In the beginning, God said, “Let there be Light.” And there was Light. And God saw the Light and said it was good. And God divided the Light from the Darkness. Lucifer and his angels were cast out of heaven, and Lucifer was then given the name Satan, which means adversary.

Even so, through sowing doubt, Lucifer’s untested challenge had introduced controversy over how the order of all things should be. God had never been tested and proven. Therefore, God, willing to dispel all doubts in regards to the truth, humbled himself and proposed to allow evil to prosper for a set time that it might bring forth its evil fruit and expose itself for the evil it is—and also that his perfection in the beauty of his holiness might be made known—but not in heaven in the presence of his holiness.

Therefore, God prepared a place for Satan and his angels where they could practice their evil works, and he interned them in it. And so it is that those who, by God, are appointed to destruction are separated, and then, for a time, they are allowed to practice their own works until the fruit of their deeds becomes ripe and stands as a testimony against them.

Therefore, in the wisdom of God, a temporal theater was created to pit good against evil and make manifest the righteousness of God and the evil of everything that is outside of him. Thus, the world became a battleground and a theatrical stage.

Moreover, just as theatrical productions have heroes and villains, each involving various characters being played by different actors, so does God’s theater.

And whereas in the rendering of a story, there is inequality between characters—for in every act there are leading roles, supporting roles, and lesser characters—so also, our world contains every character type necessary for the fulfillment of all roles.

In God’s work, however, not only is the whole world a stage, but it is also the dressing room for eternity where we prepare our attire. We are either putting on white robes of righteousness or undressing our souls and making ourselves naked for all to see.

Everyone born has a role, some small, some great. Every role fulfills a purpose. Unlike the worldly pretenders who are given their parts to rehearse and lines to memorize, God has endowed us with free will. God has written the plot of the story, but each of us is given a choice to decide who we will be, how we will play our part, and whose side we will be on. We hardly memorize all of our lines, and we each develop our character as we go, but the Lord determines all outcomes.

Are you rich or poor, male or female, black, white, or something else? The categorization of different identities, actual and fallacious, is endless, but, truth be told, ultimately none of it matters.

Why?

We will all be judged by one thing, and one thing only. That is, how much do you love God? Love does no harm to the innocent. Therefore, love is the keeping of God’s commandments, for God is love, and his commandments are not grievous.

Seeing that we will not be judged by any worldly standard of measurement but by our love or lack thereof, worldly differences are rendered irrelevant in regards to eternity. For many renowned people who are now first shall be last, and the last shall be first.

Many in this world who have been given the leading roles on center stage—who chose to play a vile character speaking perverted lines—shall be cast down, while those whose lives may have seemed inconsequential—but who loved greatly—shall be exalted. Indeed, all are equal in that we have all been given a heart and a soul, and we each decide if we will give back all of our hearts and souls or embrace them for ourselves.

Hold to fairness and righteous judgment, but to esteem all as equivalent in this world is, in reality, inequality. To focus on equality where all things are not equal breeds hatred, jealousy, divisions, and every other evil. Small or great, everyone’s role is immensely important; more important to us is how we each perform our roles. Don’t envy the role of others or the place given to another. That was Lucifer’s folly, who imagined in his heart to be like the Most High.

We are not each other’s equal in all things, much less God’s equal in anything; he is far above us, higher than the heavens above the earth, but we can be like him if we love and obey him. It is written: “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.” “It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master and the servant as his lord.” (Matthew 10:24-25)

And again, “But we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2)