Having received “interesting” responses to comments I made in a recent sermon, I appreciated even more Jerry Bridges’ warning.

Jerry Bridges, from his book Respectable Sins:

The sin of judgmentalism is one of the most subtle of our “respectable” sins because it is often practiced under the guise of being zealous for what is right. It’s obvious that within our conservative evangelical circles there are myriads of opinions on everything from theology to conduct to lifestyle and politics. Not only are there multiple opinions but we usually assume our opinion is correct. That’s where our trouble with judgmentalism begins. We equate our opinions with truth. (p. 141)

May we allow Scripture to form our views, not simply inform them.
May we submit our perspectives to the authority of Scripture, not sanitize it to fit our beliefs.
May we surrender to the authority of Scripture, even when the truth is hard to understand and even harder to apply.
May we be willing to obey Scripture even when it is counter-cultural, corrective of culture, or even when it challenges our comfort zone.