For many of us, there’s NOTHING more important than our own opinions …
Every week on the Scott Free Clinic website we ask a single question as part of a weekly survey of what our audience is thinking. This week’s question is this: Which has priority in your life, your personal opinion or what the Bible actually teaches?
You might remember in the Bible that the Apostle Paul instructs us not to think too highly of ourselves (Romans 12:3). But we’re living in a time where we not only elevate ourselves, but our thinking in particular, valuing our opinions even over what God has to say.
There’s a lot wrong with giving such significance to our own opinions, but the greatest danger of placing our opinions above all else is how it can cause us to reject God and the things of God even when the truth of God is as plain as day before us. That’s exactly the case in this scene following Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem …
“The blind and the lame came to him in the Temple, and he healed them. The leading priests and the teachers of religious law saw these wonderful miracles and heard even the children in the Temple shouting, ‘Praise God for the Son of David.’ But the leaders were indignant. They asked Jesus, ‘Do you hear what these children are saying?’ ‘Yes,’ Jesus replied. ‘Haven’t you ever read the Scriptures? For they say, ‘You have taught children and infants to give you praise.”’ Then he returned to Bethany, where he stayed overnight,” Matthew 21:14-17.
These religious leaders saw with their own eyes how Jesus was worthy of our praise and worship, something the children understood and offered!
But not these religious leaders.
To them, their opinion of Jesus was superior to the truth that was evident about Jesus.
We behave the same way, not wanting to bother with facts and truths, but instead prefer to advance our own opinions. An example of how preferring our opinions reveals our own ignorance is shown in the wake of the senseless massacre of human life in Paris. A lot of people seem to hold the opinion that religion is the problem. They tell us that if we just do away with religion, wars would cease.
But what those who hold this OPINION have failed to take into account is that the 20th century was the bloodiest century in the history of mankind, and that the atrocities of that century were committed by anti-religious movements, led by men like Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Lenin, Chiang Kai-shek, Hideki Tojo, and Pol Pot. These men were not religiously motivated, yet they ruthlessly slaughtered millions of people:
This wasn’t that long ago. How have we forgotten so quickly?
Truth is an inconvenience we’re willing to push aside when it conflicts with our own opinions, an ugly behavior that has been the mark of humanity, described this way by Paul …
“But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools,” Romans 1:18-22.
When it comes to the truth, we’re willing to become “utter fools” to entertain our own opinions over the truth of God.
So which really does have priority in your life: your own opinions, or what the Bible actually teaches?
Scotty
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