Opinions

Our culture places a high value on the right to hold an opinion.  In an era of tolerance, we pretend, for the most part, that all opinions are created equal.  Your opinion is yours, mine is mine, and if they happen to contradict each other, that's okay, they are just opinions.  Of course, not everyone is so civilized.  There are those individuals who are very dogmatic about their opinions.

The simple truth is that not all opinions are created equal.  A person who draws a conclusion based on faulty logic or erroneous facts will, almost always, draw the wrong conclusions.  They old saying, "two wrongs do not make a right," applies here.  We can't start from the wrong point, with the wrong directions, and drive to the right location.  Even if someone did arrive at the right conclusion while working with erroneous facts and faulty logic, their arrival would only be accidental.  As I have heard it put, "Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and then."

While we need to show respect to others, even when we disagree with them, we must have a higher authority than our opinions.  That authority is the Bible.  As God's revelation of himself to man, the Bible teaches us about life from God's perspective.  We need to test all of our opinions by the Word.  We need to ask ourselves, does the Bible shape our opinions or does our opinions shape our understanding of the Bible.  Many people often try to explain away doctrines with which they are uncomfortable.  The danger in this kind of thinking is it may lead us to twist the Scripture.

The Bible, rightly interpreted and correctly applied, speaks with the full authority of God.  Thus, to ignore a passage or to force upon it the wrong meaning is to twist the very words of God.  It doesn't matter if we like a particular doctrine or not.  What matters is what the Bible says.  For this reason, we must diligently labor to rightly understand the Scriptures, and allow them to shape our thoughts.  Where the Scripture is clear there can be no compromise.  Where it is less than clear, we must be careful not to force a contradiction with the rest of Scripture and deal with other of differing views with graciousness.

I have found that during the course of my service to the Lord, many of my opinions have changed.  Often, as I study, I am forced to evaluate the underlying assumptions and biases I have.  The doctrinal convictions I hold mean nothing if they are not drawn from the Word.  And there are times when, through careful study, I find that something I thought to be true cannot be supported by Scripture.  I remember well the time I discovered that the phrase, "God helps those who helps themselves," was not Scripture, but the words of the Deist, Ben Franklin.  The biblical truth is that God helps those who can't help themselves.  We must continually seek to rightly understand the Bible and shape our lives (and opinions) by it.  And that's more than just an opinion.