A Fatal Conceit
To believe what you know is all there is to know.
People who express their opinions as complete and completely true are dangerous.
Their nearsightedness blocks the critical importance for obtaining the insights of others, not in the polling sense, but in the respect sense.
Even if I am mostly right about a matter, I still do not know what I do not know — and, again, not understanding this, can make me dangerous.
Another way to look at strong opinions, even convictions, is that they still need to find a way into the hearts and heads of others without crushing them.
One test to determine the palatability of my ideas is to ask myself if my motives for sharing them have anything to do with wanting others to think well of me.
Am I trying to show off?
Am I trying to put down the ideas and beliefs of others?
Or am I as concerned with their mental and emotional wellbeing as I am with convincing them they are wrong and I am right?
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for
“All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
but the word of the Lord remains forever.”
And this word is the good news that was preached to you.