A Background:

• Nowadays, human rights represent almost the whole of our value and legal system.
• Human rights have been gaining much traction in both the international and local level.
• With increased vying for human rights, different social groups are advancing their agendas in the name of rights movement. 
• Indeed, man has a natural sense of morality, where he morally affirms that human freedom and dignity can never be taken lightly.
• Yet, we must ask: “How much rights is right?”

Rights come in two distinct form:

(1) Legal rights

(2) Moral and Ethical Rights

<Genesis 1:26-27; 2:16-17>

26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them… 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Knowing our human dignity before human rights

1) We don’t exist by chance.

2) Our human dignity is derived from God (His image bearer).

3) We are created equally as the other human being, given the same dignity.

* <Galatians 3:28>: There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

* R.C. Sproul: “I don’t have anything in me that would demand that God treat me with eternal significance. I have eternal significance and eternal worth because God gives it to me. And not only does He give it to me but He gives it to every human being.”

God sets the standard for human rights, not human centric agendas

1) We must not see ourselves as superior in any way, even with respect to the non-Christians.

* <Mat 5:45,47> …HE causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous… And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?

* <Ro 9:2-4>: 2 “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, 4 the people of Israel.”

* <Ro 13:7>: Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

2) Assert our Christian values against certain specific abuses that are outright violations against human dignity.

* <James 5:4>: Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.

3) Always show our willingness to integrate smaller groups into the larger whole.

* <Php 2:3-4>: 3 In humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

* <Ro 15:1>: Those who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.