Privilege Brings Responsibility (Rom. 3:1,2)
Illustration:When Queen Victoria was a child, she didn’t know she was in line for the throne of England. Her instructors, trying to prepare her for the future, were frustrated because they couldn’t motivate her. She just didn’t take her studies seriously. Finally, her teachers decided to tell her that one day she would become the queen of England. Upon hearing this, Victoria quietly said, "Then I will be good." The realization that she had inherited this high calling gave her a sense of responsibility that profoundly affected her conduct from then on.
1. Have you ever wondered to what degree privilege brings responsibility? In this age of great privilege people need to know something about their responsibilities or they will squander great opportunities.
In this passage, Paul writes, "To what advantage remains to the Jew?…Much in every way. To begin with, to the Jews were entrusted the oracles (the brief communications, the intentions, the utterances) of God."
Paul explains how the Jews have fail to take advantage of their privileges by failing to appropriate God given benefits.
To waste opportunities given through the "oracles of God", the Jews, who have relied upon ancestral, hereditary presumed that they would always enjoy God’s divine favorable treatment.
Many have relied too much upon their family, the church or their social status instead of Christ. All the great teaching, fellowship and gifts we have been given bring with them accompanying responsibilities.
Remember that the privileges we are given are merely a means to accomplishing God’s will.
Resist the temptation to just enjoy your privileges without fulfilling your God given responsibilities.
Ask the Lord to help you use your advantages as an opportunity to grow in Christ and your ability to contribute to the advancement of His kingdom and righteousness.
2. Paul explains how the Lord expects us to use our privileges for spiritual good. The Jews occupied a privileged position as the people of God but failed to trust Christ as their Messiah.
The Jewish failure to use the oracles of God is similar to how many contemporary Christians fail to use the grace, knowledge and love given to them.
Believers who fail to grow in spiritual, mental or ministry maturity are often led more by fear than by faith.
Do not take lightly the grace of God.
Ask the Lord to help you use every ounce of privilege you enjoy in Christ (His compassion, kindness, mercy, love, truth and power) to carry out all one’s Biblical responsibilities.
3. Paul admonishes the Romans against the sins of negligence.
To neglect implies a failure to carry out some expected or required action either through carelessness or by intention.
Often the sins of omission are far more serious than numerous sins of commission.
A few people simply choose to overlook responsibilities supposing someone else will do the job.
Even failure to look, observe or search for opportunities to minister is a sin against Christ’s command, "Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you." (Matt. 7:7)
Be careful that you do not disregard the commands of God to your own peril.
Ask the Lord to help you avoid neglecting any opportunity to fulfill Biblical responsibilities to heed His great commandment (Luke 10:27) and His great commission. (Matt. 28:18-20)
4. Paul urges the Romans to use their privileges to make the most of their opportunities.
Many people simply wait until they are told specifically what to do.
Paul taught that believers are to use their freedom as an opportunity to serve one another. (Gal 5:1)
Too many use their freedom as an opportunity for their own interests.
Quote:Toomey’s Rule: It is easy to make decisions on matters for which you have no responsibility.
The greatest benefit of serving God is what Christ-like character qualities we developed in the process. Godliness is profitable for all things not only in this life, but also in the age to come." (I Tim. 4:8)
Ask the Lord to help you to not wait on others, but to pro-actively search out fields that are ripe for harvesting the good seed of the word of God and the fertilizer of His love and grace.
Conclusion:Connie Mack was one of the greatest managers in the history of baseball. One of the secrets of his success was that he knew how to lead and inspire men. He knew that people were individuals. Once, when his team had clinched the pennant well before the season ended, he gave his two best pitchers the last ten days off so that they could rest up for the World Series. One pitcher spent his ten days off at the ball park; the other went fishing. Both performed brilliantly in the World Series. Mack never critcized a player in front of anyone else. He learned to wait 24 hours before discussing mistakes with players. Otherwise, he said, he dealt with goofs too emotionally.
In the first three years as a major league baseball manager, Connie Mack’s teams finished sixth, seventh, and eighth. He took the blame and demoted himself to the minor leagues to give himself time to learn how to handle men. When he came back to the major leagues again, he handled his players so successfully that he developed the best teams the world had ever known up to that time.
Mack had another secret of good management: he didn’t worry. "I discovered," he explained, "that worry was threatening to wreck my career as a baseball manager. I saw how foolish it was and I forced myself to get so busy preparing to win games that I had no time left to worry over the ones that were already lost. You can’t grind grain with water that has already gone down the creek."
Bits and Pieces, December 13, 1990
