Everyone has an opinion. And the hotter the topic, the more intense the opinions become. Sentences that start with, “I think” are actually opinions but they are often presented as if they were factual and undeniable truths. Statements like, “I believe the one who dies with the most toys wins,” is an opinion. There’s no proof, of course, that having more toys constitutes “winning” at the game of life nor that life is about “winning” at all. It’s an opinion. But more than that, it’s a statement of faith upon which a life is built.
You and I have the right to our own opinions and the right to disagree AND the responsibility to treat each other respectfully in how we disagree. But in the end, our opinions don’t really matter. Opinions don’t make something true. What I think about life after death doesn’t matter. Truth matters. One may think that we all turn into butterflies or cosmic vibrations when we die but it doesn’t make it so. What is so is what IS, not our opinion about it.
I’ve seen “on the street interviews” where a question was asked: “Do you think you’ll go to heaven?” The responses varied greatly. Everyone had an opinion that ranged from, “I don’t know; I hope so,” or “Maybe if I do enough good things,” to “Yes! Because Jesus is my Lord!” Some have the opinion that heaven doesn’t even exist. Their opinion is that we live and die and that’s it.
We’re told a true story in Luke 10 about an “expert” in the law who approached Jesus and asked him a similar question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Instead of responding directly, Jesus referred the man to the Word of God. “What is written in the law; how do you read it?” We can talk about our opinions and our faith until we’re blue in the face, but a better way for the light of God to shine upon a soul is for them to read his Word and answer for themselves, “What does it say?”
The man quickly spit up the correct answer, “Love your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.” (Have you noticed how it is often easier to answer hard questions than to live them?!) And then he asks, “Who is my neighbor?” Again instead of answering, Jesus tells him the story about a man who is beat up and robbed. Two religious leaders ignore him but a man who was looked down upon as sinful and unworthy went to great lengths and expense to help the injured stranger. “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” “The one who had mercy on him,” replied the expert in the law. Jesus said, “Go and do likewise.”
How we live our lives matters. It is a testimony of faith, an open demonstration of how we interpret what it means to follow Jesus. We’re not called to live according to opinions about people nor to judge them because their opinions are different from ours. We’re called to follow Jesus, to understand how his heart loved others, and to go and do likewise.