Humility

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The highest form of humility, true humility, is complete submission to the Word of God. I gave an exposition on this in my presentation of chapters 4 and 5 of the epistle of James nearly 2 years ago: http://christogenea.org/content/james-c ... 01-20-2012

However even Paul of Tarsus realized that there are challenges which we come across in life for which no explicit laws, instructions or examples exist in God's Word that we may know just how to handle them. For these, Paul gave an opinion, and expressed in his letters that he was only giving an opinion. (Example, 1 Corinthians 6:6: "6, Now I say this in the way of a consent, not in the way of a command." [CNT])

Now while the opinions of some people - at least in certain areas - are better-grounded in wisdom and of more value than those of others, which is why we traditionally recognize certain men as "elders", nevertheless people have no obligation whatsoever to accept each others' opinions as "gospel truth". Only the Word of Yahweh our God and His Christ are "gospel truth".

Therefore when offering an opinion, Christians should first consider the Word of God, and if they still esteem their opinion to be valid then they should share it in a humble manner. They should share it humbly, because more often than not the opinions of men are wrong, or at least, they are not right in every circumstance.

While man's opinion should NEVER be considered over Scripture, it is quite easy for two men with different experiences in a matter to develop different opinions. In those cases, it would be foolish for one of those men to somehow attempt to prove the other wrong. Bearing that attitude shows a complete lack of humility on the part of the person making such an assertion. Neither can one justly promote an opinion as if it bears absolute truth without empirical evidence that it must be true in all cases. Since in most (if not all) aspects of life we can never have such evidence, our opinions will usually never be true in all cases. Only God has all knowledge, and therefore only God is true, and every man a liar - at least at one time or another and without purposely intending to be liars.

Therefore, Christians should not beat one another up over a difference of opinion. To do so is to display a complete lack of humility, and even worse, to elevate one's own self to the level of God. Such behavior is shameful (even if I have ever done so myself). Christians have but one Master, and all we are (ideally and hopefully) brothers.

I have tried to express these sentiments privately to particular parties (plural intended), but I am not so certain they understand it. Perhaps they think I was referring only to "the other guy". I have also touched upon this topic in another thread here, "What is Brotherly Love?", but the parites for whom that opinion was offered evidently have not taken it to heart. I did not write that for "the other guy", but for the benefit of all, even as a reminder to myself.

Christ is King, Scripture is empirical, however we can all learn by respecting each others' opinions with humility. We are not here to win arguments, but for edification. If you do not need edification, then you must already be perfect, and do not need Christ?

[brucebohn]

The highest form of humility, true humility, is complete submission to the Word of God. I gave an exposition on this in my presentation of chapters 4 and 5 of the epistle of James nearly 2 years ago: http://christogenea.org/content/james-c ... 01-20-2012

However even Paul of Tarsus realized that there are challenges which we come across in life for which no explicit laws, instructions or examples exist in God's Word that we may know just how to handle them. For these, Paul gave an opinion, and expressed in his letters that he was only giving an opinion. (Example, 1 Corinthians 6:6: "6, Now I say this in the way of a consent, not in the way of a command." [CNT])

Now while the opinions of some people - at least in certain areas - are better-grounded in wisdom and of more value than those of others, which is why we traditionally recognize certain men as "elders", nevertheless people have no obligation whatsoever to accept each others' opinions as "gospel truth". Only the Word of Yahweh our God and His Christ are "gospel truth".

Therefore when offering an opinion, Christians should first consider the Word of God, and if they still esteem their opinion to be valid then they should share it in a humble manner. They should share it humbly, because more often than not the opinions of men are wrong, or at least, they are not right in every circumstance.

While man's opinion should NEVER be considered over Scripture, it is quite easy for two men with different experiences in a matter to develop different opinions. In those cases, it would be foolish for one of those men to somehow attempt to prove the other wrong. Bearing that attitude shows a complete lack of humility on the part of the person making such an assertion. Neither can one justly promote an opinion as if it bears absolute truth without empirical evidence that it must be true in all cases. Since in most (if not all) aspects of life we can never have such evidence, our opinions will usually never be true in all cases. Only God has all knowledge, and therefore only God is true, and every man a liar - at least at one time or another and without purposely intending to be liars.

Therefore, Christians should not beat one another up over a difference of opinion. To do so is to display a complete lack of humility, and even worse, to elevate one's own self to the level of God. Such behavior is shameful (even if I have ever done so myself). Christians have but one Master, and all we are (ideally and hopefully) brothers.

I have tried to express these sentiments privately to particular parties (plural intended), but I am not so certain they understand it. Perhaps they think I was referring only to "the other guy". I have also touched upon this topic in another thread here, "What is Brotherly Love?", but the parites for whom that opinion was offered evidently have not taken it to heart. I did not write that for "the other guy", but for the benefit of all, even as a reminder to myself.

Christ is King, Scripture is empirical, however we can all learn by respecting each others' opinions with humility. We are not here to win arguments, but for edification. If you do not need edification, then you must already be perfect, and do not need Christ?

Thank you Bill for addressing this issue. We must All, without exception, maintain this humility.
May Yahweh bless and guide us in these difficult times.................