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Jan 06, 2025 06:00am

When Opinions Distract

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The room fell silent. The speaker had just revealed that he had been passionate and outspoken about a controversial opinion, one that caused him to judge others who didn’t believe the same way he did.

Kyle Idleman, Senior Pastor at Southwest Christian Church and author, had all of us on the edge of our seats during his session at the Together conference.

What was this major issue? What topic could he possibly be speaking about?

As he continued speaking about his stance and how vocal he had been about it, he finally shared what this hot-button matter was.

He was against pineapple pizza.

Not just the pizza but anyone who ate that kind of pizza.

Not what you expected, was it?

Us either.

But it was quite funny hearing him describe his passionate crusade against this flavor combination.

And then he dropped another bombshell.

He unknowingly tried pineapple pizza.

And he loved it.

But now he knew he couldn’t tell anyone because he had made such a show of being against it.

We could clearly see the underlying truth.

We can be so focused on our opinions, positions, and politics that we elevate them above God.

Acts 23:12-15
“The next morning some Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul.
13 More than forty men were involved in this plot.
14 They went to the chief priests and the elders and said, “We have taken a solemn oath not to eat anything until we have killed Paul.
15 Now then, you and the Sanhedrin petition the commander to bring him before you on the pretext of wanting more accurate information about his case. We are ready to kill him before he gets here.”

Yesterday, we studied the controversy between the Pharisees and the Sadducees and how it allowed Paul to be rescued from their hands. But when the scuffle over being “right” died down, their focus shifted back to Paul.

And they wanted him dead.

40 men swore an oath that they wouldn’t eat or drink until they had killed Paul.

These were the religious leaders. So, for something like this to happen, surely, Paul had done something wrong. Right? For men to take such a stance on something, they had to have good reason.

But we know the underlying truth.

They were putting their opinions, positions, and politics before God. This matter of being “right” had invaded their minds and hearts to the point that they were willing to commit murder.

Just as they had done with Jesus.

My mind goes back to Kyle Idleman’s words. What disputable matters are we allowing to become more important than the gospel and the mission of Christ?

It’s not about pineapple pizza. It’s not about being right. It’s not about that’s the way we’ve always done it. It’s not about what I think.

It’s about Jesus Christ, the Holy, perfect Son of God, leaving His throne in Heaven to give His life on the cross so that we, wretched, broken, vile sinners, might be saved. It is about the lost world needing the church to put our agendas and opinions aside and get busy about the Father’s business.