My Rights

Welcome! Today we continue our series entitled Mine, in which we explore the Biblical standards of ownership, stewardship, and lordship. Today’s message focuses on rights.

Although the concept of “rights” is muted in some cultures around the world, here in America, it is huge. You could almost say it is in our DNA – it is in our Declaration of Independence, almost from the very beginning:

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”


“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” 

“Unalienable” rights means that no one has the right to take away your rights. The document even says that the primary purpose of a government is to secure your rights. The word “right” occurs 10 times in this short document. Built into the foundational US documents is the idea that government doesn’t get to just give you a short list of rights it magnanimously lets you have; instead, the government’s powers are quite limited, and unless in a particular area its powers are listed out explicitly, that right falls back on state and local governments, whose power is similarly limited so that unmentioned rights reside with the people. In a fallen world filled with plentiful examples of governments rising in power until they become oppressive and almost no examples of the opposite, I think this is a wise way to define a government. When Christ returns, people like to say it will be quite different, and that may be so, but ultimately, in heaven, we will be so changed that we will be governed from within as much as from outside ourselves. As Ireland and other smaller governments learned in times of widespread revival, you don’t need much government when the people follow Christ.

Now it sadly ironic that many people lean on the Declaration of Independence to say that Christians are wrong for trying to impose their morality on everyone else. Why is this ironic? Because the Declaration says that the reason governments must not usurp these rights is because they are endowed by our Creator! You should not defend your behavior with an argument you completely reject! Often when Christians are accused of this, it is in an area in which the person’s decisions adversely affect other people; in other words, exercising their “right” actually takes away someone else’s right. There is probably no example where this is clearer than in the area of abortion, where choosing to exercise your “right to choose” takes away the very life of someone who has no choice.

And the people who think this way completely misunderstand what God is like. Jesus Himself said,

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. – John 10:10b

I like how it is translated in the King James:

I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. – John 10:10b

The Greek word translated “to the full” and “more abundantly” is perisso, and its meanings include “over and above, more than is necessary, super-added, exceedingly abundantly, supremely, superior, extraordinary, surpassing, uncommon.” It describes a happy life, one with joy, blessing, overflowing with goodness.  So there is your “life” and “pursuit of happiness.”

As for “liberty,” I think of what Jesus said about freedom in John 8:

To the Jews who had believed Him, Jesus said, “If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can You say that we shall be set free?” Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. – John 8:31-36

Christianity is not about restricting other people’s fun, but about setting people free from bondage to their sin and to the consequences of their sin. It is about liberty. This theme repeats itself again and again in Scripture:

But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. – James 1:25

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. – 2 Cor. 3:17

And let me quote the first parts of several verses; I will give the remainder of these verses later, but for now just look at the first parts:

Live as free people… - I Peter 2:16a

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. – Gal. 5:13a

So, yes, as far as it goes, there is at least a sense in which we have been endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, and that, as far as it goes, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Now I keep saying “as far as it goes” because our Creator gives us the life He gives us; if we have put our faith and trust in Him, receiving Him as our Savior and Lord, we do have an unimaginable eternity with Him ahead of us, but in this short life on Earth, we don’t have rights about exactly what our lives will be like.

Sometimes we are flat-out wrong about what we think are our rights. We may not come out and say it, but we think we have rights to an easy life, to a life free of suffering and pain. This weekend I have suffered with a horrible toothache; my idea of the “pursuit of happiness” does not include going through this toothache. We don’t have a right to universal supernatural health care. We don’t have a right to a top-quality education. We don’t have a right to find Mr. or Mrs. Right and have a great marriage. We don’t have a right to 2.5 perfectly behaved and constantly overachieving kids who grow up to be strong believers, happy, and successful. We don’t have a right to the perfect, easy, high-paying job. We don’t even have any rights as to how long we live in this world.

This kind of thinking, although not often stated outright, is so common in America. Sometimes instead of speaking of “rights” we talk of what we “deserve.” This is almost worse to my ears. We deserve better service. We deserve a nice house. We deserve lots of “me” time.

Why do we “deserve” these things? Because we are so good? Because other people have them and we don’t, and that’s not fair?

If you look up the word “deserve” in a concordance, pretty much all you find are verses that talk about the punishment people deserve for their sins. One apparent exception is the following:

When Jesus had finished saying all this to the people who were listening, he entered Capernaum. There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with Him, “This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” So Jesus went with them. – Luke 7:1-6a

Now, this is surprising, isn’t it? Did Jesus just agree that this man deserves His help? Well, the story doesn’t end here – let’s go on a bit further:

He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. – Luke 7:6b-7

Jesus did go on to heal the servant, not because the centurion “deserved” it, but because of “his great faith.” It is the kindness and mercy of God that we don’t get what we deserve.

Let me just go on to say briefly that the people who constantly do talk about their “rights” and what they “deserve” are really hard to be around. Thinking this way only brings out one’s selfishness. It also brings out bitterness as you don’t get what you think you deserve, and the ultimate fruit of this is isolation and loneliness. Thinking this way is just one of many ways that pride expresses itself, and is the opposite of humility, and it is humility, not pride, that tends to attract friends.

I think we have covered some important ideas and concepts. But if we stop here, I think we are ignoring one of the most important messages of Scripture: that just because you have a right doesn’t mean that you have to use it. In fact, the very life of Christ, from giving up His glory to come as a baby, to being born in a stable, to living a human life not as a king but as basically a nobody, to fasting for 40 days in the dessert and being tempted by Satan to procure bread, to going on the road building into a small group of ragtag disciples who don’t understand or appreciate Him, to repeatedly being accused and threatened and ridiculed by Jewish teachers and leaders who by all “rights” should have bowed before Him, the King of kings and Lord of lords, to allowing Himself to go through thoroughly corrupt trials, to be savagely beaten, spit upon, mocked, and finally hung on a cross like one of the worst criminals – all of this, was it not the ultimate example for all time of choosing not to exercise one’s rights?

What did Jesus first say to His disciples? “Follow Me.” We too are invited to voluntarily give up our “rights” to be His servants, or “slaves.” This principle of voluntary servitude goes all the way back to Exodus. When a Hebrew “sold himself” into what was basically indentured servitude, there was a rule that he had to be released after 6 years. But he had an option to continue to serve if he wished. Here is the passage:

“But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,’ then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.” – Ex. 21:5-6

We can do something similar. Here is what Jesus said:

Then he called the crowd to Him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me. – Mark 8:35

To deny yourself is to forget about your “rights,” to let it go. To take up your cross is to willingly suffer things you do not have to suffer. I think of Jesus’ example of washing His disciples’ feet as another example of voluntary servitude, of not even giving a passing thought to your “rights.”

The heart of the gospel involves Jesus taking the form of a servant and laying His life down for us. And we see this also lived out in His disciples, especially in Paul. I want to focus on some things Paul says in I Corinthians, because it provides a powerful contrast between those who focus on their “rights” (the Corinthians) and those who lay them down (Paul).

Corinth was a city with a reputation for evil and immorality, so much so that to call someone a Corinthian was a common insult. According to Acts 18, the church in Corinth was started by Paul on his second missionary journey. There, he met a Jewish person named Aquila and his wife Priscilla. As Paul began sharing the gospel in the Jewish synagogue, he lived with Aquila and Priscilla and supported himself by making tents (as they also did). Silas and Timothy soon joined Paul, but the Jews as a whole refused to hear the gospel (an important exception was Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue). Paul then began preaching to the Gentiles. After a year and a half, a Roman proconsul named Gallio came to town, and the Jews used the opportunity to bring charges against Paul. Gallio refused to hear the charges because they had to do with matters of the Jewish religion, not a Roman concern. Despite opposition, Paul continued to share the gospel in Corinth for some time before eventually leaving. One reason Paul spent so much time there was that Corinth was a huge city with a population of 600,000, so each new day was another opportunity to share the gospel with new people as well as build up those who had become believers.

Anyway, sometime later, Paul learned from the household of Chloe and three other members of the church that the church in Corinth was having multiple problems. The church itself also asked some questions in a letter to Paul on issues related to some of these problems (but probably not all of them). Previously, Paul had written a letter to them and also had sent Timothy to help with their problems, so the “new” news Paul was receiving was basically showing that things were still bad there.

What were the problems? Here are some of them. Some members of the church denied the resurrection.The church was badly divided, with subgroups that followed their favorite preachers. There was a man in the church actively living immorally, doing so openly, and the church was doing nothing about it. There were members of the church who were taking other believers to the public courts rather than trying to work things out alone or with the help of the local Christian leaders. There were disputes within the church over such issues as whether it was wrong to eat meat that had been offered to idols. There were apparently questions about circumcision. There were questions about marriage and apparently problems with divorce and separation, with some wanting to leave simply because there were conflicts in the marriage. Some women were abusing their freedom in Christ by refusing to submit to their husbands. The Lord’s Supper (taking a meal to remember Christ together, also remembering Christ with the bread and the cup) had become a mere common meal with people taking food selfishly, taking advantage of the free meal. There were major disputes about how to run their meetings, with contention and confusion about the role and place and expression of spiritual gifts in the meetings. If this is not a perfect picture of a group of people obsessed with their individual “rights” and what they each “deserve,” I don’t know what is!

And because Paul was getting involved in trying to improve this mess, some barbs and attacks were directed at him, for example questioning whether he was really an apostle, whether he had any business interfering with their dysfunctional church. Now listen to what Paul has to say in Chapter 9 of I Corinthians, and contrast it to the behavior of the Corinthian church:

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord? Even though I may not be an apostle to others, surely I am to you! For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me. Don’t we have the right to food and drink? Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas? Or is it only I and Barnabas who lack the right to not work for a living? – I Cor. 9:1-6

Do you catch the discussion about rights? Paul is saying, convincingly, that he and Barnabas had a valid right to partake of their food, to be married, and to work.

Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink the milk? Do I say this merely on human authority? Doesn’t the Law say the same thing? For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned? Surely he says this for us, doesn’t he? Yes, this was written for us, because whoever plows and threshes should be able to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest. If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you? If others have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it all the more? – I Cor. 9:7-12a

Again, there’s that word “right” again. Paul, again convincingly, argues that he and Barnabas also have a right to be paid for their work with the Corinthian church. But there’s a “but” coming!

But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ. Don’t you know that those who serve in the temple get their food from the temple, and that those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel. But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this in the hope that you will do such things for me, for I would rather die than allow anyone to deprive me of this boast. – I Cor. 9:12b-15

What a contrast! The Corinthians who are acting selfishly and claiming all sorts of “rights” that don’t exist on one hand, and Paul, who has a genuine right to support and much more but does not take a penny (or a mite), on the other.

For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!  If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. What then is my reward? Just this: that in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make full use of my rights as a preacher of the gospel. – I Cor. 9:16-18

Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel that I may share in its blessings. – I Cor. 9:19-23

These last 5 verses are frequently used out of context – people make the focus of the verses on how Paul puts on different hats, so to speak, as he shares the gospel with other people. Paul is indeed doing this, but the context here is about laying down rights for the sake of the gospel. Paul makes himself a slave to everyone to win as many as possible. That word “slave”, doulos, is a very strong, shocking word to come from someone who has just laid out his rights as an Apostle; it is very similar to the shock the disciples felt when Jesus washed their feet.

Paul is laying aside his preferences, his personal opinions, all of this – so that the gospel would not be impeded. He serves the unlovely, those with rough edges, those without his education, anyone, if they will allow Paul to tell them about the risen Christ. And his focus is on the gospel, not on what he wants.

To Paul, rights are things we voluntarily lay down if we want to be more like Christ, if we want to be about His work.

I would encourage you to look at the relationships around you – those with believers and those with unbelievers, and ask the questions, “Am I laying down my life, my rights, for Christ?” “Are my heart and actions focused on sharing the gospel with unbelievers of all stripes?” Again, Christ doesn’t force us to do these things – we have freedom in Him. But let us use this freedom to, as He told the first disciples, really “follow Him.”

To finish the passages I started earlier:

Live as free people but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. - I Peter 2:16

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. – Gal. 5:13