Rights and Responsibilities

1 Thessalonians 2:6b-9

As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children.  We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.  Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you.

t must have been great to be an Apostle of Christ!  Everyone loved them.  They had exceptional rights as Apostles of Christ, enjoyed deference from everyone and lived a life filled only with the absolute best of everything.  Not!  In actual fact what was permissible and what was experienced are two separate issues, the former predicated on rights and the other being dependent upon responsibilities.

Life is not defined solely by rights, though that may possibly appear to be the situation in this day.  Life is a delicate balance between responsibilities and rights.  Paul's service in Thessalonica demonstrates this delicate balance.  Each of us as Christians will benefit by adopting a similar balance between rights and responsibility in our lives.

Rights in Christian Thought [v 6b] – The issue of rights is tremendously important to each of us.  As Canadians we are quick to assert our rights and to resist any intrusion upon those rights.  Virtually any newscast on any day presents what has become a familiar scene as those watching or listening witness a demonstration of another special interest group demanding its rights.  With an evident and rapid increase in emphasis upon the differences between members of our society have come increasing demands for rights for those identified (willingly or otherwise) as different.  The greater our pride in what makes us different from one another, the more strident seem the demands for individual rights at the expense of the remainder of society.

The concept of collective rights was a major motive force in the development of and in the application of Canadian social consciousness.  The greatest good for the greatest number of people was the determining force in the creation of and in the recognition of rights.  The social stresses arising from the post World War II era witnessed a shift in emphasis.  At first subtle and then ever more blatant, individual rights assumed exaggerated importance.  Few of us can remember a time when individual rights were restricted by the broader requirement to satisfy the whole of society’s needs.  Though individual rights appear to be favoured now, it is evident that earlier national leaders never meant that individual rights should supersede collective rights.  Furthermore, the concept of collective rights was not restricted to Canadian social thought, but the concept of collective rights was pre-eminent in the thinking of virtually all western democracies being an essential component of British parliamentarianism.

I do not for a moment imagine that I am about to change society’s thinking; I cannot imagine that the world is greatly concerned with what I think.  Neither do I imagine that I am able to long stand in the social arena doing combat with modern social engineers.  I do, however, have a mandate to address those Christians whom God has placed under my charge to challenge them to think Christianly while resisting the pressures of the world around them.  I am responsible to lead you to resist that which is not pleasing to God.

In this context of Christian rights I remind you that Christians hold as their right that which has not always been officially recognised as legitimate throughout the long march of history.  The right to worship God according to the dictates of the heart was deemed a tenuous right throughout the history of the Church; even in Christian lands that right has not always been recognised.  Baptists were persecuted relentlessly and vigorously in Virginia and in Massachusetts and in England because of their insistence upon freedom of conscience and because they would not support the concept of a state church.  When Roger Williams established Rhode Island Colony he included a provision granting a right to any man to worship as he saw fit.  The idea at that time was radical … a threat to the established religions of other colonies.

The right to assemble as Christians, the right to witness to our faith, the right to pray, the right to read the Bible in our mother tongue, have all been assailed at various times throughout history and even to this day are such rights subject to assault.  I well remember speaking at length with a man named Marcos Busios, the only Baptist pastor in the Greek city of Athens at the time we met.  At that time, some twenty-five years past, he related that the church was not permitted to meet in a building marked as a church.  His sermons were to be presented to the chief of police one week before they were delivered and an uniformed officer was required to be present during any service to insure that he did not deviate from the printed text.  Should any of the congregation speak to another concerning their faith they would be liable to arrest for the crime of proselytising.  If the one they spoke to was under the age of sixteen, they would likely be imprisoned.  If the one they spoke to was over the age of sixteen, they could be sued and in all likelihood lose the suit.  Rights we assume to be universal were absent from their service to God.

Unquestionably Paul could have demanded rights beyond those of any other person.  Writing the Corinthians he asserted that he had the right to provision from the churches among whom he ministered.  He had the right to support from those same churches.  He had the right to have a wife accompany him and to expect that she would likewise be provided for by those same churches [see 1 Corinthians 9:3-12a].  Therefore, his assertion that the missionaries could have been a burden was not mere hyperbole.  Paul could have demanded the rights we hold to be the due of every Christian as well as rights which were his as an Apostle of Christ the Lord.

At any time any of us who call ourselves Christian can demand our rights, both within the Church and in society.  There is no doubt a time when we are obligated to stand firm in our insistence that our rights be recognised.  Especially is this true when we speak broadly for the welfare of the whole of the Faith or when we resist secular encroachment into the precincts of the Church or when we uphold the dignity of Christian service.  But I would contend that these times are exceptions and not the rule.  More frequently we need to be reminded that we bear responsibilities far outweighing any rights we may hold.

Christian Responsibilities Are Demonstrated In Service [vv 7-9] – I find it fascinating to see the manner in which the Apostle dismisses his rights in order to emphasise responsibility for the welfare of the church.  But we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children.  We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of god but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.  Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you [verses 7-9].

In this, Paul was emulating His Lord, Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross [Philippians 2:6-8]!  In the second Corinthian letter the Apostle wrote: You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich [2 Corinthians 8:9].

He employs the imagery of a mother caring for her children.  He affirms love as a motivating power for the missionaries in sharing their lives.  He reminds the Thessalonians of the toil and hardship the missionaries experienced in order to avoid being burdensome to the fledgling church.  It is not that the Apostle did not have rights; it is rather that the Apostle recognised that responsibilities far outweighed his rights.  He clearly sensed his responsibility to the Thessalonians, the people whom he came to serve, and he felt a deep sense of responsibility to the Lord Who appointed Him to this service as an Apostle.

Love for God who appoints us to service imposes responsibilities great and weighty upon us as Christians.  Compassion for those we are called to serve imposes great and weighty responsibilities upon us as Christians.  Previously Paul had spoken of His love for God.  He asserted that the missionaries spoke as men approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel, and they therefore dared not distort the message nor employ it to their advantage.  He further assured his readers that the missionaries were trying to please … God.  Throughout this previous portion of the letter he made repeated appeal to God [as] our witness.

Warming to the theme of their love for the Thessalonians the Apostle reminds them of that love.  The world around us will not long remember our words.  What we say is of small moment; but what we do can have lasting impact in the lives of those who witness our actions.  The world takes note of what we do and the manner in which we do it.  It is precisely here that the concept of Christian responsibility intersects our world.  What better picture could be employed of love than that of a mother for her children?  Instead of demanding his rights, the Apostle fulfilled his responsibilities just as a mother would for her little children.

Permit me to read that seventh verse from another, somewhat more literal, translation.  We proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children [NASV].  I suggest that this translation imparts a fuller picture to the words employed.  Paul stated that the missionaries were gentle.  Can any picture convey more powerfully or more appropriately the thought of gentleness than that of a nursing mother?  I watched with deep satisfaction as my wife tended each of our children, gently encouraging them when they were yet infants.  All these memories have returned in the past several years as I have watched my eldest daughter care for our grandchildren.

A nursing mother imparts her own life to the child and in the process of nursing the mother speaks a tender, childish language to her child as the infant nurses.  There is something about a little baby which effects the speech of otherwise normal adults.  Our language degenerates into a strange lisp as we prattle on to the wee bairn.  Nowhere is this more evident than when cuddling that infant to our breast and no one has a more intimate relationship with the infant than the nursing mother does.  I rather suppose that all mothers found their language reduced to this strange prattle as they cared for their children.

Our three children are grown now, but I still remember the demands each made upon us as parents.  They required, and in to some degree still require, a great deal of patience or gentleness.  That is all right, however, since Lynda and I required a great deal of patience from our parents.  Children do not grow up instantly; rather they move fitfully through the various stages of life until they attain maturity.  Tenderness is a word which perhaps best describes a mother nursing her children, and it is a most fitting description of the missionaries service in Thessalonica.  Love is patient, love is kind [1 Corinthians 13:4a].

I make another observation concerning motherhood – it is not easy to be a nursing mother.  Incredible demands are made upon a mother.  A mother willingly makes sacrifices for her child, choosing to do without rather than demand her rights.  A mother will do without sleep, inconvenience herself and even jeopardise her life for her child.  A mother would rather die than see her child harmed.  The protective nature of mother bears is legend, but no more so than the protectiveness expressed by human mothers.  It was this desire to protect the child which Solomon used to discover which woman was the true mother of the living child [1 Kings 3:16-28].

Paul quickly moves to the thought that the missionaries were open in their dealings with the Thessalonians in verse eight.  He appeals to the fact that the missionaries had willingly share[d their] very lives with the young church.  This thought is the continuation of a theme introduced earlier in the letter.  Christians are responsible to be open, honest, without guile, holding pure motives in their service to God and to one another.  We seek neither to coerce God nor to compel our fellowman, nor dare we imagine that we may manipulate others to our own advantage.  We serve because it is the proper thing to do.  We serve because it pleases God.  We serve because serving is the nature of one born from above into the Family of God.

In verse nine the Apostle speaks of diligence as a responsibility the missionaries accepted as he refers to their toil and hardship endured so that they might avoid being a burden to the Thessalonians.  They neither anticipated support from nor did they seek such support from those they served.  There is a distressing refrain heard from many of our fellow citizens in this day, nor is that disquieting refrain confined to one age class or to one social stratum.  There is a perception which seems to insinuate that people have a right to be supported or that people have a right to lives free of difficulties.  I insist that there exist no right to enrichment at the expense of another either in the natural world or in the religious realm.

Incumbent upon each individual is the responsibility to equip himself or herself to live a productive life, contributing to the advance of society.  Every individual is responsible to be honest and diligent in providing for the general welfare of mankind.  Such responsibility is surely evident among the saints God!  Surely this responsibility is apparent to each of us as Christians.  Though the remainder of the world may reject such responsibility, we who are Christians cannot ignore the commands of God.  Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives [Titus 3:14].  In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle…  We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's food without paying for it.  On the contrary, we worked night and day, labouring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you…  For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: 'If a man will not work, he shall not eat [2 Thessalonians 3:6-10].  Warn those who are idle [1 Thessalonians 5:14a].

Should passages such as these cited somehow prove insufficient to convince us of our responsibility, there yet remains this one final pointed admonition.  We hear that some among you are idle.  They are not busy; they are busybodies.  Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat [2 Thessalonians 3:11,12].  If you are a Christian, you have great responsibilities which outstrip rights in many instances and which bear upon the manner in which you conduct yourself in the world.

Applications to Our Lives – We live in a day in which it would appear that rights are emphasised at the expense of responsibility.  Members of Parliament demand rights both for themselves and for their constituency while ignoring the issue of responsibility, thus reflecting the prevailing attitude of society at large.  No matter that a given action is unlawful or that it may inconvenience the majority of society, if it is but embraced as a right it is promoted unquestionably.  But Christians must resist the spirit of the age remembering that they bear responsibility both to God and to their fellowman.  Christians are responsible to live godly lives which honour Christ the Lord.  Christians are responsible to be productive in their activities.  Christians are responsible to promote the welfare of others and especially of their fellow believers.  Christians are responsible to serve their fellowman with a Christlike spirit.  Service is the first great Christian responsibility.

I am compelled to provide some pointed applications worthy of holding in your mind.  You may find it helpful to note these thoughts, perhaps writing them down on the back of your bulletin for future reference.  The applications are grouped under three headings: the danger of rights without responsibility; the futility of rights divorced from responsibility, and the way to balance rights and responsibility.

The danger of rights without responsibility.  Whenever rights are emphasised at the expense of responsibility a citizenry will find itself increasingly focused on the individual, increasingly self-centred, increasingly egocentric.  In such a fractured environment it is inevitable that the society in question must soon crack and crumble into ruin.  Modern society, and especially Canadian society, became great and became a magnet for the peoples of the world precisely because Canadians were a people convinced that rights always carried responsibility.  Furthermore, Canada was a nation which emphasised responsibility to others.

Our health system is the envy of the world, not because every citizen automatically enjoys a right to our health care, but because individuals with clear vision in years past saw that as a nation we were responsible to provide care for all people, especially those who were otherwise neglected.  Likewise our unemployment insurance was precisely that, an insurance system for those who, through no fault of their own, were unemployed for a brief period.  It is not so much a right we enjoy as workers as it is a responsibility to provide for such a system to care for those who are in need of temporary help.

However I would caution that we witness today a tendency to emphasise the right to these social systems while neglecting the responsibility to care for the weaker members of society.  I would caution that we are witnessing a trend where the weak demand rights predicated upon social differences, making ours an ever more fractured society.  This demonstrates precisely the grave danger of rights without responsibility.

Our health system is today presented as a right whether or not the individual has accepted responsibility to avoid health practises which debilitates and destroys.  Individuals who are addicted to alcohol are victims and need care provided by the taxes of the majority.  That care, irrespective of their willingness to assume responsibility for themselves, is their right.  Individuals who insist upon their right to smoke assume that the inevitable health care required by emphysema, cardiovascular collapse, and cancer of the throat, larynx and lungs is their right.  Though they refused to accept responsibility to avoid jeopardising themselves, they are quick to assert their right to health care.  Sodomites, the promiscuous, and intravenous drug users assert their right to health care when infected with AIDS.  They are insistent that they have no responsibility to avoid the disease.  If there is any responsibility, it is the responsibility of society to protect individuals from their own foolish actions.

We have created the welfare state and it is the right of each individual within society to have a life defined by a minimum wage and the basic accoutrements of modern life.  Whether an individual works to provide for that life is immaterial – they have a right to be cared for.  Whether an individual provides for the future through purchase of life insurance and through setting aside a sum for future expenses upon retirement is no longer an individual’s responsibility.  The government assures us that we have a right to expect that we will be cared for regardless of whether we have demonstrated responsibility or not.  Our employment insurance is seen as a right whether we contribute or not.  Instead of providing temporary assistance to those unable to work through no fault of their own, the system has become a means for pogey for seasonal workers and as a means to provide for holiday for those who decide to temporarily retire from the workforce.

At the social level the expectation of rights without responsibility is disastrous.  Within the realm of the Faith, such thinking is destructive and debilitating.  Unfortunately, we have brought the prevailing social attitude into the Faith and rights are exalted above responsibility.  Should you dissent from such assertion, I need but point to the fact that few Christians obey the command of our Master: Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you [Matthew 28:19,20a].

We tacitly believe that we have all the rights of salvation without any of the responsibilities of obedience.  As stated in previous messages we embrace a faith which provides comfort without conviction, heaven without holiness, redemption without regeneration, and salvation without sanctification.  We accept all the benefits of grace without any requirement of obedience to God.  Consequently, the individual who wins souls is an oddity in the contemporary church.  The majority is content to receive good from the Lord even as they reject every call to labour.

You may recall that the Lord was often deserted whenever the cost of following Him grew too dear for those focused on rights and refusing to accept responsibility.  On one occasion He taught that following Him required full commitment to faith in Him.  The Divine Author notes that from this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him [John 6:66].  The situation was at that time so critical that Jesus even questioned the commitment of the Twelve.  You do not want to leave too, do you [John 6:67]?  We might well consider the probing question Jesus asked, Why do you call me, “Lord, Lord,” and do not do what I say [Luke 6:46]?

The futility of rights divorced from responsibility.  Ultimately, there exist no rights where there are no responsibilities.  Such a system must spontaneously devolve into anarchy.  When everyone is demanding rights without regard for the welfare of others, none are assuming responsibility for the weaker members of that society.  Consequently, there is scant reason to expect the preservation of that society.  That is the grave danger facing western society and perhaps more immediately for our purposes this is the serious danger facing us as a nation.

Tragically, this distorted situation likely holds true even among the churches of this day.  Churches continue in a weakened condition in no small measure because the majority of adherents are focused on their rights though few among the membership are willing to assume responsibility.  I fear that the majority within professing Christendom assumes their rights are secure, yet few of our fellow saints demonstrate commitment to assume responsibility either for obedience to Christ or to exercise the gifts He has entrusted to them for His glory.  Even within our own membership are found far too many who give evidence that their perceived rights take precedence over their responsibility to serve others or to serve Christ.

When it is easier to quit than to serve, those individuals have failed to distinguish between rights and responsibilities.  When an individual punishes the church through withholding his fellowship, remaining at home to “worship” in his assembly of one instead of seeking the greater good of the many, that individual knows nothing of responsibility.  Though such a one would no doubt inform us of his rights, he cannot speak with authority of his responsibility before God.  When one sits on the fringes complaining instead of investing life and labour to the glory of God, he is guilty of focusing on rights to the exclusion of responsibility.  This accounts in no small measure for the anaemic state of the churches of this day.

There can be no advance of the Faith, no spiritual victory among the towns and cities of the nation, no glorious conquest of souls within our own families, so long as the condition of spiritual greed persists.  Until we again assume responsibility to honour Christ as individuals we shall see no great victory within the conflicts of life.  Until we again assume responsibility to serve one another without thought of personal aggrandisement we cannot anticipate any great blessing upon our labours.  Until we die to self that Christ may live among us we shall see no assignment of rights within the Body of Christ.

The way to balance rights and responsibility.  I conclude that the only reasonable manner in which rights may be balanced with responsibility is by means of a renewed heart.  It is impossible for the heart of fallen mankind to rise above its own interest.  The essence of sin is the enthronement of self.  Lucifer attempted to exalt himself above the Lord God only to be cast down to the earth [Isaiah 14:13,14].  Likewise, the heart of sin for Adam and Eve was the exaltation of their own desires over the will of God.  The Genesis account of man's Fall informs us that the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom [Genesis 3:6].  In the context of the message today, therefore, the emphasis on rights to the exclusion of responsibility is sure expression of man's fallen nature.

The means to redress this imbalance is through restoring the rightful occupant to the throne of life.  That rightful ruler is none other than the Living God, Christ the Lord.  So the Word informs us that in order to enthrone Him as King we must have a coronation ceremony.  That ceremony is described in Romans 10:9,10.

If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

Confessing, Jesus is Lord and believing in your heart that He is risen from the dead, the rightful ruler is restored to the throne of life.  Then, and only then, may any individual have hope of restoring balance to life.

I must conclude that each of us needs to review our commitment to Christ and to His cause.  Each of us must hear the call to serve one another in love.  This means that we cease trying to punish one another, cease trying to manipulate one another, cease trying to gain our rights at the expense of exercise of our responsibilities to build one another in a spirit of love.  Reviewing our commitment to Christ and to His cause, some of us will likely discover that we are in rebellion to His Name.  Professing ourselves spiritually superior to others of our fellow saints, we are blind and bitter.  Let such a one repent and cease rebellion.  Let such a one come confessing that Christ shall be enthroned and that Christ alone shall reign in his heart.  Amen.