What the Bible Says About Human Rights #2

I. Introduction
A. How appropriate to talk about human rights on Sanctity of Human Life Sunday!
II. Today we are going to look at Romans 12:14–13:10.
A. Romans 12:14–21 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
1. Here the apostle Paul gives us a magnificent new vision of how to treat people.
B. He continues by speaking of the proper Christian attitude toward civil authorities — Romans 13:1-6 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing.
C. He then sums up in Romans 13:7 “Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.”
1. As people living in this world we owe things.
2. How do you know who is owed what? God’s word: E.g.
a. Children owe something to their parents, and parents to their children — e.g. Eph.6:1-4.
b. Wives, to their husbands and husbands to their wives — e.g. Eph.5:22-33
c. And everyone owes honor to the emperor — Titus 3:1; 1Pet.2:17.
D. But then Paul goes on to talk about one more thing we owe to others: Romans 13:8-10 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
1. Owe no one anything: this doesn’t mean we should never borrow anything. It means we should pay what we owe. We should not leave a debt unpaid.
2. But there is one debt we can never repay. We owe a debt of love. We have a duty to love others.
a. What is love but to aspire to and seek the welfare of others? Love means wanting and working for the good of others, not their destruction (v.10 “Love does no wrong to a neighbor”).
b. How can you love billions of people you’ve never met? You don’t have to know someone to love them. You can desire the welfare of all mankind, and seek to promote it. When you have the resources and opportunity, you act in their best interests.
3. Our love doesn’t stop at just not doing wrong to others. Love requires us to do good.
a. It requires us to stick up for others who are being mistreated:
(1) Proverbs 24:11 “Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.”
(2) Is1:17 Seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.
(3) Is. 58:6–7 “Loose the bonds of wickedness, undo the straps of the yoke, let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke. Share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, cover him, and don’t hide yourself from your own flesh.”
b. Love calls us to be the Good Samaritan, to help others in need, even people who don’t like you, even competitors, arch rivals, political enemies.
E. What does every human deserve from every other human being? Love. But why?
III. The concept of human rights comes from the acknowledgment that human beings belong to God, are made in His image, and are His children.
A. In other words, when we’re dealing with human beings, we’re dealing with something that is special in the eyes of God, something to which He’s given special dignity.
B. The reason to love people is because of what they mean to God.
C. Luke 17:2 “It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.”
D. Mt.25:45 Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.
E. Genesis 9:6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.”
F. It’s not that people deserve love, but God deserves it. God deserves that we treat His children properly. It’s not so much that I owe my neighbor love but that I owe love-to-my-neighbor to God.
G. Think about this. Say you rebelled and got into big trouble — legal trouble, financial trouble, addiction trouble, the works — and a great and good man intervened to help you: paying your debts, addressing your legal issues, bailing you out and helping you out of all sorts of trouble. You owe him everything. Then this man’s son cuts in front of you on the road. How do you respond?
1. It doesn’t matter that the son has never done any good to you. His father has done everything for you and that’s enough. Even if that son is rebellious he’s still your benefactor’s child.
2. We are called to love the children of the One who gave us life and everything else.
3. This is the foundation of human dignity. This is the basis for human rights.
H. It is when we forget who people are — that they are God’s children made in His image — that we disrespect them.
I. We can’t be nonchalant about others, because these are people made by God in His image! They’re His! He cares about them.
J. We’re called to do to others what He has done to us. We love because He first loved us (1John 4:19).
K. And one of the signs of those who have embraced the love of God is that they love others (1John 4:7-8).
1. They get it: They’ve been forgiven, they forgive others. They’ve been helped, they help others.
2. They’ve been treated like God’s treasures, they treat others like God’s treasures.
L. It is these things which must govern our thinking about abortion, about sexism, about racism, about human trafficking, about persecution, about domestic violence, about sexual harassment, about all kinds of oppression.
IV. It all started with Jesus’ life of love. His life was the great inspiration for human rights.
A. He showed:
1. The dignity of children when He rebuked the disciples for sending the children away
2. The dignity of law-breakers when He refused to condemn the woman caught in adultery
3. The dignity of sinners when He accepted the affection and anointing of the sinful woman
4. The dignity of common people when He condemned the pride and abuse-of-authority of the religious leaders
5. The validity and limits of civil authority when He said to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s.
6. The dignity of enemies when He told the story of the good Samaritan who stopped to help a Jew who had been beaten by the side of the road
7. The dignity of rebels when He told the story of the rebellious son who was welcomed back with open arms and a great feast of celebration by his father
8. The dignity of the terminally ill when He touched the leper
9. The dignity of those with disabilities when He reached out to lame men & blind people with love and healing
10. The dignity of foreigners when He associated with Gentiles and offered to go to a Gentile’s house
11. The dignity of those in the military when He loved the Roman centurion and healed his servant
12. The dignity of executioners when He prayed, “Father forgive them.”
13. The dignity of criminals when He told the thief on the cross He’d be with Him that day in paradise
14. The dignity of women when He chose them to be the first witnesses of His resurrection.
15. The dignity of you & me when He came for us & died for us & reached out to us with the gospel.
B. Even in His rare displays of anger, He demonstrates His regard for others. Do you know the four things which made Him angry?
1. When people had no regard for the man with the withered hand at the synagogue
2. When His disciples excluded children from His presence
3. When the moneychangers in the temple were exploiting God's people for financial gain
4. When the religious leaders were abusing their authority in the name of God
V. Down through history Christians have led the way in human rights.
A. The most humane of human institutions originated through Christian influence.
1. Orphanages
2. Hospitals
3. Schools
4. Colleges
5. Libraries
B. All over the world and all through history, Christian people have battled against every kind of injustice and atrocity and inhumanity.
1. Physically or mentally handicapped people treated like animals (at best)
2. Brutality against prisoners with little or no concern for justice
3. Mistreatment of women/children
4. Forced prostitution, sex slavery
5. Slavery
C. “In China, missionaries worked to end the opium trade; in India, they fought to curtail abuses by landlords; in the West Indies and other colonies, they played key roles in building the abolition movement. Back home, their allies passed legislation that returned land to the native Xhosa people of South Africa and also protected tribes in New Zealand and Australia from being wiped out by settlers.” (Andrea Palpant Dilley, “The Surprising Discovery About Those Colonialist, Proselytizing Missionaries,” Christianity Today: Jan/Fen 2014)
D. Education, medicine, science, care for the poor, care for the sick, care for the handicapped, economics, government, civil liberty, the elevation of the position of women, benevolence and charity, law and justice, sexual morality, sanctity of life, languages, literacy, the overturning of oppression, art and music: in every field Christian people have been advocates of justice and mercy and respect and progress.
E. There are embarrassing exceptions, to be sure, exceptions some like to make out to be the rule.
VI. Conclusion
A. I’m not saying that human rights is the ultimate end-all of our lives.
B. "Few [missionaries] were in any systemic way social reformers," says Joel Carpenter, director of the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity at Calvin College. "I think they were first and foremost people who loved other people. They [cared] about other people, saw that they'd been wronged, and [wanted] to make it right." (Andrea Palpant Dilley, “The Surprising Discovery About Those Colonialist, Proselytizing Missionaries,” Christianity Today: Jan/Fen 2014)
C. Jesus came into the world to save sinners, not transform society in this age. He came not to redeem this world in this age but to redeem people now in anticipation of the redemption of the world on the last day.
D. However, He does transform society along the way: He leaves in His wake healthy people, forgiven people, restored and renewed people, people inspired to share the love they’ve experienced.
E. So, yes, we’re all for human rights. We are all for helping others and loving others and respecting others and rescuing others and fighting oppression and prejudice.
F. However, we also believe that the greatest oppression of mankind is sin, and that man’s greatest poverty is his alienation from God, and that His greatest need is to be reconciled with God in Christ.
G. And there’s someone even more important to love than your neighbor. Don’t get me wrong: Loving your neighbor is very important, but the most important thing of all is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. And without that, everything else is in vain.