In my previous article number  359  I wrote about the dangerous cocktail that results when bitterness is added to victim mentality. I also mentioned that if another particular element was added, it would form a dangerous triumvirate that could influence the thinking and consequent behaviour of many in our world today. We can now look at what that third element is. It is the Sense of Entitlement that so many people in the world today seem to have adopted as an ongoing pattern of thinking. It is bad enough of itself but when added to the other two elements it can become a mixture that is quite explosive in human relationships.

First of all what is a sense of entitlement? On the Psychology Today website it was described as being an enduring personality trait, characterized by the belief that one deserves preferences and resources that others do not. It may appear sometimes that some folk are certainly “entitled” to have a sense of entitlement, because they have sacrificed a lot in becoming more learned or more skilled or have become more committed than others in their desire to make a greater personal contribution to the world.

Unfortunately however, others with a sense of entitlement expect to receive more recognition or rewards than they appear [humanly speaking] to be “entitled” to. Especially when they see themselves as victims of some external factor or factors, eg.,when they say something like, “Because of my background, I missed out on that, so I am entitled to  have it now.” If they have harboured resentment about having missed out on something and have become bitter about it, then the added sense of entitlement creates a deadly mixture or a negatively powerful triumvirate. That was seen recently in the USA where one activist virtually advocated looting with her reasoning something like this, “You don’t have it because of your impoverished background compared with others, who can simply walk in and buy it. You can’t do that, so go and take what you want.” Some folk would see that advice as encouraging envy leading to the theft of what is not rightfully theirs. But if there are no absolutes, no rules, no guidelines, then anything goes.

Such things appear to be happening throughout the world at the moment. It is anarchy being promoted as a means of achieving a more equitable society. Just think about all the protests that are going on in the world today. Many of them have leaders with an apparently good motivation and are seeking to bring about desirable change to correct known injustices. But not all. Many of them seem to be led by people who are targeting  groups who believe themselves to be disadvantaged, and trying to bring about change by force rather than by reason and peaceful means. Where is the wisdom in all this?

Fortunately the Lord has shown us in His word what is true wisdom and what is not. The following table show us what is God’s wisdom for how the world and its peoples should operate, contrasted with so-called wisdom that is entirely different and counterproductive for humankind. It is found in the Epistle of James chapter 3, verses 13 to 18. [Reading across from left to right.]

Above we have the Unholy Alliance or the Negatively Powerful Triumvirate.  Bitterness being added to a Victim Mentality and then crowned with a Sense of Entitlement. In brief, “I’m bitter because I’m a victim as I don’t have what you have. As a victim I am entitled to what you have and so I will take what is rightfully mine, in my opinion, from what you have. In my case, force and theft are justified as I attempt to right this wrong!”

 There are many other forms this triumvirate can take, but common to all of them is that they are all based on human wisdom, human ways of looking at situations and human ways of acting to deal with perceived inequalities and perceived unjust situations.  The danger is that in seeking to do something about them, we can be tempted to act in ways that are contrary to the character of God and opposed to His purposes for His world.

 Is There Another Way? Yes! God’s Way! It Is Not Only Better, But It Is The Only Way!

Jesus as the Messiah came to earth to be a victim. It had been prophesied centuries before that this would be His role as the Messiah. “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?” Isaiah 53:3-7.

 He was the willing victim, as the sins of the world were laid on Him and He bore the punishment for those sins on behalf of sinners. But He didn’t remain the victim, as He rose from the dead, the victor over sin, death and over the powers of darkness and evil.  St Paul referred to this as he encouraged his readers to be humble like Christ was in His ministry on earth, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves, 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Php 2:3-4.

 St Paul highlighted Christ’s example on how to live for others

People were to have the same attitude to others as Jesus had. Was His life characterised by the powerful triumvirate of Bitterness mixed with a victim mentality and crowned with a sense of entitlement? No! Quite the opposite! Php 2:5 “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

• He was a victim, but a willing victim to offer Himself for others as an atoning sacrifice for sin as part of God’s plan to save the world. Heb 9:14 ”how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”
• He was not bitter but joyful as the writer to the Hebrews commented, “Jesus, … who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Heb 12:2.
• He had no sense of entitlement. The whole world was His as its Creator, yet He emptied Himself of all to which He was entitled, all the privileges that were His as the Son of God, and He became a servant to others, for their betterment and for their salvation. He had said of His ministry, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mk 10:45.

 The power to change the world is not given by God to those who rely on the Unholy Triumvirate of Bitterness + Victim Mentality + A Sense of Entitlement based on human wisdom and which leads to inappropriate words and actions, often violent in nature.  It is given to those who trust in Jesus to whom all authority is given and who has become entitled to receive the adoration, praise and obedience of every living creature, “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Php 2:9-11. Only when Jesus is confessed as one’s Saviour, and submitted to as one’s Lord, is one in a position to be part of the healing processes that God sees as necessary for His world. For as James put it, “human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.” James 1:20.

Blog No.360. Posted on Thursday 25th June 2020