his understanding if left only to his own reasoning and finiteness i.e. we are not all knowing, all powerful, everywhere present of all loving. Hence all the tension in the world today. Everyone thinks their knowledge is absolute, independent of the source of absolute knowledge. There is usually ²some truth in all views, mixed in with some fallacy, some being more or less true than others. Who decides what is true and who is the arbitrator when these differences create great tension and conflict? Man's sole reliance on his own reasoning and resources in determining truth instead of confiding in the Source of all wisdom and truth will not settle a matter, only inflame it.

When there are opposing views, the truth often lies somewhere in the midst of the tension of those views. Both sides are seeing truth the other is not. Then there is God's way or a 3rd way if you will. The way of infinite knowledge. The way none of us as finite beings, can see unless God reveals it. And who does he reveal himself to? Those who know they need to see it-Him i.e. those humble enough to recognize that along i.e. without God who is infinite, man can not see all he needs to see to know with certainty his understanding of the world is correct (remember the why questions). 

If we are to resolve the tensions of differing views, we must recognize our limitations and acknowledge true understanding and correct view of the world must come outside us and from the Source of infinite knowledge, love, life, and all things. To see this, we must humble ourselves and recognize we need to see more than we need to be seen or heard. This same source tells us the 1st shall be last and the last shall be 1st and to find our life we must first lose it.

 

So to bring this back around to privilege, those who complain the most about someone being privileged over them or another is to miss the whole gospel message. If one is a believer they will rejoice in their low standing not be envious of what they think is someone else's high standing. 

For a further discussion on strength in weakness, click here.

For a further discussion on identity politics, click here. 

For a further discussion on the necessity of forgiveness, click here. 

For a further discussion on values, culture and racism click here. 

For a discussion on my personal experience of discrimination, click here. 

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*All the "omni's" Omniscience, Omnipotence, Omnipresence and Omni benevolence. Or to say it more practically, all-wise and all-knowing, all-powerful, everywhere present and all good and loving.

**We live in a world of design where we can observe how things operate a particular way. And that is because there is design and a designer who created them to do so. Though we can observe this design and discover to some extent how things operate - some truth about their operation - we can never grasp the full purpose of creations design without acknowledging the Creator who designed them. 

And what is that purpose? All things are from, through, and to God. To him be the glory i.e. He must be recognized as the Creator and sustainer of all things if we are to see them as they truly are.