The Opinion of Others

Monday morning, April 28, 2008
It is my very strong opinion that Jesus hurt the feelings of the temple leaders when He said this to them: “It is written, ‘And My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a robbers’ den” (Luke 19:46). Why that would be much like some outsider entering one of the local churches in this area and telling them a truth they did NOT want to hear. For example, “It is written, ‘I am the Lord your God and you shall have no other Gods before Me,’ but you are worshipping all sorts of pagan gods—attendance, money, performance, music, talent, success, preaching, preachers, doctrines, even dogmas, to name a few.” I am of the opinion that this would not go over very well in most churches for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that church-goers typically do not appreciate being called idolaters.
To be honest, I do not think Jesus was concerned about the feelings of the temple leaders; in fact, it is my opinion that He refused to take responsibility for another’s feelings, especially those of the temple leaders. Not even Jesus was able to control or determine how another might feel!
I said that so I could say this: It is very difficult NOT to be concerned about the feelings of others when your well-being is so strongly attached to their opinions of you. When this is the case (and it is, more often than not!), most everything we do is done to “keep the boat from rocking” and, thus, to avoid the firestorms that result when others are angered by something we say or do. Obviously, Jesus wasn’t in Sunday School when this lesson was taught (read Matthew 23, if you should doubt this!).
Let me say that this way: Jesus was NOT a hireling—period! He never “hired-on” to work for anyone; He never put Himself in a place where His value was determined by anyone’s opinion of Him; instead, He lived and died to serve His Father. I think there is a lesson in this for all of us: Jesus was able to do this because He KNEW His Father’s opinion of Him and His opinion was the only one that mattered—”This is My beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased!”
If we could not only realize that this is His opinion of us, as well; but also come to the place where His opinion of us is the only one that really matters, we would spend much less time making our decisions around what others might think of us and, thus, spend much more time living our lives in the freedom of His opinion of us.

Have a wonderful Monday!