I will (not) exercise my rights - The Apostle Paul

 

“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. No one should seek their own good, but the good of others. (1 Corinthians 10:23-24) 

Paul's talk about “rights” has everything to do with the current battle in America about guns, statues, and flags.  Just because we have the right to do something doesn't mean it's useful or constructive.  In fact, Paul says that we should GIVE UP our rights rather than hurt someone by using them:

“Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.”                                                   (1 Corinthians 8:9-13)

When speaking of “eating at an idol’s temple,” Paul is talking about rich individuals in the Corinthian church who would regularly eat meat sacrificed to idols.  All food is declared clean in the Book of Acts, and Paul is not saying they can’t, but he’s deftly using the teachings of Jesus to admonish them.  He’s saying, “Sure, you’re saved and nothing can take that away from you, but what about your weak brother in Christ?  What if they see you doing this, and then do it even though they believe it’s sin?”  So we have the “right” to do many things, but when we do, we do not only affect ourselves: we affect others who follow us into these actions.

Flying the Confederate flag, venerating the statues of the Confederacy, and exercising our constitutional right to bear arms are our rights under the First and Second Amendment.  We need to be careful, though.  Because if we cause a brother or sister to do those things, even if he or she thinks it is wrong due to the values of the Confederacy (slavery) and the killing nature of guns, we have caused them to stumble into sin.  It’s tricky, because Paul is saying that in these questionable matters, it’s up to one’s individual conscience as to what is right and wrong.  In these matters of opinion, if we do something that others see as sin, and they follow our example, we have caused them to sin.  Why?  Because they think it’s sin, even though we don’t.  Yes, that's in the Word of God.  So when we cause others to wound their consciences by following our loudly professed opinion as “fact,” we have become a stumbling block for them and we ourselves sin against them (v. 12: When you sin against them in this way…).

Not only do we sin against others when we draw them into sin, we sin against them if we force them to conform to our own way of life.  Instead, to win more disciples, Paul did the reverse – he became like everyone else so they would relate to him and understand him! –

Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

- 1 Corinthians 9:19-23

So in Paul we have our example: to win as many as possible and love as many as possible (thereby causing them to come to the source of all love, our Heavenly Father), by following their customs and not offending them, instead of making them become like us in all ways.  And again, Paul emphasizes the “weak,” as a group of people.  The weak can be characterized as the “easily offended” or the “easily scandalized.”  They could be termed these days as “snowflakes” who “think they’re special and don’t know anything about the real world.”  They’re even called weak by the people who despise them!  And yet Paul says that we should relate to the weak to win the weak, not attempt to destroy them with insults and targeted offensiveness!  If we who hate these people define them as weak, we have our answer from Paul: become like them!  Win them to Christ!  For in Christ, the weak are made strong!!!  Not through insults and bombardment of our opinion of what the “real world” is like!  Not through our own human power!  But through the power of the Living and Loving God!  And the man or woman who despises these words also despises the words of the Apostle Paul, in the Word of God.  We do not oppress others in order to win them to Christ!  We relate to them, become like them, and love them!

A counterargument may be, “I’ve never caused anyone to sin because I don’t force my beliefs on others, but I do express them loudly because it’s my right.”  But Paul says that if we even “distress” someone with our words and actions, we are no longer acting in love and it is sin:

“I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil.”

-       Romans 14:14-16

Paul is saying to not let the good God of the Universe be spoken of as evil because of our own hypocrisy and offensiveness.  If we, with our actions, offend others who otherwise may have come to Christ (yes, those “snowflakes” spoken of earlier) then we sin.  It is plain and simple.  Paul follows it up with a reprimand that speaks about the age in which we live: “So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God (Romans 14:22).”  Be silent!  Don’t spit your opinions all over your neighbor, who may see God as evil because of you!  Instead, become like your neighbor, so as to win him or her to the source of all love, Yahweh, and Jesus Christ, His son. 

Paul says that even if we see ourselves as strong and others as weak, it is our duty to bear with their weakness and build them up in love: “We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up (Romans 15:1-2).”  We should not target others with opinions we know will offend them, we should not blurt out our own worldview all over someone else’s shirt, we should instead be steadfast and longsuffering with others and build them up, not break them down until they agree with us.  Paul uses the specific language “build them up,” which is the opposite tactic of so many Christians and non-believers in the world today.

But do we really need to tolerate others’ opinions?  Paul gives us an answer, in the context of the previous disagreement: “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God (Romans 15:7).”  We bear the opinions of our neighbor and their perceived shortfallings to bring praise to God in our unity with them.  We become like the weak to save the weak.  We have a blueprint of how to go about salvation work and Kingdom work in the world – so why aren’t many of us following it?

I don’t know.  Maybe we just aren’t familiar with the ways of God enough to make a real difference in His Kingdom.  Or maybe it’s just easier to do it the other way around: blurt out our secular opinions and gather people around us who agree, while breaking down those who disagree until we mold them into people like ourselves.  Yet, this is sin, according to Paul.  It is destroying the weak with our opinions, not building them up for the praise of God.

Ok, but policies affect our paychecks…shouldn’t we do what’s in our best self-interest so we can flourish on this Earth?  Paul gives us an answer in Philippians: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others.”  So even if a candidate will further our monetary interests, it’s not necessarily correct to participate in propaganda supporting him or her.  If we harm others in our attempts to do so by battering them over the head with our “rightness” and their “wrongness,” that is in fact sin, because we are categorically not looking out for their interests, but our own – the opposite of Paul’s mandate for believers.  And if we think it’s in their interest and they just don’t know it yet, we haven’t listened to Paul’s words to become like others to win them to Christ and not the reverse.

If one very clear verse isn’t enough for us, there’s at least two that Paul writes in God’s inerrant Word, as an explanation and reinforcement of why he attempts not to offend anyone at all: “Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God — even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved (1 Corinthians 10:32-33).”  Again, Paul talks about not seeking his own good, but the good of those to whom he speaks, be they Greeks (who did not know Yahweh or Jesus – you can insert “atheists” here, or even “pantheists” like Hindus), Jews (Those who worship one god but do not know Jesus – Muslims, etc.), or anyone in the church of God (think black believers, white believers, Democrats, Republicans, etc.). 

He speaks of everyone in the known world at the time – he tries to please “everyone” in “every way.”  There is no one to whom he does not lovingly preach.  There is no one to whom he will not cater to and love for the sake of their salvation.  And it’s when we care for people and love them that the true Christ, who loved us so much while we were lost that He died for us (Romans 5:8), comes through in our words and actions and saves those to whom we speak.  When we browbeat, the power of God is far from us.  When we love, the power of God is in us and works through us.  Let’s use the power of our God, and not the human power of browbeating and tearing down that the people of this age prefer, to win souls to Christ, who is Love (1 John 4:8, 1 John 4:16).  How can we use any other power to bring lost people to Christ, when He expresses Himself in His Word as simply “love?”

I’ll end with Paul’s “boast” of not using his rights to win as many to Jesus as possible.  In 1 Corinthians 8, he talks about denying support from those to whom he preaches, even though it’s his right (just so they don’t think he’s doing it for money):

“But we did not use this right.  On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the Gospel of Christ."

-       1 Corinthians 8:12

Though we may not be in a similar position in which we can preach professionally for free, we have the ideal written in the Bible: out of love, do not offend or browbeat others to win them to Christ.  It doesn't work.  Love them, as by your example of love they will be drawn to God, who is the source of your love and all love.  As we reflect on the teachings of Paul, we realize that even if we can't do everything he did, we can try to live the way he lived by keeping our mouths shut as opposed to blabbering potentially offensive things and turning others from Christ.  If someone loves you, they will be more likely to love what you love and accept what you accept.  Let's love others, so they will love God and accept Jesus Christ for their own good, and for the praise of God.