Equality in Heaven

Equality-to be the same in value, is an interesting concept to examine.  Here on earth, our status as Americans greatly influences our idea of equality.  Our culture plays lip service to the idea that all men are created equal, but primarily values and worships those who are rich or famous.

The Bible tells us not to judge others, which infers a level of equality.  But does that equality extend to heaven?  When we die, Christians will clearly not be equal to non-believers, that is widely accepted.  But there are a number of passages in the Bible that support the idea that not everyone in heaven will be equal.  That kind of bothers me at a certain level, and doesn't seem "right" but I don't know why not.  If God rewards those who are seeking out him and his Kingdom, then that seems well justified.  Our American perspective probably makes this harder to accept than it would have been for those living under kings and nobles.  This may be why we rarely hear it expanded upon in modern books and sermons.

While at a certain essential level, all people are equal in God's eyes, we are obviously not completely equal in every way.  We clearly enter the fallen world in many different situations and statuses.  And then the results of our choices continue to make us all even less equal as life goes on.  So why would things suddenly reset when we die?  Admittedly all of our worldly possessions become an equal zero, but the characteristics of our soul still exist: maturity, patience, generosity, trust, love, etc.  If everything about us was reset to be the same, there would be little reason to be concerned about much in this life as long as we discovered "salvation" before we died.  But there are many verses from Jesus in the Gospels, and Paul's letters, as well as many other places throughout the Bible, that address how our actions and generosity store up treasures in heaven.  This places the idea of sanctification in an interesting light.  While no man will achieve perfection in this life, those little successes and failures do matter, both to God and to our eternal future.

I have been pondering this, and came up with an interesting illustration: it is like playing Settlers of Catan.  The game has two phases, the initial setup rounds, and then the series of turns that could go on forever if you set the set the victory score high enough.  The initial setup rounds are relatively short, (depending on who you play with) but have a strong influence on how the rest of the game plays out.  Everyone starts out looking at the same game board, and the only variable differentiating their opportunities is who goes first.  Where players decide to commit their initial assets is up to them, but they will have to live with the results of those decisions for the rest of the game.

In the same way, at a certain level, our life on earth is just the (relatively short) "setup phase" for eternity.  Our decisions in this life will affect that future, and not just whether we end up in heaven or hell.  Just because we will all be equal before God, doesn't mean that we will all be equal to each other.