It is now almost a crime to be seen to have privilege but it doesn't have to be so.

Here are 5 things you can do to make the most of your privilege/right.

Thread.

#1. REDIRECT IT.

One reason privilege gets such a bad rap is because people who have it tend to hug and consume it alone. Not so Nehemiah.

On hearing about the terrible conditions in Jerusalem, while living and working a plush job abroad, Nehemiah broke down and wept for days

Nehemiah will go on to take a leave of absence and return to Jerusalem to help rebuild the city. Upon his return, he was appointed as Governor and this is where he really shows that privilege can be a good thing when properly repurposed/redirected. Here's what transpired...

Neh 5
1 About this time some of the men and their wives raised a cry of protest against their fellow Jews. 2 They were saying, “We have such large families. We need more food to survive.”

3 Others said, “We have mortgaged our fields, vineyards, and homes to get food during the famine.”
4 And others said, “We have had to borrow money on our fields and vineyards to pay our taxes. 5 We belong to the same family as those who are wealthy, ...

...and our children are just like theirs. Yet we must sell our children into slavery just to get enough money to live. We have already sold some of our daughters, and we are helpless to do anything about it, for our fields and vineyards are already mortgaged to others.”

6 When I heard their complaints, I was very angry. 7 After thinking it over, I spoke out against these nobles and officials. I told them, “You are hurting your own relatives by charging interest when they borrow money!” Then I called a public meeting to deal with the problem.

Aside the specific public policy decisions Nehemiah mandated as response to these complaints, here are the things he did personally to REDIRECT his privileges.

Neh 5:14 For the entire twelve years that I was governor of Judah—from the twentieth year to the thirty-second year of the reign of King Artaxerxes[a]—neither I nor my officials drew on our official food allowance.

15 The former governors, in contrast, had laid heavy burdens on the people, demanding a daily ration of food and wine, besides forty pieces[b] of silver. Even their assistants took advantage of the people. But because I feared God, I did not act that way.

16 I also devoted myself to working on the wall and refused to acquire any land. And I required all my servants to spend time working on the wall. 17 I asked for nothing, even though I regularly fed 150 Jewish officials at my table, besides all the visitors from other lands!

18 The provisions I paid for each day included one ox, six choice sheep or goats, and a large number of poultry. And every 10 days we needed a large supply of all kinds of wine. Yet I refused to claim the governor’s food allowance because the people already carried a heavy burden

what a man! what a way to steward privilege and make the most of it!!!

#2. RISK IT

People are so afraid to lose their privilege and are as such usually unwilling to risk it. Esther was however able to overcome this natural aversion to risking our privilege.

Challenged by the words of Mordecai who correctly pointed out that God grants us our privileges so we can use them at critical junctions to change the course of history; Esther decided to put it all on the line. Read the account...

Est 4:13 Mordecai sent this reply to Esther: “Don’t think for a moment that because you’re in the palace you will escape when all other Jews are killed.

14 If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”

15 Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: ...

16 “Go and gather together all the Jews of Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will do the same. And then, though it is against the law, I will go in to see the king. If I must die, I must die.”

Esther came to the point where she RISKED her privilege.

We are daily granted opportunities to risk our privilege to steer history in a different direction. Make the most of your privilege by taking those opportunities.

#3. RENOUNCE IT

Paul the Apostle had the privilege of Ivy league Spiritual Education and Clergical Pedigree. He studied under the great Gamaliel and as for his Clergical Credentials, here is how he reels it out himself...

Php 3:5 I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one!

I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. 6 I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.

given all of the above, one would understand if Paul elected to hold on to his privileges, but here is what he says about them.

Php 4:7 I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done.

8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ

Paul RENOUNCED his privilege because it was getting in the way of things - in this case, knowing Christ and pursuing the assignment for his life. He could not have been able to say "I am all things to all people" if he held on to his narrow Jewish heritage.

Paul in fact was a serial renouncer. When it came to his privilege/right of support from Church offering, he had this to say...

1 Cor 9:4 Don’t we have the right to live in your homes and share your meals? 5Don’t we have the right to bring a believing wife[b] with us as the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers do, and as Peter[c] does?6 Or is it only Barnabas and I who have to work to support ourselves?

13 Don’t you realize that those who work in the temple get their meals from the offerings brought to the temple? And those who serve at the altar get a share of the sacrificial offerings.

14 In the same way, the Lord ordered that...

those who preach the Good News should be supported by those who benefit from it.

15 Yet I have never used any of these rights. And I am not writing this to suggest that I want to start now. In fact, I would rather die than lose my right to boast about preaching without charge.

So we see that once there is a higher thing to be gained by losing our privileges, Paul renounces his.

There are countries for instance which require you to renounce the citizenship of your home country in order to take up theirs, and many people do.

what privileges might you renounce today, in order to take the higher way?

#4. REPUDIATE IT

This is a stronger term than to merely renounce. We can renounce a privilege not because it is wrong, but because we are trading it for a higher one, but we can also REPUDIATE a privilege because we reckon it to be wrong for us.

Moses is a fine example of this. As it is written,

Heb 11:24 It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to share the oppression of God’s people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin.

Moses could have "kept his head" and possibly become king of Egypt - he was after all a prince of Egypt, but chose rather to share the oppression of God's people. He considered the privileges of the palace as sinful and he REPUDIATED them.

There are lots of people who want to enjoy the privileges of sin and still come to pontificate about virtue. For instance, many of the children of the looters of Nigeria's commonwealth hold on to the loot even as they insult the public with their performance piety.

#5. REDEEM IT.

This is to earn our privilege and I doubt that Man can fully realize this, but the Son of Man did.

By paying the ransom for our lives, Jesus earned our worship. By unassailable logic, he claims on us.

2 Cor 5:15 He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.

and here's what he did with his privilege...

Php 2:5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

6 Though he was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.

7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges[b];
he took the humble position of a slave[c]
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,[d]
8 he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
and gave him the name above all other names,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

11 and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

only Jesus has fully REDEEMED (paid for) his Privilege, and by so doing, the rest of us owe all our privileges to Him.

The ways to best use these privileges are to...

#1. REDIRECT IT
#2. RISK IT
#3. RENOUNCE IT
#4. REPUDIATE IT
#5. be grateful for his REDEMPTION