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Breaking our Entitlement
There is a lot of talk about how “entitled” people are today. People speak of “self-care” as if focusing on yourself is a virtue. After all, as the saying goes, “I can’t love others until I learn to love myself.” As if learning to love yourself is akin to understanding quantum physics or something. Every toddler I have ever met seems to carry an advanced degree in loving themselves, so I have never taken this modern axiom very seriously.
Selfishness is not new, and Jesus pushed back hard against it. Today, I will look at a story that is extremely challenging to the modern mind; it reminds us that we are servants of God. Many years ago, a man who shaped my early spiritual life made this observation - with a wink. He said, “Christians like to think of themselves as servants until someone treats them like one.” The story for today goes to the heart of our entitlement by explaining the true heart of a servant. It comes to us through Luke.
“Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep
say to him when he has come in from the field,
‘Come at once and recline at table’?
Will he not rather say to him,
‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly,
and serve me while I eat and drink,
and afterward you will eat and drink’?
Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded?
So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say,
‘We are unworthy servants;
we have only done what was our duty.’”
Luke 17:7-10 [ESV]
This passage speaks of our duty to our Master, to God. As modern Americans, we find the idea of being servants to another or duty-bound to serve repugnant. We imagine ourselves as autonomous and independent. This notion is absurd, of course, but it’s how we prefer to think of ourselves. In truth, we are bound financially and socially to many things that demand our efforts and attention, or we will be destitute and outcasts in society. In this passage, Jesus uses an example from his world to illustrate a truth that not even his disciples fully understood.
Jesus sets the scene for this story around the relationship between a bondservant and his Master. These are terms no American is familiar with or comfortable with. No one wants to be owned by another, and no one is comfortable with the idea of being owned by God. Too often, modern Christianity speaks of God as someone who exists to serve us.
The situation Jesus describes is a type of servitude often entered into because of debt. One would find themselves in financial trouble and sell themselves into slavery to avoid complete destitution. To understand this story, we need to consider our condition objectively. We were all hopelessly in debt because of our rebellion and sin. We were enslaved to sin, and God, in His mercy, bought us back. So, we are doubly indebted to God. He is our creator, sustainer, master, and now He is also our redeemer. These facts beg the question of how we should respond to what God asks of us. Paul gives us a bit of perspective on this in Romans:
What then?
Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace?
By no means!
Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves,
you are slaves of the one whom you obey,
either of sin,
which leads to death,
or of obedience,
which leads to righteousness?
But thanks be to God,
that you who were once slaves of sin
have become obedient from the heart
to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
and, having been set free from sin,
have become slaves of righteousness.
I am speaking in human terms,
because of your natural limitations.
For just as you once presented your members as slaves
to impurity and to lawlessness
leading to more lawlessness,
so now present your members as slaves to righteousness
leading to sanctification.
Romans 6:15-19 [ESV]
If you are like me, you hear a voice in the back of your mind saying, “Wait a minute, we are sons of God now, not slaves!” This is true, but Jesus has taught us an even deeper way—the way of love, the way of the cross, the way of service.
Consider this description of the heart of the eternal Son of God from Philippians.
Have this mind among yourselves,
which is yours in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,
being born in the likeness of men.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient
to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him
the name that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:5-11 [ESV]
The eternal Son of God did not cling to his position and privilege but set it aside to become one of us. He took on human form to serve us and give his life for us.
Jesus is our example.
We have been redeemed and brought into God’s family as sons and heirs, but not to rule, at least not yet. Like Jesus, we must set that aside and become servants of God and others in love.
And now for the hard part, the part Jesus described in the first story: When we finish serving, we recognize it is nothing more than our duty. We have nothing that God has not first given us by His grace, and our service earns us nothing from God. God already loves us and has given us everything in Christ. God will also exalt us in due time. But for now, we, like Jesus, exist to serve God and others as we bring the love of God to others. Let’s go back to Paul for another perspective on this:
For the love of Christ controls us,
because we have concluded this:
that one has died for all, therefore all have died;
and he died for all, that those who live
might no longer live for themselves
but for him who for their sake died
and was raised.
2 Cor 5:14-15 [ESV]
Putting all of this together is not easy. The New Testament uses many different stories and metaphors to describe our old lives and our new relationship with God through Jesus. We are all sons and heirs(both male and female), but we never outgrow our subservience to God. God will always be greater than us, and we will always be in His debt by nature and necessity. God in Jesus condescended to us to give us an example of His love. His love is benefiting others at our expense. The freedom and adoption we enjoy in Christ came at a high cost to God. As His sons and heirs, we must model that love in our lives. Let’s allow the love we celebrated during Passion Week to flow through us to others this week.
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
So then, brothers, we are debtors,
not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
For if you live according to the flesh you will die,
but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,
you will live.
For all who are led by the Spirit of God
are sons of God.
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,
but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons,
by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
Romans 8:11-15 [ESV]
Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe
Our service earns us nothing with God. His grace flows from his love to us, and our service to others flows from our love for Him. We will always be unworthy servants in the sense that we deserve none of the blessings He has shown us. We don’t deserve them and can’t earn them, but we can serve Him in gratitude by loving others. And when we use the gifts he has given us to love and serve others, remember, we have not done anything heroic. We are just doing what we have been asked.
Have a great week!
Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe
View all episodes
By Tom PossinThere is a lot of talk about how “entitled” people are today. People speak of “self-care” as if focusing on yourself is a virtue. After all, as the saying goes, “I can’t love others until I learn to love myself.” As if learning to love yourself is akin to understanding quantum physics or something. Every toddler I have ever met seems to carry an advanced degree in loving themselves, so I have never taken this modern axiom very seriously.
Selfishness is not new, and Jesus pushed back hard against it. Today, I will look at a story that is extremely challenging to the modern mind; it reminds us that we are servants of God. Many years ago, a man who shaped my early spiritual life made this observation - with a wink. He said, “Christians like to think of themselves as servants until someone treats them like one.” The story for today goes to the heart of our entitlement by explaining the true heart of a servant. It comes to us through Luke.
“Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep
say to him when he has come in from the field,
‘Come at once and recline at table’?
Will he not rather say to him,
‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly,
and serve me while I eat and drink,
and afterward you will eat and drink’?
Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded?
So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say,
‘We are unworthy servants;
we have only done what was our duty.’”
Luke 17:7-10 [ESV]
This passage speaks of our duty to our Master, to God. As modern Americans, we find the idea of being servants to another or duty-bound to serve repugnant. We imagine ourselves as autonomous and independent. This notion is absurd, of course, but it’s how we prefer to think of ourselves. In truth, we are bound financially and socially to many things that demand our efforts and attention, or we will be destitute and outcasts in society. In this passage, Jesus uses an example from his world to illustrate a truth that not even his disciples fully understood.
Jesus sets the scene for this story around the relationship between a bondservant and his Master. These are terms no American is familiar with or comfortable with. No one wants to be owned by another, and no one is comfortable with the idea of being owned by God. Too often, modern Christianity speaks of God as someone who exists to serve us.
The situation Jesus describes is a type of servitude often entered into because of debt. One would find themselves in financial trouble and sell themselves into slavery to avoid complete destitution. To understand this story, we need to consider our condition objectively. We were all hopelessly in debt because of our rebellion and sin. We were enslaved to sin, and God, in His mercy, bought us back. So, we are doubly indebted to God. He is our creator, sustainer, master, and now He is also our redeemer. These facts beg the question of how we should respond to what God asks of us. Paul gives us a bit of perspective on this in Romans:
What then?
Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace?
By no means!
Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves,
you are slaves of the one whom you obey,
either of sin,
which leads to death,
or of obedience,
which leads to righteousness?
But thanks be to God,
that you who were once slaves of sin
have become obedient from the heart
to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
and, having been set free from sin,
have become slaves of righteousness.
I am speaking in human terms,
because of your natural limitations.
For just as you once presented your members as slaves
to impurity and to lawlessness
leading to more lawlessness,
so now present your members as slaves to righteousness
leading to sanctification.
Romans 6:15-19 [ESV]
If you are like me, you hear a voice in the back of your mind saying, “Wait a minute, we are sons of God now, not slaves!” This is true, but Jesus has taught us an even deeper way—the way of love, the way of the cross, the way of service.
Consider this description of the heart of the eternal Son of God from Philippians.
Have this mind among yourselves,
which is yours in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,
being born in the likeness of men.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself by becoming obedient
to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him
the name that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:5-11 [ESV]
The eternal Son of God did not cling to his position and privilege but set it aside to become one of us. He took on human form to serve us and give his life for us.
Jesus is our example.
We have been redeemed and brought into God’s family as sons and heirs, but not to rule, at least not yet. Like Jesus, we must set that aside and become servants of God and others in love.
And now for the hard part, the part Jesus described in the first story: When we finish serving, we recognize it is nothing more than our duty. We have nothing that God has not first given us by His grace, and our service earns us nothing from God. God already loves us and has given us everything in Christ. God will also exalt us in due time. But for now, we, like Jesus, exist to serve God and others as we bring the love of God to others. Let’s go back to Paul for another perspective on this:
For the love of Christ controls us,
because we have concluded this:
that one has died for all, therefore all have died;
and he died for all, that those who live
might no longer live for themselves
but for him who for their sake died
and was raised.
2 Cor 5:14-15 [ESV]
Putting all of this together is not easy. The New Testament uses many different stories and metaphors to describe our old lives and our new relationship with God through Jesus. We are all sons and heirs(both male and female), but we never outgrow our subservience to God. God will always be greater than us, and we will always be in His debt by nature and necessity. God in Jesus condescended to us to give us an example of His love. His love is benefiting others at our expense. The freedom and adoption we enjoy in Christ came at a high cost to God. As His sons and heirs, we must model that love in our lives. Let’s allow the love we celebrated during Passion Week to flow through us to others this week.
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
So then, brothers, we are debtors,
not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
For if you live according to the flesh you will die,
but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,
you will live.
For all who are led by the Spirit of God
are sons of God.
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,
but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons,
by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
Romans 8:11-15 [ESV]
Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe
Our service earns us nothing with God. His grace flows from his love to us, and our service to others flows from our love for Him. We will always be unworthy servants in the sense that we deserve none of the blessings He has shown us. We don’t deserve them and can’t earn them, but we can serve Him in gratitude by loving others. And when we use the gifts he has given us to love and serve others, remember, we have not done anything heroic. We are just doing what we have been asked.
Have a great week!
Get full access to On walking the Way at tompossin.substack.com/subscribe