Many in the modern Church can be expected to argue that one does have rights and that the demonic doctrine of "rights" is Biblical. Such is the blasphemy of the modern Church in claiming its rights! As if this was not blasphemous enough, the modern Church relies on secular human "rights" groups for help in Christians who are persecuted. What could be more blasphemous than that. Such is the modern people-fearing, people-pleasing Church. Gone are the days when it was agreed among the Body of Christ that it mattered not what the world thought of the Church, and that persecution for Christ's sake was a sign of its righteousness.
Rather, many in the modern Church would use 1 Timothy 5:17-18 to argue that humans have "rights:
Rather, many in the modern Church would use 1 Timothy 5:17-18 to argue that humans have "rights:
Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine. For the scripture saith, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.
On the surface, this may seem to justify the doctrine of rights, especially to the Christians of today who are so influenced by modernist and postmodernist thought. What 1 Timothy 5:17-18 means is that those who labour have earned something according to their works. However, it is not a "right", a right in the absolute sense or even in the relative sense for labouring is a gift from God, and not a "right".
While God did tell the first man Adam that he will work in pain as a curse (Genesis 3:17), it was the pain that was the curse, not the privilege to work. God gave man the privilege of work, not "right" to work, as He made the command before the Fall in Genesis 3. God made humans to work for Him, not themselves or those who they love such as their families. Of course, God-hating people will not work for God, but themselves and even their families, as even the unbeliever acknowledges that he must care for his family (1 Timothy 5:8).
Do not for any moment think you have any "rights" like what the pagans think, and what the mammonised Christians who think that the need to serve one's family makes one's so righteous and is an excuse to serve mammon, like what one professing Christian woman I encountered has argued.
You may seek to use Romans 4:4 to still argue for "rights", even though deep down inside, you know there is no such thing as a right. The more modern translations use phrases to refer to wages as 'due', 'not credited due to grace' or 'obligatory'. The King James Version uses the word 'debt'. The context of Romans 4:4 is to explain that Salvation, unlike a worker's wages, is not a debt God owed, but that which is credited by grace:
You may seek to use Romans 4:4 to still argue for "rights", even though deep down inside, you know there is no such thing as a right. The more modern translations use phrases to refer to wages as 'due', 'not credited due to grace' or 'obligatory'. The King James Version uses the word 'debt'. The context of Romans 4:4 is to explain that Salvation, unlike a worker's wages, is not a debt God owed, but that which is credited by grace:
What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness (Romans 4:1-5).
What is meant by debt in Romans 4:4-5 is that which is owed by justice. For example, the term 'sin-debt' refers to the punishment for sin by God that is according to His justice. Hence, this is why Romans 4:5 explains that God needs to justify the ungodly to still be just for God is bound by His character.
Romans 4:4 was used an an earthly example to explain by contrast what Salvation was. Thus, what Romans 4:4 means is that wages are earned by a worker according to debt owed, not credited by grace for the worker does not work by grace. Romans 4:4 is not a statement about God's institution of work, but merely used an an analog to explain what debt and grace are. Thus, it cannot be use to claim that a worker has "rights" in absolute moral sense, and therefore true sense.
God allows humans to work as a privilege, not a "right" for God, in His sovereignty has no obligation to allow us to even exist. It is only by God's grace that we can even exist. That is, His grace, not pleasure, but grace for we do not even deserve life, but the very opposite of life. Thus, this itself means there is no such thing as a moral "right" to anything at all. All so-called "rights" in the world that are earned such as wages, are relative "rights", not absolute moral "rights".
Even wages are ultimately a gift from God, not a right.
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