We Don't Have A Right to Anything

We don't have a right to anything because we deserve death, for the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).  Through the rebellion (sin) of Adam and Eve, we all therefore have the concupiscence to sin -- to rebel against God.  So we deserve nothing.  However, while we wait for Christ's return, I believe we ought to strive to live in harmony with one another since Scripture gives us guidelines on how we are to do this and love our neighbour (see Romans 12:9-21; Matthew 5:44; 22:36-39; 2 Corinthians 13:11).  So, it is palpable that there are certain things that can be done in order to make living in peace with one another possible to some extent, which is where these "rights" come in.


I don't like that word: "rights."  What makes us think we deserve anything?  Rather, there are rules of necessity to living in order to live peacefully with one another, which those principles tell us how to love our neighbour in the passages given above.  These principles given to us in Scripture apply to all people (these "rights" that we think we deserve).  We are commanded to love our neighbour, and we are given the principles on just how to do that.  We do it for each other and for the glory of God.  When we say we deserve certain "rights," it is for ourselves, not for other people and certainly not for God's glory.


When we demand these self-imagined "rights," we are wishing to impose our own will upon people rather than abiding by the will of God, which His will is revealed to us in Scripture.  Sometimes we fool ourselves into thinking that injustice exists where it is absent.  Take the "black lives matter" protests, for example.  Yes, certain injustices were done to some black people, but it is a non-sequitur to argue that because some injustice was done, that means injustice is in the lives of all black people.  That's illogical and neither is it true.  An event such as this is not a logical reaction but purely an emotional one, and since when have we trusted the whimsical folly of human emotions for a basis of argument?  I think these protestors intend "black lives matter" as a reminder, but they way they go about preaching it doesn't come across that way.  Sometimes desperate measures are necessary (e.g. the Civil Rights Movement), but the way we go about them ought to be done wisely and in love rather than hate, which is clearly not indicative of the "black lives matter" protestors.  They are demanding rights that they already have, claiming that injustice exists where it is absent (the lives of all black people everywhere), especially considering that were this to happen decades before the Civil Rights Movement, they would all be murdered, black and white people alike.  Not only that, but the message they're sending is not out of love but hate due to their selfish flare-ups because they have no self-control over their anger.


Furthermore, this can all be understood by reading Romans 13 and Acts 5:29.  I won't type the entire 13th chapter of Romans; you can read it all if you'd like.  In it, St. Paul essentially tells us of the importance of the role of government and that God establishes it and its leaders for a reason (of which only He can know).  Basically, the purpose of the government is to restrain our sin (just think of laws put into place to prevent and punish murder, other acts of violence, theft, etc.).  We are to obey our government.  However, in Acts 5:29, Peter and the apostles are famous for saying, "We must obey God rather than men."  Why did they say this?  Because the Sadducees (who had a type of governmental authority at the time) were making demands against God's will.  So, we are to obey our government, but when it starts to go against God's Word, it is the Christian's duty to oppose the will of the government in that circumstance because we obey God, not men (this is exactly why Christians oppose issues like gay marriage and transgenderism).  With a situation like "black lives matter," the individual cases that the protestors are upset about are from local communities, therefore it must be resolved at the community level, not brought to the federal government because it's not a federal issue, but a local community one.  So, not only are they protesting with hate for others, imagining that black lives are more valuable just because they happened to be born with darker skin pigmentation; but they are also being irresponsible by refusing to resolve the issues at the community level for each unique case.  Contrary to the implications of their protests, all lives matter, no matter the colour of your skin.  In Galatians 3:28 we read that in God's eyes, "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."  Likewise, when it comes to skin colour, there is neither black nor white simply because "God shows no partiality" (Romans 2:11).  No matter our biological and societal differences, as believers we are all one in the same in Christ -- multiple members of one body (see 1 Corinthians 12:12-20).


What does this have to do with rights?  To recognise that we don't have the right to anything.  We lost these "rights" when we rebelled against God in the beginning.  The sooner we recognise this, the sooner we can live in harmony with one another to the best of our ability by putting into practise the principles given to us in Scripture, but we are currently in a state of tension and enmity mostly because the secular world we live in denies the authority of Scripture.  This tension and enmity can only be eradicated if we stop demanding these self-imagined "rights" from a narcissistic heart and abide by God's will.  I'm not saying that by doing this, world peace will be achieved because that's impossible in a world affected by sin; but by doing this we can lessen the effect of our natural narcissism as the foundation of our natural inclination to rebel.