THE ILLUSION OF TREATING EVERYONE EQUALLY (AND THE DELUSION OF ENTITLEMENT)

THE ILLUSION OF TREATING EVERYONE EQUALLY (AND THE DELUSION OF ENTITLEMENT)

Some people like to speak loudly and forcefully about everyone being treated equally. This is an illusion. It is wrong to come in on the scene, into an organisation or situation or church or any space and start demanding to be treated the same way as those who have been there long before you. In reality, everybody cannot be treated equally. We are to treat everyone FAIRLY, not equally. Think about it.

You come into an organization and you want to have equal privileges with those who have been there ten years before you. You join the choir and then you start saying “It is as if there are some special people here o. We can all sing now! They are partial in this place. Treat everybody equally!” That is called an entitlement mentality. You want to reap from a relationship more than those who have sown and labored more than you have. And it is wrong. If we want to be sincere, in life nobody treats everybody EQUALLY.

• You will prostrate to greet a 70 year old person, you will NOT prostrate to greet a 13 year old.
• If your neighbor’s children have not paid their school fees and you want to help, you won’t divide your resources equally – you will pay your own child’s fees first.
• You won’t pay a surgeon who does a one-hour surgery on you the same amount you pay a hair dresser who does a two-hour hair job for you
• Mr. Equality – you do not allow everyone into your bedroom or even into your house, and you do not treat every woman the way you treat your wife!
• You may treat everyone with respect, but you will stand up when your boss walks into the office and remain seated if the cleaner walks in!
• You won’t give a beggar asking you for money on the streets the same amount you will give your family member in need, even though the beggar’s need might even be more.

Someone who is a Bible student may quickly want to mention the parable Jesus told in Matthew 20 of a man who hired workers to work at different hours of the day, and then at the close of work, paid them all the same. Please remember that there was an agreement right at the beginning of each work arrangement how much each would be paid. Do not forget that in the parable of the talents in Luke 19, those who made more profit were rewarded more. Don’t forget that Jesus had multitudes of disciples, and then he had the 70, and then He had the 12, and then the 3. There were things he told and did with only the 12, like the Last Supper. Such an important event, yet He invited only the 12 to be with Him. Likewise, He took only Peter, James, and John with Him to the mount of transfiguration. That would annoy some people today and they’ll complain “That is just unfair, I’m not coming to this church again. This Jesus is too partial”

If you think everybody should be treated equally, have you ever asked yourself why Jesus has not appeared to every believer? Because He has certainly appeared to some and it was always a glorious and unforgettable experience. Why does He not appear to every believer?

See, we are called to help people in need, and to respect everyone and treat all with honor; but treating everyone equally is just an illusion usually spurred on by the feeling of entitlement. The truth of the matter is, some people will always be deserving of more honor, more recognition, more attention, and more benefit than others. You should honor your MD or CEO more than other staff even though you honor all staff. You should respect your parents more than other elders in the society. You should love your wife more than any other woman, even though you have female friends. You cannot treat all men the way you treat your husband. He is your husband and occupies a special place. And if that offends anyone, so be it. They only need to look into their own lives to see that the illusion of equality is not the same as the reality of fairness.