“I have my rights.” In America, yes, you do. We are a nation founded on the principle that God has granted certain inalienable rights that cannot be taken away but, rather, must be protected by the government. We have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We enshrined specified rights within the first ten Amendments to the Constitution, known as “The Bill of Rights.” We should be thankful for our rights as American citizens and continue to do everything in our lawful power to keep the government from infringing on those rights.
Rights given by God are given for his purposes. That is, he gives us personal privileges and authority to carry out the mission he gave us in the beginning. We are given rights for the purpose of taking dominion, building the kingdom. When our rights are divorced from their purpose, instead of edifying free speech, we have destructive speech, such as pornography, that cloaks itself as free speech. Instead of the true religion of the Christian faith, we have a mélange of multiculturalism that views all religions as equal. Instead of the right to pursue happiness through personal responsibility, we have the right to steal from others by voting thieves into office who will transfer wealth from those who earned it to leeches. Rights divorced from the gospel of the kingdom are used for deleterious self-consumption that eventually destroys society by implosion.
When Paul opens his letter to Philemon, he gives Philemon an example of what it means to have one’s rights as a citizen governed by the gospel. In no other letter does Paul open the letter with, “Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus.” He wrote several letters from prison and mentioned his imprisonment, but he didn’t introduce himself in this way. Paul was a Roman citizen, and he had rights. He appealed to those rights on several occasions. However, he did so to further the gospel mission. Now, because of the gospel, he is in a Roman prison.
Why would he emphasize this to Philemon? Why not introduce himself as a slave or bondservant of Jesus as he does on other occasions and identify with Onesimus for sympathy? Paul’s introduction is strategic. I believe he identifies with Philemon, a man who had rights as a Roman citizen and paterfamilias to execute Onesimus if he ever returned. For the sake of the gospel, Paul appeals to Philemon to renounce his rights to exact lawful justice and forgive Onesimus, receiving him back as a brother in Christ. Like Paul, Philemon is to use his rights for the sake of the gospel mission. In this particular case, Philemon should use his authority to forgive Onesimus. His rights as a Roman citizen are to be subject to and used for the kingdom mission.
When we in the church divorce our rights from the purpose of our Constitution–the gospel–we wind up with warring factions, people unwilling to extend the grace of forgiveness to one another. Do you have the right to insist on strict justice? Technically, yes. But what would it be like if God did that with you? What if God didn’t forgive you but made you pay all that was due to him? You may insist upon your rights for exacting strict justice, but God will do the same with you (see Matt 18:21-35).
In one sense, forgiveness involves giving up our rights. When we do, we act like the Lord Jesus, who gave up his rights for our sake. Like him, when we forgive, we exercise the greater right he has given us: the right to love as he loves. By living this way and submitting all our real or perceived rights to the kingdom’s mission, we accomplish the mission God gave us, building up instead of destroying the church.
