Foregoing Our Rights Series

Everyone has rights. We can stand up for our rights. We ask for what we deserve.

• Yet it is not always necessary for us to do so. There are times when we need to forego legitimate rights for a higher good.

I came across what was trending two days ago – “Don’t Treat Us Like We Owe You a Living” – by an F&B worker asking patrons for empathy.

• He shared the difficult situations he encountered: “If you make a reservation at a busy restaurant, and you are late… not picking up calls/answering texts, the table is going to someone else that walks in. When you arrive, please don't make a fuss and treat us like we owe you a living.”

• “On splitting the bill, it is okay if it is a table of four,” he wrote. However, if it is a table of 15, “it's going to take a long time for service staff to split, please don't complain when that happens”.

• And he ended with, “We don’t make the rules, someone else does.”

The entitlement mentality is prevalent today, which is not good.

• It trains our minds to focus on ourselves and we find ourselves becoming more self-centred and selfish.

• The tone of the Scriptures is different. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount teaches us to behave differently.

• Matt 5:38-41 38“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.”

• We do not need to retaliate all the time. We can choose to let go of our privileges.

WHY? Paul set us a good example in 1 Cor 8-9 and he explains the reasons.

• We don’t always have to insist on our rights because there are more important concerns than the exercise of our freedom, even if they are legitimate.

• We forego our rights for a greater good, like refraining from eating meat offered to idols for the welfare of our weaker brothers.

• Paul says you can have the right KNOWLEDGE – meat is nothing because idols are no gods – but yet show NO LOVE for your fellow brethren.

• The truly spiritual ones will not boast about knowledge but love their neighbours. They will not do anything that can stumble another. That’s 1 Cor 8.

Then in 1 Cor 9a, Paul shared about foregoing rights from his own life and ministry.

• As an apostle of Christ, and more so having founded the church at Corinth, Paul has the “right” to live a normal life like any of the other church leaders…

• and receive material support from those to whom he ministers.

• Yet he has chosen NOT to use these rights. WHY? For the greater good.

• We touched on it very briefly last week. Today we are going to read his explanation in detail.

1 Cor 9:15-23

15But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. 16For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 17For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. 18What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.

19For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.