Entitlement Is Anti-Gratitude
Romans 4:4 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.
Entitlement: the fact of having a right to something, the belief that one is inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment.
Romans 4:4 confirms the dictionary's definition of entitlement. God agrees that a person is entitled to any contractual reward they work for.
An employee does not think in terms of gratitude for a paycheck on Friday for the hours they gave to the company to secure its success. They consider themselves owed that paycheck based on an agreement that they would work for a set hourly wage. They are being compensated for their knowledge, skill, experience, and ability based on a mutual benefit contract. All one needs to do to test this idea is withhold from the employee the check to which they feel entitled and see what happens.
There is only one utility provider in my city where I live. They do not show me the kind of gratitude one might expect if the payment I sent in was for them having provided me with nothing. I owe them for kilowatts of electricity, for gallons of clean water, and the removal of sewer water, or for cubic feet of natural gas. They might out of politeness say thank you on my bill but if I neglect to pay it those services will be terminated. They are entitled to payment or they will no longer feel the need to supply me with these products. They are entitled to payment so if they fail to deliver electricity, water, and natural gas to my home I do not pay them. It is a you scratch my back and I will scratch yours type of relationship based on entitlement. I am politely thankful to a certain degree, as are they. We are locked in a cycle of survival dependence that requires that we each bring something to the table.
There’s a fundamental difference between an authentic heartfelt gratitude and a socially polite thank you.
In matters of the Kingdom of Christ and His gospel, there are ways to present it that stir heartfelt gratitude, and there are ways to distort it that stir entitlement attitudes.
A work-based doctrine produces an entitlement attitude. It constructs the notion that one is owed something on the basis of their performance. Alternatively, the counterpart of this would be that they deserve to be neglected because they have not performed up to standard.
The doctrine of grace through faith does not feed into any type of entitlement attitude in that it magnifies the mercy and generosity of God, independently working on our behalf without us having done anything to deserve it.
God owes us nothing. However, although He owes us nothing, He has freely given us all things through His Son Jesus Christ. His kingdom operates on His generosity, as He is the source of all that is good. We should never think of Him as owing us the kindness and love that He so graciously gives to us.
