The Privilege We Shrug Off Too Easily

Our culture has learned how to weaponize words, and one of its favorite targets right now is privilege. The word is often treated like a moral accusation, as if acknowledging any advantage is an admission of guilt. Beneath that resentment is a distorted assumption that life should distribute opportunity evenly and outcomes fairly.

That assumption has never matched reality.

Some people are born into stability, opportunity, influence, and security. Others are not. That disparity is real, and pretending otherwise does not make the world more just. At the same time, it is also true that in America, many people who work hard, exercise wisdom, and make good choices are able to overcome barriers and build meaningful lives.

What I want to do is reclaim the word privilege, not as a weapon, but as a good and honest word.

Hold that idea for a moment. Not privilege as something to deny or resent, but privilege as something to recognize and steward. There is a particular privilege given to us as Christians that is so familiar, so accessible, and so easily overlooked that we barely notice it anymore. We shrug it off because we no longer see it for what it is.

Before we can appreciate that privilege, we need to face two realities that Scripture refuses to soften.

What Jesus’ Authority Means for Our Bodies, Souls, and Ministry

Have you ever watched someone approach Jesus with nothing but desperation? Imagine a man rushing toward Jesus’ feet. The skin on his face, hands, and legs are flaking away, like dust from an old wall. This man had leprosy. In first-century Israel, leprosy didn’t just ravage the body; it erased a person’s place in the community. People backed away, fearful of becoming ceremonially unclean. You recognize the man in the crowd, even though you can’t recall. Once he was a familiar face in your town, but as his disease progressed, you, like everyone else, forgot him.

And then the man speaks from the dust:
“Lord, if you’re willing, you can make me clean.” (Luke 5:12)

Jesus does the unthinkable. He looks at the main, not with disgust, but with love, and He says, “I am willing.” He stretches out His hand and touches a man whom the Law had labeled untouchable. Immediately, the man is healed. The flaking skin disappears. He is restored.

The crowd gasped. Everyone knew the Law. No one was supposed to get that close to a leper. But Jesus touched him—had healed him! Then He instructed the man to go to the temple, to follow the Law’s process for declaring a healed leper clean (see Leviticus 14). And yet, He told him not to broadcast what had just happened. You couldn’t help but wonder if that was even possible. How could this be contained when a man who was declared untouchable had been made whole?

Taking Responsibility for a Fruitful Christian Life

One of the most countercultural truths in the Christian life is this: while salvation is entirely God’s work, spiritual fruitfulness involves real responsibility on our part. God acts first, God sustains, God empowers, and yet Scripture consistently calls believers to intentional obedience.

Jesus puts that responsibility plainly in Luke 9:23. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” That single sentence captures the direction of a disciple’s daily steps. Following Christ is not accidental or passive. It must be chosen and lived out one day at a time.

There are things God alone does, and there are things God tells us we must do. Discipleship lives in that tension, and fruit grows within that tension.