Gratitude versus Entitlement

I want us to look at grace in these two ways.

This is in response to the many confused and mixed teachings on the same from many sides.

Imagine that you are from a very poor background yet are very bright.

A business or family is touched by your plight and decides to take care of your academics to the very end. You therefore are able to get to the very top and get a very good job, a job people only dream of.

What will happen to you? How will you behave toward others?

Two outcomes always stand out.

One asks this question, where could I be if they did not assist me?

The other will ask, what could they have done with their CSR if they did not find me?

One will feel so grateful that it will completely transform his whole outlook of life. He will become gracious. The other will feel like he did the benefactor a favor as (he thinks) there was no other bright child they could have found.

Take that to the spiritual realm and you will understand what I mean.

There are these believers who are proficient in showing that since Christ died for our sins, it is a sin to address sin in the believer. This means that they will not address sin in their congregations or even their lives since they have already been justified.

Incidentally you find them being so judgmental on people believing otherwise.

That is the entitlement I am talking about. They feel as if they did God a favor to receive His salvation and that He is duty bound to give them a free pass to do anything they wanted.

Like I wrote about Solomon recently, they believe that God owes them one.

Yet that is not the reason we hate and run away from sin. You see God did not have to love me. Christ did not have to die for my sins. He does not have to save me.

Yet He did.

And for that I am grateful; eternally grateful.

A recipient of grace cannot help but be graceful. Unless they think they qualified for it. And that is the entitlement I am talking about.

As usual I use Biblical stories.

Saul made David an outlaw because he had somehow convinced himself that he deserved being king. In other words the kingdom was his by right and not privilege or favor. Jonathan his son was aware of the heavenly mandate and so was gracious when he dealt with David.

We see the same with David when he is overthrown. He can afford to extend grace to the rebel and all the pillars and movers of the same.

All because he was confident that his kingdom was a gift from above.

He does not even seek to defend God’s promise to him concerning that kingdom.

Gratitude begets grace. Entitlement begets war to defend what one believes he owns. That is why anybody with a different opinion is treated as an enemy. They can defend their doctrine with blows.

I remember being ejected from the leadership of a Christian Union because I opposed a preacher preaching a contrary message. And I had approached him in private as Jesus said. The chairman and his team could not entertain us examining the scriptures as they feared confronting the error of their doctrinal positions.

That is the danger of entitlement. You must defend what you believe is rightfully yours, even if it was a gift given to whoever will. You could even offend the giver as you defend the gift.

How do you relate with those of an opposed doctrinal position to yours?

What about those who do not understand the Holy Spirit like you do?

What about those understanding what worship is differently from you?

Do you exhibit gratitude or entitlement? And are your opponents sinners saved by grace as you are or do you treat them as renegades?