Opinions
September 5, 2004
Dear Friends, On one occasion, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. went on a housecall to see one of his patients. As he was entering, a priest was just leaving. The priest told Dr. Holmes that his patient was very ill and going to die. Upon hearing that, Dr. Holmes said “Yes, and he is going to hell.” The mortified priest exclaimed “You must not say such things.” Shrugging his shoulders, Dr. Holmes said “Well, you have expressed a medical opinion and I have just as much right to a theological opinion.” (1)
Opinions are a kind of like eyes, everyone has a couple. Some people have opinions on just about everything. We even have a section of our daily newspaper completely dedicated to opinions called the editorial page. If you have a strong enough opinion that you think the entire city should know about you can write a letter to the editor and they will print it for all to read. Whether you find other people’s opinions interesting, benign or annoying, when it comes to theological opinions, we are treading on thin ice if we cannot back our opinion up with a “thus sayeth the Lord.”
One sister in Christ shared with me recently that she was visiting an ecclesia that had an forum where a three person panel of brethren were asked their thoughts on various topics by the audience. The questions were asked and the first two brethren began their responses with “In my opinion….” When the third brother’s turn came about, he said “Thus sayeth Yahweh” and went on to quote several verses which addressed the issue at hand. She remembered vividly being impressed on how that last brother handled himself. It was not his personal opinion that mattered, but the word of the Lord.
One of the quickest ways to test yourself (and anyone else for that matter) is to ask the simple question once a theological opinion has been offered: “What passages of Scripture would you use to support that opinion?” The Scripture offers us the wise counsel that any matter should be established before two or three witnesses (Matt. 18:16). This being the case, we should be able to offer at least two or three passages (not just individual verses taken out of context) to support our thinking. “Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you.” (1 Pet. 3:15)
It is not natural to think Biblically. First of all, we have to know the Bible well enough to think Biblically. This can be intimidating if you have not made it a habit to read the Bible. Second, even if you do read the Bible and know what it says, the tendency of the flesh is to want to default to the heart or how we feel. The heart being deceitful and desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9), this is very dangerous. Frankly, the Bible does not lend itself very well to emotional exposition without regard to context, history and thematic integration. Finally, thinking Biblically requires work and effort. Learning to think like God and Christ requires study, prayerful meditation and diligent practice coupled with trial and error. If we don’t try to think Biblically, it is not magically going to happen. Without diligent effort, we will forever be stuck giving personal opinions.
But this is just my opinion………
Have a great week!
(1) The Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes, p. 284, 1985.
Comments»
No comments yet.