INCENTIVES VS. SENSE OF DUTY
SO YOU WANT ME TO CLEAN MY ROOM
A boy was asked by his mother
to clean his room. The boy responded,
“If I do it, will you give me five dollars?”
His mother thought to herself that this would be a great opportunity to teach her son a
wonderful lesson. She said to him, “Giving you five dollars would be a great
incentive for you to clean your room.” “How would you feel if I fed you and
provide for you only when you get straight A’s in school?” “That’s not fair
mom,” the boy replied. “You mean I have
to do something for you to love me?” With
tenderness in her voice, she replied “No, son but do you think it’s fair to clean your room only if I pay you?”
“No ma’am.” “Then go and clean your room and do it because it’s part of
your duty of the house. We provide you
food, clothing, and shelter and the least you can do is clean your room.” “Yes
ma’am,” the boy dejectedly replied.
WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?
Sadly, this little boy in
this story depicts the paradigm or mindset that our workforce, society and even what the Church is experiencing; performance
based on incentives. Due to a
workforce that now primarily performs based on incentives, Human Resource
departments of major corporations are challenged everyday of trying to minimize
employee attrition and maximize employee performance by creating new innovative
incentive packages. Overtime pay, stock
options, 401K plans, alternative work schedules, telecommuting, premium
insurance packages, family planning are just a few incentives that employers
are offering to satisfy employees with this new paradigm in the workforce. “I’ll do the job, if you increase my salary”
or “I’ll work past office hours, if you pay me overtime” are just a few axioms
used in today’s workforce that depicts incentive performance. In society, human relationships primarily
flourish based on incentives. “I’ll
show you love, if you do something special for me” is just one adage that many
uses to basically say I will perform if you give me an incentive to do so. This same paradigm has now affected The
Church because of Christians that will primarily perform or minister based on
incentives. “I’ll play the piano for
your church, if the church will pay me” or “I’ll preach only if I have a nice size crowd
to preach to” are just a few statements made by Christians that reflect this
growing and dangerous paradigm. What
motivates us to perform? Is it incentive
packages? Or is it a Sense of Duty?
LET’S CLEAR THE RECORD
Incentive is defined as
something or someone that has a tendency to incite or stimulate to action1. In other words, incentive is a stimulant that prompts one to
perform. I would like to clear the
record to say that it is not wrong to perform based on incentives. Our
society requires that we have an incentive for monetary pay be distributed to
us in the workforce so that we can provide for ourselves. In fact, we’ve become Christians due to an
incentive clause in the Bible that says “you will go to heaven someday if you
accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior”.
In other words, heaven has become an incentive to live the life of the
Christian. It’s not the performing
based on incentive that I’m against; it’s when a person performs ONLY if there
are incentives involved.
Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke
him: and if he repent, forgive him. And
if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn
again to thee, saying, I repent: thou shalt forgive him. And the apostles said unto the Lord,
Increase our faith. (Luke 17:3-5 KJV)
LORD IF YOU WANT ME TO PERFORM THEN GIVE ME AN
INCENTIVE
There are many biblical
truths that have been life changing for me. Several years ago I experienced one
of those life-changing moments when I discovered one of those Biblical truths
that is found in the Book of Luke Chapter 17 verses 3 – 10. In these passages of scripture, Jesus has
disclosed to his apostles that they should forgive offenders as often as the
offender asks for forgiveness (verses 3 and 4). The apostles’ response was “LORD, INCREASE OUR FAITH”. When looking at this response on the
surface, it appears that this was a good response. We should all want our faith to increase, right. Sure, but faith is not the problem. It is not faith that Jesus evaluated, it was
the fact that the apostles revealed what would motivate them to perform this
act by basically telling Jesus that they will not perform (forgiving offenders)
unless he gives them an incentive package (increased faith) to do so. Many Christians think they cannot perform
unless there is an incentive to do so.
“I’ll go to church, if the church INCREASE (maximize) its worship
service” or “I’ll sing in the choir, if the pastor INCREASE (maximize) the music
ministry.”
And the
Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this
sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea;
and it should obey you. (Luke 17:6 KJV)
PERFORMING BASED ON INCENTIVES HAS ITS WEAKNESS
What I love about Jesus is
that he commends us on our level of understanding before he introduces a higher
level concept. He tells his apostles,
“If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine
tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it
should obey you.”(verse 6). Jesus in
parabolic language tells us that incentive packages are very effective to
produce performance; however, it has its weaknesses too. One of its weaknesses is that we are often intimidated
by tasks that appears beyond abilities to perform and the only way the person
believes that they could perform the task is to have more incentive(i.e. more
training, more ability). Jesus reminds
us through this parable that it shouldn’t take much incentive to perform. He tells us that even a small mustard seed
is not intimidated by the size of the sycamine tree and doesn’t need much
incentive to begin to grow and eventually uproot the sycamine tree.
YOU HAVE TO WAIT AWHILE FOR THE INCENTIVE PACKAGE TO
BE ACTIVE
A second weakness is that it
may take time for the incentives to take place. Are you willing to wait even if it’s a long time before the
incentives occur? If you’re waiting for incentives to love your spouse, perform
on your job, or minister in your church; it may take time for the incentives to
take place. The mustard seed will not
uproot the sycamine tree overnight.
But
which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by
and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready
wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and
drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were
commanded him? I trow(think) not. So
likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you,
say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to
do.(Luke 17:7-10 KJV)
SENSE OF DUTY OR INCENTIVE
Jesus is now introducing his
apostles to a different paradigm or higher concept to motivate us to
perform. He is showing them that one
should not perform based on incentives, but because it is your duty. Jesus is using the most unlikeliest
character, a servant, to introduce such a profound yet simple truth. A servant doesn’t have the luxury to
perform based on incentive packages, he must do the job because it is his duty. By paraphrasing the text, A servant cannot
tell his master “if you take care of me I’ll then be able to take care of you”.
“I don’t think so”, the master replies, “you are not performing because I’ve
given you incentives, you are performing because you’re suppose to do it”. “Go and get the job done because it’s your
duty.”
CONCLUSION
Unfortunately, we are now
living in a social and religious culture that primarily performs solely on
incentives. It’s because of this
paradigm that many people transplant from job to job and from church to church
because the incentives were either exhausted or no longer enjoyable. The dynamics of relationships are more
complex than ever because very few people perform based on a sense of
duty. Wives and husbands are failing to
perform for the other because both are waiting for the emotional and
affectionate incentives from the other. Churches must now constantly create new
incentive packages to keep attendance from diminishing on Sunday morning. Shorter worship services, prosperity
teaching, positive thinking messages, and non-traditional church methods are
just a few incentives that churches now offer to optimize attendance. Pastors must now tone down their messages to
a diluted one because the pure Gospel is not an incentive by many Christians
now. Maybe it was the music, the pastor, or multiple ministries that gave you an incentive to join a church, but hopefully you now have a sense of duty to keep you at that church. Perhaps it was the physical attraction that gave you an incentive to marry your spouse, but hopefully you now have a sense of duty towards the other to keep them. Jesus has made it clear that incentive packages are effective to produce
performance; however, Christians should be progressing from an incentive-based
paradigm to a sense of duty-based one to remain faithful. Basically
Jesus was telling his apostles it is NOT more faith that you need, it is more faithfulness that's needed, a commodity that is desperately missing in the Body Of
Christ. If one would have this outlook,
it would transform marriages, the workforce, and most importantly our Churches. Now tell me, will you perform only if you have incentives or will you perform because its your duty to do so?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
OTHER WRITINGS
http://www.fcfa1.org/wtcbombings.html
CHURCH WEBSITE: