Week 4: Rethinking A Quid Pro Quo Kind Of Faith (Sermon Adapted From Pete Metzger) Series

Quid pro quo. Do you know what that Latin phrase means? It translates literally as “this for that.” Conversationally, we might say, “I scratch your back, you scratch mine.” For example, if I head out on vacation and ask my neighbor to take my garbage to the curb while I’m away, it’s perfectly reasonable for him to expect me to return the favor when he goes away. He does something for me; I do something for him. Quid pro quo. That’s the way the world works.

Or, at least, that’s the way we expect the world to work. How would you feel if your neighbor borrowed your toolbox every weekend for a year, and the one time you need to borrow something from him, he says no? You’d be annoyed, right? “It’s not fair,” you’d say. “We had a deal (even if we never said it out loud). Quid pro quo! If you won’t give me the quid, I’m not going to give you the quo!”

Is that also how we approach our relationship with God? Do we have a quid pro quo kind of faith—an unspoken agreement with God that says, “Lord, if I behave, then you’ll bless me, right?” That was Satan’s accusation against Job. He claimed that Job only loved God because of what he could get out of the Almighty for behaving. Satan challenged God to take away those tangible blessings to see if Job would still love God for God’s own sake rather than loving him for the stuff the Lord gave to Job.

At first, Job passed the tests with flying colors. Job still praised and honored God even though he lost his wealth and then his health. But Satan kept chipping away at Job’s love for God like the brat who won’t stop teasing his little sister until she is in tears. For over 30 chapters, Job’s friends served as Satan’s mouthpiece, for they had fully bought into the quid pro quo mentality in spiritual matters. Listen to this sample from Eliphaz. “Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you…23 If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored…27 You will pray to him, and he will hear you...28 What you decide on will be done, and light will shine on your ways” (Job 22:21, 23, 27-28).

Job’s friends thought that God’s justice is absolute. If you do wrong, then you will be punished. If you do right, then you will be rewarded—no exceptions. But that view is simplistic, and Job knew it. Job countered that God’s justice is arbitrary—that there seems to be no discernable pattern for who gets the VIP treatment from God and who doesn’t. Job countered: “Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power? 8 They see their children established around them, their offspring before their eyes. 9 Their homes are safe and free from fear; the rod of God is not on them” (Job 21:7-9).

You can understand where Job is coming from can’t you? In our first sermon in this series, we tackled the question: “Why do bad things happen to good people?” We learned that the premise of that question is wrong because none of us are really the good people God wants us to be. Having said, I’m sure you know of people who seem to be a lot worse than you. And yet their lives appear to be a whole lot easier than yours. What gives?

Oops. Did you catch it? That’s a quid pro quo attitude. We’re really saying that God should bless us because we are (or at least seem to be) better than others. We want a reward for our behavior, and if we don’t get it, we’ll be upset. Job too eventually demanded: “How many wrongs and sins have I committed? Show me my offense and my sin” (Job 13:23). Job felt that if no one could show him his sin, then he shouldn’t have to suffer the way he was. But here was Job’s sin. Job was upset with God because he thought that God was being unfair and should operate on a quid pro quo basis. But he doesn’t. Another one of Job’s friends would make that clear.

We spoke about Elihu last week. He was the youngest of Job’s friends and so was the last to speak. While he didn’t speak in a very loving way, he did make pronouncements worth remembering. Elihu observed: “[God] does great things beyond our understanding. 6 He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’ 7 So that everyone he has made may know his work, he stops all people from their labor. 8 The animals take cover; they remain in their dens” (Job 37:5-8).