So you think you know. by Dean Gotcher

So you think you know.
If you think you know, You don't know.

Dean Gotcher

When you ask a person for information and they respond to you with "Well, I think" or "Well, I feel," respond back to them with "So you don't know" and see how they respond. More then likely they will respond with "You seem a little contentious today," if they respond at all. At least it is likely their body language will give their irritation with your response away.

We are a people who are no longer interested in truth. We have instead become a people in love with the opinions of men. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children." Hosea 4:6

Your children will pay a price for your love of opinions, i.e. how you feel and what you think (how others feel and what they think). It is up to you to preach and teach the truth to your children (and your loved ones), so that they might come to know the truth, i.e. so that they might not be taken captive to the opinions of men. "Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 "But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." 2 Timothy 2:23-26 Your opinion will not count on the day of judgment. What makes you think it counts today.

While those of dialectic 'reasoning' treat everything as an opinion, including God's word, God warns us of the price they will pay. "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." Proverbs 14:12 We are to know the truth, not treat it as an opinion. Your opinion or other peoples opinion of God's Word is of no worth. It is the truth that sets you free. It is God's word in your heart that sets you free.

Opinions (how you or others feel or what you or others think) only make you a slave to your flesh and a servant to the world. Our opinions tie us to "human nature." Our thoughts are, by nature, tied to our feelings, i.e. our sense perception of this world, evaluating the things which are not of nature, the unknown at the time, by the things which are of nature, those things which we can sense (as in touch, taste, see, hear, or smell). It is our nature to seek after (or augment) those things which engender pleasure and avoid (or attenuate) those things which engender pain, the approaching of pleasure and the avoiding of pain being the essence of "human nature." We therefore think in a way whereby we can manipulate ('change') the environment around us in a way whereby we can "enjoy" the pleasures of this world, even doing so "in the name of the Lord." While the Lord has called us to deny ourselves, pick up our cross, suffer with Him, enduring to the end, it is our nature to associate the walk in the Spirit with a life of temporal pleasure. This is the "wolf" within us, consuming the things of pleasure of this world, making "pleasure" and "enjoyment" the 'drive' and 'purpose' of life (even of the "church"). "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." James 4:3

Jesus' "business" was about His Father's business, obeying His Father's commands, even suffering death, for the sake of the souls of men, not for the business of augmenting pleasure for any man or group of men, i.e. even the "church. By 'changing' the way the "church" "does business," by making its 'purpose' the "making of customers," i.e. consumers, it is 'changed' into an institution of man's own making, subject to the pleasures of this life, subject to the opinions of men. The wolf in you, i.e. your opinion (your "ought"), only deceives you and those who trust in you, i.e. deceiving those who trust in your opinion which augments their hope in the things of pleasure of this world, blinding them to the truth of the Word of God, that we must all suffer with Christ. Therefore, making the word of God subject to your opinion or other men's opinions (filtering it through how you feel and what you think or how others feel or what they think) makes it no longer the word of God but only makes it an opinion of men, making all who follow it subject to the flesh of men, making it subject to the pleasure of this life.

There is no condemnation, conviction, contrition, repentance, or salvation in an opinion. The truth can only be known in the preaching and teaching of God's word, as given to us by God. "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." John 8:32, 36 "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6

Your opinion, i.e. how you feel and what you think about the Lord and His Word, can never make you a child of God (or a minister of the word of God). Only knowing the truth, knowing Christ Jesus as your savior and Lord, your sins covered by the blood of the lamb of God, daily dying to yourself (to your opinions), letting Him direct your steps (letting His word, un-tampered with "human 'wisdom,'", i.e. un-corrupted by men's opinions, guide your thoughts and actions, with the Holy Spirit confirming His Word) makes you a child of God. Preach and teach the Word of God as given, stop dialoguing your opinion of it. If you want men to follow you, dialogue with them your opinion (and other men's opinions) of God's word. If you want men to follow after Christ, preach and teach His word as given.

"A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh." Luke 6:45 Only God is good. It is therefore only out of His Word in us, i.e. His Word in our heart (placing our hope and faith only in Him and no longer in man, including ourselves), that our mouth (and our thoughts and our actions) can be redeemed from the opinions of men and from death, that we can be reconciled to our Heavenly Father (thinking and acting according to His will), inheriting eternal life.

Don't think you know. Know. Your life (as well as the lives of others, including your loved ones) depends upon it.