The Need to Be Right

       The need to be right is different than the desire to be right. Desiring to be right is scriptural, however, the need to be right breeds destruction. Throughout history the reputation of the church and the gospel has been stained by ‘well meaning’ people who needed to be right. People have been killed, persecuted, and condemned in the name of being right. Churches have split, and friendships forever broken by people who believed they were absolutely right.


     If so much damage has been created by people trying to be right, then what should we do? Should we throw away the truth, forget pursuing it and adopt the philosophy, “you have your truth and I have mine”? Absolutely not! Jesus, our example, always told the truth. He uncompromisingly said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the father except through me.” Yet, Jesus never used the truth or being right as an excuse to hurt people.


     Jesus would have been ‘right’ to have stoned the woman accused of adultery, but he chose instead to extend mercy! He did not approve of her wrongful actions, but went against the common religious thinking of the day in order to show the heart of our Father God and extend mercy to this woman.

     John 13:35 does not say all men will know we are his disciples because we are right. It says all men will know we are his disciples by our love. Love does not oppose truth, rather it makes truth effective. 1 Cor 13:2 “And if I understand all the secret truths and mysteries and possess all knowledge, and if I have sufficient faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love (God's love in me) I am nothing. (Amp)

     Truth is important…it’s from God. However, as Wayne Dyer once said, “When given the choice between being right and being kind, always choose being kind.”