The title is the devo, but I’ll elaborate on it.

By the way, I write these words fully aware that I’m occasionally(!) guilty of failing to live up to them. I can be a jerk too. That said… what’s 2+2?

If you answer “4,” congrats: You’re right. There’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, it’s never wrong to be right, as much as it is never right to be wrong. It is always right to be right, as much as it is wrong to be wrong. 2+2 IS 4. That’s just how it is. If you think the answer is 5, I’m sorry to tell you that you’re wrong. I’m not arrogant about it. I don’t think I’m better than you. I’m not going to call you names for being wrong. Being called “wrong” isn’t the same as being called an insulting word. We’re all wrong sometimes. The goal for all of us should be to GET right. If we know we’re wrong and we refuse to get right, what does that say about us? Why would anyone think that was okay?

If I know 2+2 is 4 and you don’t, I will tell you what the right answer is. If you don’t like that, even after I grab a handful of apples to show you HOW it is right, then that’s a YOU problem, not a ME problem. I think too many people are crippled by the fear of being right. We’re afraid that if we say we’re right, we might jinx ourselves and circle right back around to being wrong. I think we’re worried that if we say we’re right we might come across as arrogant. I think we’re worried that if we think we’re right, we might become complacent and stop any further learning. I don’t want that. I don’t want to “rest on the laurels of rightness” and forget that I am always capable of being wrong about something. Just because I know 2+2 is 4 doesn’t mean I also know what the square root of 187 is. On the other hand, just because I don’t know what the square root of 187 is doesn’t mean I also don’t know what 2+2 is. I DO know what 2+2 is, and I’m okay saying that I know it. That doesn’t make me arrogant.

It makes me right (about that).

I can get the apples and show you…in fact, maybe that’s the secret to solving this problem that plagues many of us. Maybe we should just stop making it about “me” or “you” being right, and instead make it about WHAT is right. 2+2 IS 4. THAT is right, not me, per se. I’m not right; the math is right. I just happen to know what the math says. If you don’t, then don’t get mad at me for telling you. I’m only trying to help.

Of course, 2+2 isn’t a life-or-death equation.

The Bible, however, is filled with life-or-death information. We need to know it. We CAN know it. And when we know it, we learn what is right…and there’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, it’s good. We’re supposed to know what is right. We’re supposed to be right…because if we’re not, then we’re wrong, and we’re not supposed to be wrong.

A lot of people disagree about fundamental, life-or-death Bible issues. If we disagree, we can’t both be right. The Bible is right. The Bible has the one right answer to each of those issues (yes, I know, there are some things that AREN’T life-or-death, and that don’t have a clear “this or that” to them, but I’m talking about the matters which save the soul). If we disagree, either one of us is wrong, or we are both wrong, but we can’t both be right. So what do we do? Four things…

What we need to do FIRST, is study, learn, and determine what IS right, and then SECOND, have the courage to tell someone what is right, and then THIRD, have the humility to listen to someone else tell us that we’re wrong, and then FOURTH, apply what we’re taught to what the scripture says, to determine what IS right (which was the first thing on the list). It might be we were right at the start of the disagreement, in which case, good, because we should want to be right (but not be a jerk about it). On the other hand, maybe our study will confirm that we were wrong, in which case our study will also show us what is right…which is good, because we should want to be right (but not be a jerk about it).

~Matthew