What No One Tells You About Your Rights (Part 1)

Our culture is consumed with the idea of “rights.”

Everyone today seems to be talking about rights. The right to a good marriage. The right to be heard. The right to “free” higher education and healthcare. “Reproductive rights.”

“Rights” sound very American, but what do we actually have a right to? And what does the Bible have to say, if anything, on this topic?

In 1 Corinthians 8 and 9, Paul addresses the issue of whether it’s acceptable to eat food sacrificed to idols and discusses his rights as an apostle. These two chapters are often studied separately, but together they offer insight into what our response should be as Christians when it comes to individual rights and freedoms.

First, he says, we know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one (1 Cor. 8:4). Yes, there are many “gods” that rule and control us, many masters we serve. We are experts in idolatry. However, as Christians, we know they are empty and powerless.

The issue in Paul’s day was that while more mature Christians understood this, others were so accustomed to idols (treating them as real and living) and thinking in a worldly way that a more mature believer exercising his freedom could cause these weaker brothers to stumble. Paul’s response? “Be careful... that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak” (1 Cor. 8:9).

Would this have happened in our day, it’s not hard to imagine the backlash: “What?! I have a right to my freedom! If I want to eat food sacrificed to idols, I can. You’re saying that because someone else is weak I should change? That’s their problem!” Who knows? This may have been the attitude of some Corinthians.

The principle? Love governs liberty. Yes, we have freedoms—legitimate freedoms—but our love for our brother, Paul says, must come first. He even goes so far as to say that when we sin against our weaker brothers in this way and “wound their weak conscience,” we sin against Christ (1 Cor. 8:12).

He then offers himself as an example, noting how he has changed his lifestyle (“I will never eat meat again”) so that he will not cause a brother to fall. The message: Don’t hesitate to throw off that which would hinder others. Our love for and duty to our brother and to Christ outweigh any personal right or freedom.

But he’s not finished.

“Am I not free?” he says. “Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?” As if not cutting meat out of his diet wasn’t enough, he goes on to give another example of how he has not taken full advantage of his rights as an apostle.

He uses the next few lines to make his argument and defend that he does indeed have certain rights. “Don’t we [apostles] have the right to food and drink? Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles?” (1 Cor. 9:4-5).

He continues: “Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its grapes?... If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you?” (1 Cor. 9:7,11). In other words, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel (v. 14).

And yet, he says, “we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ.” I am no Paul, but I have been in situations where I have had to anchor myself in this verse. “I will put up with anything,” I’d tell myself,“ rather than hinder the gospel of Christ.” I am not my own. My money is not. My time is not. My comfort is not. My resources are not. Anything, rather than hinder the gospel of Christ.

Paul argues for his rights and then says, “But I have not used any of them” (v. 15). Or, it is not that I don’t have rights but that for your sake and the sake of the gospel I have denied myself.

Later, in verse 19, he writes, “Though I am free and belong to no man, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.” He is free and has a right to be free but makes himself less (like, I don’t know, Someone else) that by all means he might save some. Not all, but some. He denies himself for the sake of the gospel that he may share in its blessings (v. 23).

We were made for more than laying claim to our rights. If our goal is to please God, we will sacrifice whatever is necessary and make ourselves whatever is needed “to win as many as possible” and in this way share in the gospel’s blessings.

This gives new meaning to the oft-quoted 1 Corinthians 9:24-25: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.”

Plan. Strategize. Prepare, and persevere. Give up. There’s rigorous training and sacrifice, but both are temporary. The prize and impact are forever.

Paul adds that he “beats” his body and makes it his slave so that after he preaches to others he will not be “disqualified” (v. 27). He doesn’t just deny himself. He makes every sacrifice, surrenders every right, and makes his body his slave because he is “running” with the radical mentality that only one will win. He’s not concerned with claiming the freedoms that are rightfully his but rightfully focused on running for the crown and prize that will last.

Ultimately, the issue is not whether we have the right to something—we have many freedoms—but how that affects our brother and serves to hinder or further the gospel. Something permissible may not be beneficial. We may struggle to surrender now, but the glory of the prize and the salvation of those “some” will make whatever we considered a sacrifice more than worth it.