No, culture is not the source of opinion; culture is the development of opinion. Or you may say that culture is the cultivation of the source of opinion. I would like to define opinion in this way: opinion is simply a person away from God. When a person is without God and away from God, he is the source of opinion. He is even the embodiment of opinion. What was the fall? The fall was a kind of a going away from God. Before the fall, man was with God and man had God with him. Then the fall came in and took man away from God. From that time, man became a person away from God and without God. Right away this person became the source and embodiment of opinion. By our fallen nature, by our natural being, we are just the embodiment of opinion. Whether you are good or bad, whether your concept is high or low, whether your idea is right or wrong, all these are nothing but opinion. You like this— that’s opinion. You like that—that’s opinion. You want to be kind—that’s opinion. You want to be so strict—that’s opinion. All these things are just opinion. A fallen person who is away from God and who is without God is altogether an embodiment of opinion. It is correct to say that at the fall the tree of knowledge got into man and made him the embodiment of opinion. It made him the very source of opinion. Every descendant of the fallen Adam is an embodiment of opinion.
Now you can see why the Lord has been suffering, even among us in His recovery. We have come to the recovery, yet we still are the embodiment of opinion. You love the Lord, and you have seen the church, and you are for His recovery, yet you haven’t seen that you are the embodiment of opinion. Your natural being is constituted with opinion. Even a little baby has opinion. The little ones always like to express their opinions against yours. When you say sit down they say no. When you ask them to sing, they say no. When you ask them to be quiet, they want to sing. All this is just opinion. Opinion is just our nature. We are just opinion. We have to realize this matter of opinion is too hard and too subjective. Sometimes we have condemned our opinion, but in a very superficial way. We have never considered that whatever we say is just our opinion.
Now we need to go on to find out how opinion has been developed and is still being developed. Education and culture are the cultivation and development of opinion. It is much easier to preach the gospel to a person with a high school education than a graduate from a university. When you are preaching to a graduate from a university you may have the sensation that it is too late. You should have preached the gospel to him five years ago. It is very difficult to talk to the professors concerning God and Christ. This is true especially with those who teach courses such as philosophy and psychology. After finishing a course in philosophy some saved ones have almost given up the Christian life. The philosophy course deprived them of their faith. This is the cultivation of opinion.
In fact, if you do not know how to use the Bible, even your Bible study may develop your opinion. Actually the Bible is not at fault but men have nourished and developed their opinion through misuse of the Bible. They utilized and misused the Bible to develop their opinions. Not only is it difficult to preach the gospel to a philosopher, but it is also difficult to talk to many Christians about anything of the genuine truth. Why? Because their opinion has become developed to such an extent they could never have any change. So all of us have to humble ourselves, to be poor in spirit and pure in heart. We need to pray, “Lord have mercy upon me. I don’t want to be a person whose opinion cannot be changed. I don’t want to reserve or to keep any cultivation of opinion. I don’t want to keep any development of opinion.”
It is very apparent that culture and education are used by the enemy to cultivate our opinion. What else cultivates our opinion?
Religion.
We have to rank religion, culture, and education together. They are neighbors in the same gopher hole. They are different in terms, yet in nature they are the same. So, what else cultivates our opinion?
How about the experiences we go through?
Very good! Many things cultivate your opinion. But you have to realize, no doubt, that education, culture, and religion are the giants. But there is also another subtle development—our experience including our practice and our habit. Our experience, our practice, and our habit are small gophers in another hole. These are one group. The more experiences you have, the stronger your opinion will be developed and strengthened. The young people sometimes have a difficult time with the older ones, because all the older ones have been fully developed in their opinion by their daily life and their experiences. There is even a difference between young people who are fifteen and those who are eighteen. Three years makes a big difference. Those who are eighteen years of age have developed more in their opinion.
You also must realize that your background, your environment, and your circumstances are also a kind of development of your opinion. If you grow up in Japan, you have the Japanese opinion. If you grow up in France, you have the French opinion. If you grow up in California, you have the Californian opinion. If you grow up in Texas, you will have the Texan opinion. Your opinion is developed by the background, the environment, and the circumstances. What else develops our opinion?
What about our disposition and make-up?
You may consider your disposition and your make-up as developments of your opinion. But actually they are not developments. Your make-up and your disposition are just your opinion. It is easy for you to have a certain kind of opinion because you have that kind of make-up and disposition. In a sense you are the opinion. Whether your opinions are developed or undeveloped, you are just the embodiment of opinion. Even a few years ago when I talked about opinion, I didn’t have such a thorough light. I learned to know the opinion not by observing others, but according to my own experience. I discovered that I am just the embodiment of opinion. When I am off from the Lord I am nothing but opinion. During the night, when the room has no light, there is nothing but darkness. What is darkness? It is just something away from the light. What is opinion? Opinion is just you and I away from the Lord. When we are off from the Lord, we are nothing but opinion. Although I dare not say that I have learned the lesson thoroughly, the Lord has been teaching me quite much that whenever I realize I am not with the Lord, right away I should stop. I dare not say anything or do anything. Whatever I say and whatever I do away from the Lord is just opinion. In this Perfecting Training I don’t care for too much doctrine. Rather, this is a kind of medical work to diagnose the diseases and sicknesses.
Now we have to find the medicine for this disease. Where is the healing for this disease? Don’t think that it is only in a casino that people fight over opinions. Even in a Bible school people have opinions which cause them to fight. What is the proper medicine to heal this sickness?
After considering this matter, I realized that the more we go on in the church life, the more we go through certain experiences, and the more we pick up things, spontaneously there is a danger to become more opinionated. So the most serious problem is with those who have been around the longest period of time. This past Lord’s day, we were on John 11 in our meeting. Of course that chapter is full of opinions. Everyone had an opinion. When the Lord came into that situation, all they needed to do was drop their opinion and take the Lord. He was there as the resurrection life, but what frustrated them from experiencing Him as the resurrection life were the opinions. Many times it is the same among us. The Lord is among us as the resurrection life, and He wants to be resurrection life to us, but our opinions cause Him to weep. Regardless of how long I’ve been in the church, I need the grace to drop whatever I’ve gained, whatever I’ve gone through, and hold on to the living Christ in a resurrected way.
This is good but I would say that it is a doctrinal way and still not so practical. I believe we all have seen that our definition of the source of opinion has really hit home. Now let us do the same thing to find out what is the real medicine to heal this big disease. For this you had better not care so much for the doctrine, but consider your experience. According to your experience, what is the way that your opinion is cut off or healed?
Perhaps it is by contacting the Lord with our spirit. Sometimes when my opinion comes up, if I go to the Lord and deal with it in His presence by exercising my spirit, I am relieved of the opinion.
This is very close.
Do we simply need to have so much light as to what the opinions are in a practical way that every time we see an opinion expressed, we take it as an indication that we are away from the Lord and we need to come back to the spirit? Are all these manifestations used to turn us back to the spirit to contact the Lord?
This is very close, but still this does not hit the mark. Let me say it in this way: we have surely found out where opinion is. Opinion is in the place that the Lord is not. Wherever the Lord is not, there is opinion. Now you have to tell me where the Lord is.
He is in the Word.
In the Word? This is not bad, but it is not so close. Where is the Lord?
He is in our spirit.