My Opinion Does Not Matter

 

I am male, white, and middle-aged. The general message I am getting from our present woke culture is that I just need to “shut up.” Listening does not really matter for me either because my opinion is of no consequence, so changing it is also of no consequence.

This is half true.

Truly, my opinion does not matter. I am of no consequence. For those who see themselves as part of a privileged group and therefore of more import than others, this is arrogance and sinful pride.

This is a hard concept for some religious groups to wrap their heads around. Even in fundamentalism, we have tended to nearly deify preachers. This practice is a left-over from the revivalist glory days of American Christianity. While God did a great work in those days, it was also a time that was touched by the romanticism of the culture. Part of the romanticism was Great Man Theory.  This method of interpreting history considers all that history—and in this case, Christian history—is actually driven by a very small number of very influential individuals.

For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. (2 Corinthians 4:5-7)

A Great Man Theory of leadership in professing Christianity is a very dangerous thing. It encourages the glorification of influential individuals beyond biblical wisdom and in turn produces arrogance among those leaders that produces corruption.

Sometimes the true spiritual leaders of the first generation survive the temptations of such hero worship. But the generation that follows—the generation that sees the veneration of their forbears and aspires to it themselves—becomes corrupt because their motives are corrupt from the start.

I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us. 10 Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds which he does, prating[a] against us with malicious words. And not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church. (3 John 9-10)

We must be committed to a Great God philosophy of leadership, where He uses flawed human beings to accomplish His eternal purposes for His own glory.

Half is untrue.

I must not be silent. I am a mouthpiece for God and for the word. I do not preach myself. My opinions do not matter. I am no authority in myself. As the heralds of old, my job is to loudly and distinctly declare the message of the King of Kings.

I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead [b]at His appearing and His kingdom: 2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

This I must do because I am commanded to do so. I must do it regardless of whether those that listen like it or not. I cannot amend the message or change it because the times have changed. I cannot soften it out of fear of being ridiculed or persecuted.

I am required to make sure that the message is understood clearly. Culture and context must be considered when delivering the message. But the consideration is about accuracy in communicating truth, not whether it is accepted or not.

This is the philosophy of New Testament leadership. This is what we are called to accomplish. Do not be silent. Do not let the world shout you down because you are black, white, Jew, gentile, young, old, tall, short, plain, attractive, poor, rich, eloquent, or simply spoken. None of these things matter to God. None of these things are good or bad in His sight.

God called and is calling sinners to His service—even persecutors and murderers like the Apostle Paul (1 Timothy 1:15). He does not command that come to Him purely, but rather that we allow Him to purify us.

 So I said:

“Woe is me, for I am undone!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King,
The Lord of hosts.”

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. ⁷ And he touched my mouth with it, and said:

“Behold, this has touched your lips;
Your iniquity is taken away,
And your sin purged.”

Also, I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:

“Whom shall I send,
And who will go for Us?”

Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” (Isaiah 6:5-8)

It is not required that they hear you. It is required that they hear Him.