Acts 22:3 English Standard Version (ESV) “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day.”

Paul had strong feelings based on his heritage, citizenship and education. Paul also said he considered it rubbish for the sake of coming to know Christ. We can have strong opinions based on strong emotions but that does not mean we are right.

We are still dealing with opinions and where we develop those opinions and why we feel so strongly about them.

Proverbs 22:6 English Standard Version (ESV) Train up a child in the way he should go;  even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Parenting is our first influence in what we see and believe. Not all parenting is alike and if the relationship between parent and child does not foster love and respect, other influences will take over in a child’s opinion making schemes. Those could be friends or someone with sinister designs, like gang leaders or cults.

Love and respect are universal and are not limited to one religion or lifestyle. Whoever provides it for the child has the best opportunity to shape that child’s opinions.

We will find ourselves having strong emotional opinions about a variety of subjects. The world will pull at your emotional heartstrings in order to gain our support and cooperation. Those of us that have not discovered love and respect from a positive source will find ourselves being used to serve agendas and some of those can be sinister. Extremists were not born that way, they were fed a steady diet of hate and blame. 

Saul was an extremist, a zealot for God, he thought, until he met Jesus on the road to Damascus and became Paul the apostle. Saul is perhaps the finest example of conversion we could imagine. His love of scripture was profound even if the strict teachings of Gamaliel missed the mark.

Now we have come to the crux of the matter, what does opinion have to do with truth?