Am I Entitled to My Own Opinion?
Am I entitled to my own opinion?
The short answer: no.
The long discussion?
Yesterday I was thrilled to hear that two states were ending mask mandates and allowing businesses to open 100%. We are not so fortunate in my own state, but seeing the beginning of the end to the madness was comforting and renewed my hope.
As thrilled as I was, I soon saw many people online attacking their governors and spouting off their own opinions about the subject. I saw the two differing sides venomously attacking each other. One side claiming masks and social distancing were necessary, the other that it should be a choice.
My immediate reaction was wanting to argue with the strangers on the internet holding an opposing view to my own. I wanted to present my own facts and knowledge, explaining how flawed their thinking was. As we all are aware, arguing on the internet totally changes perspectives and makes everything better.
I didn’t argue or make a post of my own, but I went to bed with it still consuming my mind. I lay awake for a few minutes dwelling on the fear and ignorance of others. I felt anger and anxiety over other people’s opinions.
Then the Holy Spirit gently reminded me: your own opinion doesn’t matter.
I sat on that for a few moments before praying and turning over all my fears and anxieties to the Lord, giving thanks, and receiving His peace (see Philippians 4:4-8) and telling the Lord I would like to have His perspective and opinion instead.
I slept soundly, but when I woke to feed the baby in the early morning hours I continued to think about my opinion and the fact that as a believer and follower of Jesus I am no longer entitled to my own.
That totally isn’t the viewpoint of the world. In the world we hear things like “you are entitled to your own opinion” and “your opinion matters”. But is that true? It sounds good, but again, is that true?
In the last year I have seen an increase in fighting, both online and in person, between not only the world, but brothers and sisters in Christ as well. Friendships have been forsaken in the name of an opinion. Stubbornly we have continued to shout our own opinions from the rooftops while condemning others for their own.
We have ignored the fact that the only opinion that really matters, is God’s.
2 Corinthians chapter 5 is such an amazing explanation of this. As Paul is explaining to the church at Corinth, we are not our own.
Verses 11-21
“Since then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than what is in the heart.
If we are ‘out of our mind’ as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
I kept the entire passage together for context, but highlighted the verses that I’ve been meditating on. I have gleaned these three points from the verses:
Christ died for us, so those of us alive in Christ are no longer to live for ourselves, but we should live for Jesus.
If we are living a life in Christ our old life is gone and a new one has come.
We are ambassadors for God, and should act accordingly.
An ambassador’s job is to be a liaison between his own country and a foreign one. An ambassador is not entitled to his or her own opinion, they are to only speak and act according to the authority they are under. We are ambassadors for the Kingdom of God to the world. Our own opinion does not matter, only His.
As we continue to be a part of a world filled with billions of opinions, remember to think before you speak. Your life is no longer your own.
We are here as an extension of Heaven and it's time we started acting like it.
