Do the needs of the many, or the few, outweigh the needs of the one in the view of God?

                Now that I have your attention with the Star Trek quote. Let’s seriously think about things. In the United States, everyone was talking about how Hilary won the popular vote and how she should have won because that was the democratic way. By the way, the United States is not a democracy but a constitutional republic so that the little guy is protected from being ruled by the big cities, but that is starting to get off topic from where I want to be tonight. I don’t want to go terribly political here, but instead that I want to talk about how God can value us all as a people, but still be able to care about us all as individuals. Allow me to bring a few examples from scripture to mind to show that God is indeed capable of this duality.

                We can look three parables that Jesus taught during his ministry to show that God does care about the individual and will do everything in his power to seek and save the one. First, we can look at the parable of the lost coin (Luke 15:8-10). We have a woman that turns her house upside down to find one coin of ten that was lost. When she finds it, she rejoices. Jesus says that this kind of celebration is found in heaven when even one sinner repents. We see this paraphrased quite a lot with Pastors who will crumple and stomp a $20 bill and then ask who still wants this to show that people have an intrinsic value. The next parable is the parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15:1-7). We see a shepherd who leaves his flock behind to find a single lost lamb. When he finds it, he breaks its legs and brings it back to the herd. This method will train the sheep to follow the shepherd after it heals because the shepherd will feed and nurse the sheep back to health so that it will not leave on its own again. Not only does God care to find us, but he cares to feed and to teach us where it is spiritually safe for us so that we do not get ourselves into trouble. The last parable that I am going to bring up is the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). We have a son who takes his inheritance early and goes into the world to live his own way. When the money runs out and his “friends” leave him behind, he comes back to his father, who runs to meet him halfway to embrace him and welcome him home.

                So we see multiple examples from Jesus that show that the individual is indeed valued by God. We also have multiple examples in the bible where the group is honored, or brought down, by the actions of the leader, or even just by a member of the nation of Israel. God cares about each person’s actions, and will bring down a whole group to call out the actions of an individual. This appears to be at odds with the culture today, where everyone is allowed to do their own thing, so long as they don’t hurt anyone else. God has set a law for us to follow, and while Jesus gives us grace from the law, the law still has value and should be followed if not for any other reason than for spiritual safety from the accusations of Satan. I would pray that everyone has their identity as a child of God, and not as a part of some large organism. God values you as you are, and wants to save you from sin and bring you into something so much better in His kingdom. God bless you all and have a good rest of your day.