Spiritually consumptive monochrome

"In the holy places and in every upbuilding view of life we see the thought that helps us fight the good fight with flesh and blood, with principalities and powers, to free ourselves so as to become equal before God. [...] Equality is only a divine law, the strife is only truthful, and the victory is only legitimate when we are, each of us, fighting for ourselves, with ourselves, and in ourselves - but not if we preemptively presume to make the whole world equal in an external sense, which would mean that all the rest would owe a debt of gratitude to those who had brought about this "external equality" and no longer be their equals. Those who make haste in such an uncomprehending and worldly way well really believe that one or another external set of circumstances is the true state of equality to which what is higher has been reduced and to which what is lower has been raised. But all it produces is confusion and self-contradiction, as if true equality could be expressed as such in anything external or could triumph or be preserved in anything external. This would be like arguing that a monochrome-painted surface is the true likeness that could represent the life, truth, peace, and harmony of all things, whereas, in fact, it tends to destroy everything in a spiritually consumptive uniformity."

--- Søren Kierkegaard, Giving and Receiving 

(a meditation on James 1:17-22)