WORD STUDIES

The word of the day is “deserve”

Why study “deserve” at church?

Because deservedness is both a secular and a faith issue.

Who deserves what in this world? 1. From a theological perspective, humankind deserves judgment for its sinfulness. 2. From a Christian perspective, salvation is undeserved because God freely gives it as a matter of grace. a. This is the one crucial promise that God has made to humankind. b. The only condition is that we repent of our sins and profess belief in Jesus as savior. c. Jesus urged us not to be anxious about tomorrow, but we are not promised material well-being even if we do renounce our sinful ways and profess belief. 3. Otherwise, deservedness is a human and secular concept, not a condition imputed or adjudicated by the divine.

Virtually all human perceptions of deservedness involve questions of judgment, and hence are highly subjective. Here are some examples: 1. What score does this student deserve on his paper? 2. What raise does that employee deserve? 3. Which candidate deserves my vote? 4. What performance does the buyer deserve from this product that I can sell? 5. What level of service does the customer deserve from my firm?

Often the venue for judgment about deserving is expressed in the first person: 1. I deserve an A on my paper. 2. I deserve a raise. 3. I deserve value commensurate with the price that I paid for the product. 4. I deserve good service from your company. 5. I did not deserve the response that I got from my boss/spouse/child.

One context for the word "deserve" is the material and hence the economic world of work and reward for one's labors: 1. Work is the crucial linkage between eating and living. 2. In ancient times, one worked to produce or capture what was to be consumed. 3. In the modern money-using world, work generates the income that can be expended to acquire the consumables that are essential to survival. 4. Those who work may be said to deserve the fruits of their labor that enable their very survival.

There are only three ways to acquire material possessions: to work for them, to be given them, or to simply take them. 1. The material possessions acquired by the "sweat of one's brow" are regarded by most persons as deserved. 2. A donor may reach the judgment that the recipient deserves his beneficence. 3. But taking something without an appropriate exchange of value ( quid pro quo ) has come to be regarded as theft.

To the criminal mind: 1. Simply wanting something may be adequate justification for taking it. 2. Deservedness may play no part in the decision thought process. 3. The criminal may presume that he deserves what he takes even if he has not worked to establish deservedness. 4. Where life is in jeopardy for want of sustenance, can need override deservedness as a justification for taking?

Some troubling questions: 1. Are those who are unable to work undeserving of sustenance? 2. How about those who choose not to work? 3. What of those who can so arrange their affairs as to become dependent upon people who generate income sufficient to support? 4. And what of a society that so arranges its affairs as to collect portions of income from all who are able and willing to work for redistribution to those who are unable or unwilling to work?

More troubling questions: 5. Does the socialization of the consumption process break the linkage between working and eating, and thereby tend to impair the incentive to work? 6. Do all who are born deserve to live simply by virtue of the facts of their births? 7. Are dependent young deserving of support? 8. Are marriage partners deserving of support?

Yet more troubling questions: 9. Does a partner who lives with another without working deserve support? 10. Are the infirm and the physically and intellectually incapable deserving of support? 11. What do the elderly deserve in the way of support? 12. Do people who save during their working lives deserve to use their savings to support themselves during retirement?

Questions in regard to a social security system such as that in the U.S., i.e., the OASDHI (Old Age, Survivors, Disability, and Health Insurance) system: 1. Does it enabled dependency by socializing care for the infirm, the incapable, and the elderly. 2. Does it weaken the work incentive structure of American society by breaking the linkage between working and eating? 3. What are the deservedness implications of a social security system?

So, who deserves what in this world? Four possibilities: 1. Nobody during material life deserves anything, and everything (both material and ephemeral) arrives as a matter of grace conferred by the divine. 2. We deserve what we work for and earn. 3. We deserve sustenance and comfort, irrespective of whether and how much we work, and thus we feel justified in taking what we need and want. 4. Life is deserving of sustenance by virtue of existence, and sustenance should be socialized to ensure fairness of distribution.

The implications of the latter two possibilities are troubling for the future of humankind.

This presentation may be viewed in essay form on-line at: Click on “Selected Essays” Click on “Deserving”