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.
“When do we forego our rights?”
• Paul raised two concerns here – one, for the sake of the Gospel and two, for the sake of the people who are still lost, because they have yet to understand the Gospel.
• We forego our rights for a greater cause.
FOR THE WITNESS OF THE GOSPEL
To Paul, preaching the Gospel is paramount. It is a greater cause than all his rights.
• He would not allow anything – his words or his conduct - to hinder or cloud the message of the Gospel.
• He is not going to come with eloquence or superior wisdom (2:1) and distract the people from the message of the Gospel, which is the power of God.
• He is not going to be paid for speaking like the rest of the itinerant philosophers and speakers of the day and undermining the message of the Gospel.
Paul was determined to preach the Gospel for two reasons.
[1] “For necessity is laid upon me” (16b) and
[2] “I am entrusted with a stewardship” (17)
NECESSITY. Firstly, he has to. It is his obligation as a Christian.
• Having encountered Christ and received his salvation by grace, preaching the Gospel becomes an obligation, a duty.
• He said in Rom 1:14-15 “14I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.”
• A Christian is one beggar telling another where to find bread. “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!”
STEWARDSHIP
Verse 16 itself is a good enough reason for Paul to preach the Gospel.
• But he adds, even if it is not my personal choice, I have to do it because I was commissioned by the Lord to do it. “I am still entrusted with a stewardship.” (9:17)
• If it is a “career by choice” then I can still think of a wage (reward) but if it is entrusted to me, then I have to preach it to everyone without charge.
• In other words, Paul says, “Even if you don’t pay me, even if you give me no material support (which is my right as an apostle), I will preach the Gospel.”
23I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
• I have to share the blessings of the Gospel with everyone. And I am prepared to forego my rights if they become obstacles to the preaching of the Gospel.
This is not just Paul’s responsibility, I think we understand. It is ours too.
• Having heard and believed the Gospel, and experienced Christ, we too share in the “necessity laid upon us” and being “entrusted with a stewardship” of the Gospel.
• We have an obligation and we are commissioned by Christ to do the same.
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Paul went on to explain further why he did not use his rights – his concern for the lost Jews and Gentiles.
FOR THE WELFARE OF THE PEOPLE
Paul will do whatever he can to help the people understand the Gospel.
• Hence he has to take different approaches when speaking to the Jews, who are raised under the Mosaic Law, and the Gentiles, who live outside the Law.
• Paul is not talking about compromising the Gospel but contextualising the Gospel, as Dr Chan said last week.
• He wants to present the Gospel as clearly as he can, to the people he speaks to.
If we can recall, Paul does that during his missionary journeys, when he travels to different places and speak to different crowds.
• He presents the Gospel differently when addressing different people, whether they are the Jews or the Gentiles.
When he goes into the synagogue and speaks to the Jews, like in…
• Acts 17:2-3 2And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.”
When speaking to the Gentile crowd in Lystra in Acts 14, he talks about the living God.
• Paul healed a crippled man and the people wanted to make them gods:
• Acts 14:14-15 14But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, 15“Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.
When he was at the marketplace in Athens addressing the philosophers, Paul started with the inscription they had on an altar “To the unknown god.”:
• Acts 17:23b-28 23“…What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
• Paul preached about the God of creation, rather than the God of the Scriptures.
We see Paul conducting himself differently before the Jews and the Gentiles.
• 19For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.
• Instead of talking about his rights, Paul made himself a servant to all.
• Paul uses his freedom to voluntarily become a slave or servant to the people he is reaching out to so that they can comprehend the Gospel.
• His motto is “I will serve their needs”, not “Can you serve my needs”.
Let me summarise what we learn from Paul.
• We can let go of our rights for a greater cause, for the sake of the witness of the Gospel and the welfare of the people.
• Let nothing hinders the presentation and clarity of the message of the Gospel.
This is the example of Christ, who came not to be served (His right) but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom to save us (Matt 20:28).
• Jesus set that example for His disciples on the night of the Passover, when He took the role of the servant and washed the feet of His disciples (John 13:1-12).
Look at the hymn that Paul wrote in Phil 2:5-8
5Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Jesus set aside His right to be with the Father and become fully man so that He could provide salvation for us.
• He gave up the right to rule and become the servant of all.
• He gave up the right to honour when he was mocked and insulted by the people.
• He gave up the right to life itself and become obedient to death on a cross.
• He surrendered His rights for a greater cause - the redemption of man.
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In conclusion, do we always have to fight for our rights? No.
• We forego our rights for the sake of the Gospel and the welfare of our people.
• As followers of Jesus, that’s how we live - a life of service and self-sacrifice, of dying to self and living for Christ, denying ourselves and carrying the cross daily.
Paul’s farewell words to the Ephesians elders in Acts 20:24 NIV
• 24However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.
• That’s a happy and fulfilling life in Christ.
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Dear friends, do take time to consider the claims of Jesus and the message of the Gospel. God has provided us salvation in Jesus.
• We are sinners deserving of judgment but He took that punishment on our behalf.
• Believe in Jesus and be reconciled to God. Experience the forgiveness of sin and receive His gift of a new life and an eternal one with Him.
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PRAYER
• Dear Father, who sees our hearts, help us follow the example of Paul and also of Jesus.
• They forego their rights so that others can be saved and blessed.
• May our lives be stepping stones of faith for people who are seeking you. May we not stumble anyone in any way.
• Help us never to put any obstacle in the way of the preaching of the Gospel about Jesus Christ to whom all needs to hear.
• Let us serve you with all our hearts, not to be motivated by self-glory or gain.
• Whatever we do, let it be done out of love for you and your church, and for the sake of the Gospel.
• In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray, AMEN.
You can listen to the audio sermon with slides at https://youtu.be/e0GjiZZV4N0
Earlier sermons are available at https://tinyurl.com/KTCC-EnglishService
