"I'm Entitled to My Opinion"

Would it be crazy of me to challenge this saying for my Christian audience? "I'm entitled to My Own Opinion." What a dangerous statement. Especially for a believer to claim it. Just recently, I heard a fellow believer completely hate and diminish someone's piece of work. Now I'm not talking about constructive criticism. Heck, I'm not even talking about criticism. I am saying that this believer was speaking in such a hateful and with such a deragatory tone. And instead of making remarks to the person's work, they were making hateful comments on the person's entire being. I was astounded by this because I know that as believers we should never be speaking with a hateful mouth. I mean for goodness' sake, Proverbs 18:21 says, "The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit." The word of God is clear.

Anyways, after this person left, I was in shock when I heard one of my close friends say, "They're entitled to their opinion." And I got to thinking. Is this actually true. Are we entitled. Yes. We carry a very entitled attitude, but is it righteous? No. As believers we know that everything we have is a gift from God. We were not entitled to God's gift of salvation and mercy. It was a gift. So, are we entitled to our opinion? I'm going to be blunt. No, we're not. As followers of Christ, we have been born again. Meaning we have a higher standard of how we should act. We should act with grace, mercy, kindness, etc. Because of the gift of life that we have received, who would we be to squander it? Who are we to speak with hate, when every good thing we have is not something we have earned? It was something we were gifted with.

Now another friend had a question that I believe I should address in this. She asked, "Well doesn't that go against our free will?" To be clear, no it doesn't. Does carrying our cross take away our free will? No, it just means defying your flesh. And what I mean by "opinion", is anything that goes against the word of God. You cannot acknowledge that the Bible states that we should not murder and then say, "I think murder is acceptable and awesome." Then claim that you are entitled to your own opinion. As a believer, that statement contradicts your faith. So my question is this, who are you truly serving, Jesus, or yourself? When you speak a word of hate and abomination and then claim, "I'm entitled to my own opinion," who are you serving? Yourself or Jesus?

I also want to make another point that I believe is necessary to our faith. As believers, we try to follow in the ways of Christ. Christ who was and is perfect. Christ who committed no sins, and came to die on the cross for us. If Jesus, who was perfect, never spoke with words of hate and immorality, then how can we say we are entitled to act in such a way? If we are the most imperfect but have been saved by the gift of grace and mercy, shouldn't we be the most humble? Shouldn't we behave in the way of sinners saved? Who are we to say we are entitled? So how can we say that we are entitled, when the one who is perfect didn't even conduct Himself in the way we claim.

I'm not bringing this up to condemn but to provide a different point of view. "I'm entitled to my opinion," is so recklessly and blamelessly said. It can be destructive for the believer and those they encounter. Instead of living with this self-serving attitude, try living with the attitude that we are entitled to living with a servant heart. We are entitled to living with grace and mercy because Jesus has done so for me. We are entitled to live with humility, gratefulness, and kindness. Because we have been given all of these things, we should act in the same way Jesus would treat us.