A Frank Discussion of Christian’s Rights

by Mabel Williamson

Reviewed by Ed Hansen

Have We No Rights? by Mabel Williamson is a purposeful collection of lessons from the life of the author on the theme of “Christian rights.” Miss Williamson served in China and Indonesia with China Inland Mission from 1934 through the 1970s. In this book she recounts how, through many trials, she learned to give up her rights for the sake of the gospel. She discusses a number of “rights” a typical American Christian would have, but which many overseas missionaries have had to give up. The author’s point is that giving up our own preferences regarding lifestyle, health precautions, personal control, privacy, time, relationships, cultural traditions and many other subjects, opens the door for us to bear fruit in the Lord’s work. She kindly uses her past failures to illustrate this principle, and then applies it to the reader. No doubt many will come away with their feathers ruffled at some of her conclusions.

Eating Bitterness and Eating Loss

“You know,” he began, “there’s a great deal of difference between ‘eating bitterness’ (Chinese idiom for suffering hardship) and ‘eating loss’ (Chinese idiom for suffering the infringement of one’s rights).”…“When I came to China,” he continued, “I was all ready to ‘eat bitterness’ and like it.”…“Another thing that I had never thought about came up to make trouble. I had to ‘eat loss’! I found I couldn’t stand up for my rights – that I couldn’t even have any rights. I found that I had to give them up, every one, and that was the hardest thing of all.”

That missionary was right. On the mission field it is not the enduring of hardships, the lack of comforts, and the roughness of the life that make the missionary cringe and falter. It is something far less romantic and far more real. It is something that will hit you right down where you live. The missionary has to give up having his own way. He has to give up having any rights. He has, in the words of Jesus, to “deny himself.” He just has to give up himself.

Losing Our Life for His Sake

The heart of Miss Williamson’s message is summed up in these words of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke:

“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.” (Luke 9:23-24).

…one who has shown that he is willing to give up his own standards and conform to someone else’s, even though he may not see the reason for those standards, has shown an attitude that will take him a long way on the mission field. The “how I do my hair and what kind of clothes I wear is my own business!” attitude so frequently met with, both at home and on the field, is not a promising one. If we have fully given ourselves to Christ, nothing is our business – it is all His.

The following “dying-to-self” example is drawn from the chapter entitled “The Right To Feel Superior.” Miss Williamson recounts the story of receiving a gift of money equivalent to a few American dollars from a relatively wealthy Chinese Christian woman:

I had always been pleased with the gifts of food, but somehow, when I saw what this gift was, I reacted strongly against it. There was something in me that rebelled. “I don’t need your money!” was my instinctive reaction. Fortunately, I had enough politeness left to realize that I could not refuse it without offending the giver, and so I did take it, mumbling my thanks, which I did not feel, and watched the servant depart. Then I sat down to think it out. Why did it make me so uncomfortable to accept that gift? When I finally got to the bottom of it, I decided that the real reason was that I unconsciously felt that it put me in an inferior position. Accepting a gift of food was different – that was just neighborliness. But a small gift of money! That is normally given by a superior to an inferior – a father to his child, a mistress to her servant, one who has sufficient for his needs to one who has not. In this case the giver did not look at it like that, of course. Money gifts were a common thing in her circle, and to her the amount was not too small. But my unconscious reaction was that I was being put in an inferior position, and this was the thing at which I rebelled. How could I, who was this woman’s superior (this was my unconscious feeling), take this money, and so accept the place of being her inferior?

The author’s typical pattern is to share a story and then apply it to her reader, whom she sees as a potential new missionary. Following the testimony above, she discusses the difficulty of moving in among a more “primitive” people and avoiding a superiority complex:

How can a person be conscious of how much more he knows than someone else and still not feel superior? … We need to recognize what a difference having Christ makes. Those to whom we minister may live in the midst of filth and disease. Their minds may be dull, and their hearts dark and full of fears. (Were our ancestors any different when Christ found them?) But see them come to the One Who is the Light of the world and watch the transformation that takes place. Then realize more deeply than ever all that you owe to Christ and the greatness of His power in making the one who comes to Him literally “a new creation.”

Winning a Hearing for the Gospel

Miss Williamson wrote this book to give prospective missionaries a vision for learning to live in a way that wins a hearing for the gospel. She is making a good point, which has application for those who stay on the “home field” as well as those who go to the far corners of the earth. There is a natural hesitancy in mankind to listen to people or ideas from outside our culture and traditions. Any cross-cultural missionary has this hurdle to overcome in reaching the people he goes to. The author suggests the following philosophy:

The missionary wants to attract people. People must be attracted to him before they can be attracted to his message. They must accept him before they will accept his message. The more we can conform to their way of life, the easier and more natural and more rapid their acceptance of us will be.

For example, my sister Frances and I are both members of the China Inland Mission. During the past few years I have been living in the modern and wealthy city of Singapore. I lived according to an ordinary middle-class standard – which meant running water, electricity, gas, and modern plumbing. I was conforming to the social standards and living conditions of the people to whom I went. During the same time my sister was in the Philippines, living in a palm-leaf hut in a clearing in the jungle, carrying her own water, and sleeping on the floor. She was conforming to the social standards and living conditions of the people to whom she went.

If we find their way of sitting uncomfortable and their food unpleasant, they are not going to enjoy having us as guests. I may think it disgusting to eat my rice off a banana leaf with my fingers, but if I show that disgust, I probably will not be invited again. And my hostess may decide that I am merely an unmannerly foreigner and that there is no profit in pursuing my acquaintance or in listening to the strange stories of Someone called Jesus that I am so fond of telling.

Hence, the giving up of our rights has a purpose: adorning the spoken gospel of Christ with the “lived-out” character of Christ. This we could call non-resistance in interpersonal relationships.

Non-Resistance in Interpersonal Relationships

The term “non-resistance” is often viewed as the teaching that a Christian should not serve in the military. In truth it is a much deeper and broader doctrine than that and has very direct bearing on the subject of our book. Many Christians today are trying to win a spiritual battle with carnal weapons. We do have a battle, but it is a spiritual battle, fought with spiritual weapons to bring about spiritual goals. Refusing to fight in earthly wars is just one application of the true doctrine of non-resistance. Have We No Rights? is the beautiful application of the non-resistant lifestyle of the Lord Jesus to our interpersonal relationships today.

“For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.” (1 Peter 2:21-23).

He was meek and lowly in relating to others, trusting in the Father in heaven to order the events of His life, and this release of control over His life to His Father was the very thing that opened the door for the Father to be glorified in His life. One of the reasons the Lord Jesus walked in this way was so that we could follow Him in the very same way and also achieve the same type of results, reckoning on the same relationship with our Father in heaven.

In Conclusion

Have We No Rights? is a well written challenge and much needed in our day. If we would apply the Christ-like self-denial recommended in the book in our dealings with one another and with the lost around us, the grace of God would surely be on our work. While we see much to appreciate about this book, we also have some cautions to offer. China Inland Mission’s view of the Christian home is one area of concern. We would not agree with their practice of sending their missionary children to boarding schools in order to free the mothers up for extensive mission work. Another concern is CIM’s acceptance of women teaching in the Church. Having mentioned these cautions, we recognize that God uses imperfect men and women to lift up His perfect ways and participate in His perfect work. May we also consecrate ourselves to His service, turning from our selfish carnal ways to His selfless spiritual ways.

The conclusion of Have We No Rights? is a poem on the subject “He Had No Rights. And I?”. It ends with the following lines:

All that He takes I will give;
All that He gives will I take;
He, my only right!
He, the one right before which all other rights fade into nothingness.
I have full right to Him;
Oh, may He have full right to me!

This book is available from:

Lighthouse Publishing, Inc.
14377 Old St. Hwy. 28
Pikeville, TN 37367

www.lighthousepublishing.org