By: Carole L. Haines
37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
(Matthew 22:34-40)
In order to really love God, we must embrace God’s point of view about everything; who He says He is, what He says about us and His view of everyone else. I believe one of the greatest hindrances I have dealt with in my growth in Christ, is the sense of my right to my own opinion. We live in a culture that exalts opinion and very often suppresses truth. What is an opinion anyway? The word opinion is only used six times in the entire Bible. The first occurrence is in the famous standoff between Elijah and the prophets of Baal.
21 Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people did not answer him a word. (1 Kings 18:21).
The word, opinion, used in this context means: divided in mind, a sentiment, ambivalence. How long will you hesitate between two opinions? To hesitate is the same word in Hebrew used to describe the “passing over,” of the houses during the plagues of Egypt, in the death of the first-borns. How long will we pass over those things in our lives that the Lord keeps laying His finger on and saying to us, “Time to decide whom you shall follow, Me or this idol you cling to?”
We cannot love God with a divided heart, wavering between two or more opinions. And if we do not love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, we cannot possibly love others or ourselves. We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). So one of the first things that needs to go from our lives, in this transformation process, is our opinions. As believers in Christ, we really don’t have the right to our own opinions, we have chosen to view everything through the lens of God. Now I’m not talking about what flavor ice cream is the best, or what our favorite color is. I’m not talking about the trivial things like that, those are tastes or preferences on non-essentials. But what is essential is His Truth. Oswald Chambers says this:
Always measure your life solely by the standards of Jesus. Submit yourself to His yoke, and His alone; and always be careful never to place a yoke on others that is not of Jesus Christ. It takes God a long time to get us to stop thinking that unless everyone sees things exactly as we do, they must be wrong. That is never God’s view. There is only one true liberty— the liberty of Jesus at work in our conscience enabling us to do what is right.
Don’t get impatient with others. Remember how God dealt with you— with patience and with gentleness. But never water down the truth of God. Let it have its way and never apologize for it. Jesus said, “Go…and make disciples…” (Matthew 28:19), not, “Make converts to your own thoughts and opinions.” From My Utmost for His Highest Updated Edition
Let us sit before the Holy Spirit and ask Him to reveal anything in us that is wrong in our thinking about who He is, how He views others, both believers and non-believers. And let’s ask Him to give us His view of ourselves. He will show you and lead you in the way that you should go, or think in this case. Have a Blessed Day.
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