We often hear about being “balanced.” We are told, and rightfully so, that we need to eat a balanced diet. We don’t need to eat only one kind of food; we need to have a diet filled with all the major food groups to maintain good health. We also hear about “balanced” preaching, an important concept, too. As I thought about this concept recently, several things came to mind about balance.
First, in our physical diet when someone speaks of eating a balanced diet, he means we need to eat from every food group things that are good for us to eat. He does not mean to balance one’s diet between good foods and poison. In our preaching and teaching, we must have balance. It is important, however, to understand the true balance is to “teach the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20). It is not to equally preach truth and error. Around 30 years ago, I sat with some elders who were meeting with the head of a religious institution. They were asking about doctrinal issues and his institution. He responded by saying, “I have a stack of letters on one side of my desk that feel one way on that, and another stack on the other side of my desk that feel the other way on that.” That is really all he said. I wish I had pushed it more and asked him if that meant that he looked at whichever stack was higher and made his doctrinal decision accordingly. Our preaching and teaching must not be guided by popularity but by truth.
Secondly, however, it is very possible to become those who lose balance in our preaching, teaching and writing. We sometimes call it “hobby-riding.” We can become so connected to one particular theme that we forget there is more to be preached and taught besides that one thing. One of the problems in the church is when preachers fixate on one topic, such as grace, and emphasize it to the exclusion of other important matters, such as obedience. That can be turned around; we can emphasize obedience to the point that we forget the significance of the grace of God. It is not either or, but it is both. We do need to examine the “goodness and severity” of God. Spiritually, we need the balanced diet of truth, and if we preach or teach, our students need the same. We need to avoid those “hobbyhorses” upon which we can so easily climb.
Thirdly, changing gears slightly, we need to balance kindness with a refusal to compromise truth. We need to know how to answer. “Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one” (Colossians 4:5-6). We need to know what to answer. “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3 15). Way too often someone has been driven away from the truth, not by the truth itself, but by the attitude displayed by the purveyor of the truth. If someone rejects the Gospel message, that is something about which we cannot do anything, and we are not responsible for that. Yet, if someone is driven away by our attitudes or poorly thought out words, that is a different story.
Fourthly, Colossians 4 speaks of our dealing with those outside of Christ, but the same principle should apply within the body. Sometimes brethren make harsh and rude comments to and about each other when there is a disagreement on some matter. Let me note here, carefully, there is only one way to understand the Scriptures; we do not “understand” them differently. The Scriptures have a meaning from God. When we disagree, one of two possibilities exist: 1. One of us is wrong and the other right or 2. Both of us are wrong. In any case, God’s Word is right, period. It is certainly important to establish what God meant in what He said to us. In discussing various matters, we should never resort to personal attacks and name-calling. I do not believe it is an offense to Colossians 4 to say that speech with grace, seasoned with salt, needs to be used between brethren as well. Remember the attitude of Peter, even after Paul had been forced to rebuke him publicly for his “dissimulation” (Galatians 2). Later Peter called him “Our Beloved Brother Paul” (2 Peter 3:15). Paul had called him out “before them all,” yet their love and kindness toward one another was never shaken. “…speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:15-16).
