Entitlement

“The customer is always right.” Ever heard that phrase? A .58 second search on the internet will tell you the phrase has been around since the early 20th century. When the saying first came out it brought accountability to an unfriendly marketplace. Businesses at the turn of the 1900’s were not the most honest institutions. Another popular saying was, “Buyer beware” So, safe to say, when 20th century businesses abided by the rule that the customer was always right, good things started happening for their company.

There is another side to customer service: the customer. It’s embarrassing to watch a rude customer manipulate a business by using the phrase, “Well, the customer is always right!” Of course, the phrase was never meant to become universal truth; it was meant to instill a positive attitude within employees and to protect customers. Today the phrase is abused and a whole other problem arises: entitlement.

Take a walk in public restaurants and stores today. Within minutes you will find a culture of entitlement. Consumers are entitled to a gift card or free item if the company makes a mistake. Businesses have created 24-hour stores, opened on Sundays and holidays, given zero interests on loans, and done all they can to satisfy an insatiable lot of entitled consumers. Companies cannot fix customer entitlement (although in some cases that would be hilarious), but as Christians, we can do our share of eradicating negative entitlement from our exchanges with others. It goes further than retail – we can believe we are entitled in other areas of our life: work, church, family, etc… Take a look at this proverb that makes an important observation about entitlement: “The poor use entreaties, but the rich answer roughly.” (Prov 18:23)

Entitled people talk as if they don’t need anyone else. They threaten to go somewhere else when things do not go their way. Well, here is the theological case for entitlement: We are all entitled! It says so in Ephesians 2:12, “Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” We were entitled to separation and alienation. We were strangers to promise. We were entitled to having no hope (for that truly is what we deserved). A question to ask ourselves: If that’s what we were entitled to, why don’t we use more entreaties and less rough answers? In fact, why don’t we use a different tone altogether because of the words in the very next verse, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” (Eph 2:13) And, “… but present yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life…” (Romans 6:13)

Yes, we WERE entitled to our own terrible, selfish selves, but God saved us from death and delivered us unto life eternal. There’s no entitlement in that. The Christian’s language should not be entitlement, but instead thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is the spiritual language and tone now, it will be the spiritual language and tone on the Judgement Day, and it will remain the spiritual language and tone of all eternity. Entitlement won’t last much longer.

What language are you and I speaking when we talk to our family, when we tip at a restaurant, and when we come together with our brothers and sisters in Christ?

May God continue to sanctify us. May he continue the great work of replacing our language of entitlement with words and actions of entreaty and thanksgiving.     John Kennedy, Mt. Juliet Church of Christ