“Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” Psalm 119:105 NIV
“Treat opinions lightly; trust facts selectively, but hold truth tenaciously.”
My thoughts today are about “opinions and truth.”
You must learn to process and differentiate between opinions, facts, and truth. They are rarely all the same. Everyone holds opinions; most have some facts. You must know truth. I’ve noticed that some opinions simply cloud the facts and confuse the listener. Truth does neither. Even facts can be misused in ways that are misleading. Truth will never lead you astray, if it’s God’s truth. All others have only a varying combination of those, a mixture not always easily separated even by the individual.
Humility should teach you to treat opinions lightly, trust facts selectively, but hold truth tenaciously. I think people are often as bewildered as Pontius Pilate was as he was questioning Jesus. The Jewish leaders used facts selectively, mixed those generously with their opinions, but had no idea whatsoever of the truth about Jesus. Jesus was inconvenient to them and a threat to all they stood for. Jesus said to Pilate, “I have come into the world that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Pilate responded, “What is truth?” Read John 18:35-38 NKJV. That question hangs in the air still today, waiting for your answer. Those who know the answer are a joyous example, “I rejoice greatly . . you walk in the truth that is in you. I have no greater joy that to hear that my children walk in truth.” 3 John 1:3-4 NKJV.
The problem is that people are always trying to figure out who is telling the truth, because they don’t know where truth is found. It is not found in people’s opinions; truth – reliable and unchanging- is found in God and His Word. “Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light for my path.” Psalm 119:105 NIV. If you are walking without the truth of God’s Word, you are stumbling in the dark. In every situation, do you stop and ask, “What does God’s Word say about this?” When you know God, have confidence in His character, prize His will and purpose, and count His Word supreme, truth rings true when you hear it in your spirit. Ephesians 4:14-15 NLT.
When opinions conflict – opinions of your own or others’ – or when facts contradict each other, be true to the truth. Go back to what is eternal and unchanging. A recent ABC News poll found that while churches are growing, many among congregations have an “eclectic theology,” believing in both the resurrection but allowing the possibility of reincarnation, believing God guides through prayer but also through horoscopes. Hosea, an Old Testament prophet wrote, “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge . . you have ignored the Law of your God.” Hosea 4:6 NIV.
That is alarming to me, and can only be attributed to an ignorance of God’s Word and/or an arrogance of equating personal or popular opinion with the Bible. It is reported that “while devout Muslims commit themselves to memorize the Koran, the average Christian does not read the Bible once a week.” Is there a wonder then why people have not trained themselves to recognize truth?
Remember this: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16 NKJV. The Bible is more than opinion or fact; it’s God’s truth!
My prayer for you today is that you will never assume truth to be only an opinion.