“Just because something is technically legal doesn’t mean that it’s spiritually appropriate. If I went around doing whatever I thought I could get by with, I’d be a slave to my whims” (1 Cor. 6:12).

I am the first to admit that I am a recovering Pharisee. Even now, I get a certain perverse thrill when a pastor speaks on a vice that doesn’t apply to me. I can visualize people I think that really need to hear the message and oftentimes miss out on the real point entirely. That almost happened tonight.

As a Christian freed from the law, I have liberty to do certain things. I even have rights. I could partake of the occasional glass of wine or beer if I wanted. I don’t, but only because I don’t prefer the taste and because alcoholism is on both sides of my family.

I could probably do a lot of things and say a lot of things and be perfectly within my rights. But would I be within the parameters of true love? The kind that Jesus showed? Here’s a few things I’ve figured out.

If I really have the love of Jesus, I won’t demand my rights all the time. If fact, true love shows itself best when I lay down my rights for another. My insistance on always having my rights shows that I am not loving like Jesus did.

Jesus, according to Phillipians 2:5-11, had all the rights and privileges of being equal with God. If anyone could have insisted on rights, He could. Instead, He emptied Himself of those rights and privilges and took on the form of a slave. And not just a slave, but a slave who was willing to die in the most humiliating and excrutiating way possible on a Roman cross.

Love doesn’t say, “What are my rights and what can I get away with?” but “What can I give up to make the other person better?” Ultimately, love asks, “How can I show Jesus to people in such a way that they will be drawn to His love the way I was?” and “How can I make the name of Jesus look as great and glorious as possible?”

So, love trumps my rights. Love trumps my own ego. Love trumps hate and evil and everything else that stands up against it. Look at that cross and see the ultimate triumph of Love.

I hope you and I will. Daily.