Choosing Love over rights brings to mind this scripture “For love is supreme and must flow through each of these virtues. Love becomes the mark of true maturity.” We talk a lot about rights these days. Yet the attention given to human entitlements hasn’t brought about corporate or personal freedom. Instead, most people are largely prisoners of jealousy, greed and bitterness. Instead of focusing on the privileges due us, we should take the biblical perspective of loving enemies and forgiving persecutors. Believers lay down their rights so they can take up the cause of a holy kingdom. That doesn’t mean that we let people trample on us. Rather, we offer a proper response according to biblical principles. In short, believers should be more concerned about showing God’s love to those who do wrong than about demanding their rights. The next thing that could be going on in your hearts, why should it be so? The scripture presents a good response to that which is -: “For that will reveal your identity as children of your heavenly Father. He is kind to all by bringing the sunrise to warm and rainfall to refresh whether a person does what is good or evil.”Matthew 5:45 We all have an identity and most often is by what we do rather than what we say. Remember that Love is an action and right, is a feeling. Maybe you’re thinking, But he doesn’t know how I’ve been mistreated. Indeed I do not. But what I do know is how Jesus Christ, our example, reacted to terrible abuse. He was betrayed by His friends, persecuted by His people, condemned by His peers, and crucified for our sins. Yet He said, “Father, forgive them”. That is a demonstration of Love over right. Before assuming that Jesus’ capacity for forgiveness and love is out of reach for mere human beings, remember: His Spirit dwells in believers which explains why Steven could respond in the same way to those stoning him outside the gate. We can choose to give away our rights and let God’s love work through us. The scripture thought and lived by Christ thought us to turn the other cheek and give up more than is asked because expressing love outweighs exerting our rights. You definitely can’t lose when you show others the boundless care of the Lord. You gain His blessing, and, hopefully, someone will be saved because of your example. When his body (church) decides to live out his pattern in our world of self-conscious and right seeking human beings, the influence of the reserved remnants will be felt and the world will become a better place for us all. So I encourage you to chose Love over and above right as a mark of who you really are.
PJ