In humility value others above yourselves. Philippians 2:3

Most Christians are aware that the law and God’s grace are at odds with each other. The best thing that often comes from attempting to follow the biblical law is that we learn that we can’t do it…leading us to surrender to the grace of God and find His yoke is easy and His burden light.

Entitlement worse in so many ways. It is more at odds with God’s grace than the law, and it doesn’t easily lead us to surrender to God’s grace, either. At its core, the Gospel is that we are not entitled to anything, except just punishment for our sins (Rom 3:23; 6:23). Entitlement rejects that truth.

As today’s verse shows, self-sacrifice stems from a humble heart. Entitlement is rooted in a prideful heart. We deceive ourselves into thinking we deserve better than we have: More love, success, comfort, accolades, more attention from people, and ultimately, we think we deserve God’s grace (which is an oxymoron).

Oh, yes… And we think we don’t deserve suffering, heartbreak, or correction. So when we do experience these things, we grow bitter, frustrated, and disturbed because we believe we’re entitled to a life that is more focused on ourselves and the people we love, and less focused on people we disagree with. We tacitly ignore that we deserve nothing. Apart from Jesus’ grace, we deserve condemnation.

Note: we are often better at covering up our spirit of entitlement in areas of what we deserve better than covering up our spirit of entitlement in areas of what we don’t deserve. Yet the presence of the latter always points to the former.

The disciples wrestled with entitlement many times, arguing about who was the greatest (who deserved the top position). But Jesus’ response to them was: “Let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves” (e.g. Luke 22:26).

This has created a tight-rope walk for our contemporary church culture because we have to portray selfless servanthood while walking in privilege… which when you come to think about it is a stressful situation to have to keep up (pride always is). False humility is a burden.

But Jesus, who promises that His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matt 11:29,30) is at work in us creating within us His own mind. If we let Him… if we ask Him to, He’ll fix our hearts so that we can in, humility, value others above ourselves.