No quid pro quo Christians
Quid pro quo means 鈥渁 favor or advantage granted or expected in return for something.鈥� Or something for something. You do something for me and I鈥檒l do something for you. Scratch my back and I鈥檒l scratch yours.
A lot of this terminology has been bandied about in political and business circles along the lines of, 鈥淲e will donate money to your campaign for favorable legislation towards our cause.鈥� Or, 鈥淚f you promote our products we will give you a discount.鈥� This falls short of bribing, which means: persuade (someone) to act in one鈥檚 favor, typically illegally or dishonestly, by a gift of money or other inducement.
There is nothing inherently wrong with quid pro quo in and of itself. While Christians may not engage in the bribery act of doing 鈥済ood鈥� things, do we enlist the quid pro quo mentality in our approach to our Faith? Don鈥檛 confuse this with the principle of sowing and reaping which is a big spiritual picture of either living for the flesh (wrong things) or the spirit (right living). This has to do with our motives of charity, giving, benevolence and character.
Do we give to get, or do we get to give? Do I go to church to gather with like-minded believers for a spiritual lift, or do I see it as putting my time in so God will reward me? Do I tithe because I understand it belongs to God, or because I want others to know how much I give so the pastor recognizes how financially valuable I am to the church?
Do we do 鈥済ood deeds鈥� with the expectancy that others will give us a 鈥渟hout out鈥�? Then we have certainly received our reward in full. Whatever happened to doing something nice, good, and respectable without having to have either a favor in return, a pat on the back, or some recognition?
Don鈥檛 get me wrong, it鈥檚 great to be recognized for doing a good job, performing above and beyond, or acts of heroism. My concern is, how many of us would do something benevolent or exceptional if we knew there would be no trophy, applause or benefit to us at all?
With the social media selfie generation and the 鈥渨e all get a participation trophy鈥� mentality, have some of us succumbed to the outlook that we weigh out what鈥檚 in it for me before we employ gestures of goodwill? How altruistic are we?
One great example belongs to The Good Samaritan in a parable told by Jesus in Luke 10:25-37. It is about a traveler who is stripped of clothing, beat up, and left mostly dead along the roadside. Some people come along and no one helps. Then a Samaritan person comes by, sees the victim, and gave him really expensive first aid (oil and wine), transported him on his Ferrari (if he would have had one) to the 5-Star Hilton (sort of). Then he paid the bill (meals included) and offered to pay whatever other expenses that may have incurred, like movie rentals if they would have had movies back then.
Jesus honors the Samaritan鈥檚 actions as the neighbor who had mercy. What is noble about this story is by all accounts the Good Samaritan fellow was not going to be paid back with anything except gratitude.
Can our faith walk with God be elevated to charitable purposes as his? Can we do well to and for others just and simply for the sake of doing something good? No quid pro quo Christians!
I am reminded in my soul and humbled by the irrefutable fact that God himself did the greatest good deed by dying for my/your/our sins. We are and were destitute and broken beyond acceptance and worth, but by his sacrifice on the cross for me/you/us, he did something for mankind that we couldn鈥檛 do for ourselves.
He didn鈥檛 have to, he wanted to. That is grace in action, doing something for someone that they can鈥檛 do for themselves. Our exploits in charity should be measured against God鈥檚 love. Our expectant reward should be treasure laid up in Heaven.
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