"Am I not free?...But I have made no use of any of these rights..." 1 Corinthians 9:1a, 15a
If you search through the Bible for the word "rights", you may be surprised to learn that you won't actually find the word occurring very frequently. That may be somewhat surprising to us, especially in the context of North America and the United States. Here, we hear quite often about our rights as citizens, about equal rights, and the like.
The surprising thing is that God doesn't seem so much interested in our rights as people. It's not that God doesn't value us as people any less. God is a God who created us and who desires that we would recognize the dignity that belongs to every person as a part of His creation. In a way, we could almost say that God is an idealist. After all, if every person recognized the dignity that God gave to every other person, would we ever have to worry about rights?
Yet, we do face the fact that we live in a fallen, sinful world. That sinfulness has us turn inward on ourselves, so that we find ourselves demanding our rights. That might not be such a bad thing if we did that in a way which honored the dignity of the other as much as we sought that dignity for ourselves. Yet, the history of humankind reveals that we fail at such an endeavor far more than we succeed at it.
That's why I find it interesting, especially if you read through the chapters around the verses quoted above, that Paul "gives up" his rights in service of the Gospel. Sure, he could bear the claim that he had founded the congregation in Corinth. Sure, he had taught them what they knew about Jesus, and could assert that authority over them. Yet, in a stunning move (especially in their eyes), Paul chose to give up those rights.
In fact, in another letter to another group of Christians, Paul actually points out what God's preferred way of dealing with one another truly should be. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes that God's people should "[submit] to one another out of reverence for Christ." (Ephesians 5:21). Mutual submission to the other actually fits far better with God's will and design for life than a clamoring for our rights. Instead of looking to our rights, we are to be looking to what best serves our neighbor, the "other" among us.
As you can perhaps see, this often serves to place us in a direct contrast with what we have been raised to believe in the context of our nation and time. Especially as others are celebrating that they have their rights recognized, we face the question of what are appropriate rights and inappropriate ones.
But perhaps, for us as Christians, our question should be a little bit different. Rather than worrying about rights, what if we were to instead ask ourselves, how can I submit to my neighbor to demonstrate God's compassion and grace to them? Rather than making issues about rights, what if we looked at ways to serve them? Sure, it is possible (and likely) that they would misunderstand and even abuse such service. But then again, who fully grasps the service and compassion that our Lord Jesus has toward us, even as He faced the cross?
If you search through the Bible for the word "rights", you may be surprised to learn that you won't actually find the word occurring very frequently. That may be somewhat surprising to us, especially in the context of North America and the United States. Here, we hear quite often about our rights as citizens, about equal rights, and the like.
The surprising thing is that God doesn't seem so much interested in our rights as people. It's not that God doesn't value us as people any less. God is a God who created us and who desires that we would recognize the dignity that belongs to every person as a part of His creation. In a way, we could almost say that God is an idealist. After all, if every person recognized the dignity that God gave to every other person, would we ever have to worry about rights?
Yet, we do face the fact that we live in a fallen, sinful world. That sinfulness has us turn inward on ourselves, so that we find ourselves demanding our rights. That might not be such a bad thing if we did that in a way which honored the dignity of the other as much as we sought that dignity for ourselves. Yet, the history of humankind reveals that we fail at such an endeavor far more than we succeed at it.
That's why I find it interesting, especially if you read through the chapters around the verses quoted above, that Paul "gives up" his rights in service of the Gospel. Sure, he could bear the claim that he had founded the congregation in Corinth. Sure, he had taught them what they knew about Jesus, and could assert that authority over them. Yet, in a stunning move (especially in their eyes), Paul chose to give up those rights.
In fact, in another letter to another group of Christians, Paul actually points out what God's preferred way of dealing with one another truly should be. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes that God's people should "[submit] to one another out of reverence for Christ." (Ephesians 5:21). Mutual submission to the other actually fits far better with God's will and design for life than a clamoring for our rights. Instead of looking to our rights, we are to be looking to what best serves our neighbor, the "other" among us.
As you can perhaps see, this often serves to place us in a direct contrast with what we have been raised to believe in the context of our nation and time. Especially as others are celebrating that they have their rights recognized, we face the question of what are appropriate rights and inappropriate ones.
But perhaps, for us as Christians, our question should be a little bit different. Rather than worrying about rights, what if we were to instead ask ourselves, how can I submit to my neighbor to demonstrate God's compassion and grace to them? Rather than making issues about rights, what if we looked at ways to serve them? Sure, it is possible (and likely) that they would misunderstand and even abuse such service. But then again, who fully grasps the service and compassion that our Lord Jesus has toward us, even as He faced the cross?
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