"But I Have My Rights!"

“Pastor Don Baker relates a story of Rev. Tom Erickson: The public Library has a system called "Dial-A-Tale." Anytime a young child wants to hear a fairy tale, he can call the number and a voice comes on reading a short fairy tale to the listening young ear. However, the number is only one digit different from Rev. Tom Erickson. Because the small fingers often make a mistake, Tom gets frequent calls from a child listening for a fairy tale. After several unsuccessful attempts to explain a wrong number to the small child, Tom felt he had only one alternative. He obtained a copy of Three Little Pigs, and set it by the phone. Now, whenever a child calls, he simply reads them the tale. A beautiful illustration of yielding personal rights. He didn't, as you might have thought, change his telephone number to avoid the "invasion of his privacy”” (sermonillustrations.com).

As citizens of the United States, it almost seems like we come hard-wired to value and protect our personal rights.  Among the founding documents of our nations is the “Bill of Rights,” which are 10 amendments to the Constitution that add “...specific guarantees of personal freedoms and rights, clear limitations on the government's power in judicial and other proceedings, and explicit declarations that all powers not specifically granted to the federal government by the Constitution are reserved to the states or the people” (en.wikipedia.org).  We like our rights!

But the Scriptures reveal that there are times when it is best to surrender our rights.  To Christians in the church at Corinth who were filing lawsuits against each other, Paul said: “...Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?” (1 Corinthians 6:7).  Later, as he defends his apostleship in chapter 9, he speaks of his right to be supported for preaching the gospel.  But then he says he “...did not use this right” so as to not hinder the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:12).

Apparently, it's not always right to demand our rights.

 

God loves you!

Mike