The Christian Balance
Be Cautious Not To Tip The Scales In Your Spiritual Life.
From the beginning of one's walk with Jesus, the Christian is bombarded with conflicting messages pulling you to one side of a topic or the other, usually being told that the other is wrong and to be avoided.
Personally I have found that there is a balance to be found when approaching the tenets of Christ.
As you read, keep in mind that I am not advocating compromise or luke-warm thinking as there is even a balance to be found with the balance otherwise one may fall into the error of believing all faiths to be valid or adopt a dualism mindset.Bible Interpretation
On one side of the spectrum we have the strict literalists who take the Bible as being literally true word-for-word, however it cannot be avoided that there are idioms, metaphors, similies and symbolic language.
On the other side however there are the liberal types who spiritualise everything that seems supernatural in order to 'modernise' Christianity, often resorting to making radical changes to the meaning of the plain text to fit their politically correct bias.
The solution is simple. It is scriptural and it is common sense.
God designed and inspired every word of the Bible and warned us not to tamper with it or try to apporach it with our own limited understanding. In knowing this we should realise that it is not US who interprets scripture but scripture which interprets itself...for every symbolic phrase there is an interpretation elsewhere in scripture, so it will take the diligent Bible student to learn what is being said.
The rule should be to take scripture at face value until it is obvious that symbolism is being used. Fortunately, the basics of the Gospel, the main and most important thrust of the entire Bible are written in plain and simple language- Salvation by faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ for our sins.
Logic and Emotion
God is both logical and emotional.
One cannot be persuasive of just emotional arguement, as it *can* be seen by others as subjective and not withstanding of logic.
However it does have it's place..
On the other side of the spectrum, we cannot use pure logic *solely* as a means to witness as it is cold and unfeeling.
Much as they would deny it, I have observed that many atheists for example, state that they seek emperical evidences or proofs for God -just the cold hard facts..yet almost invariably, emotionalism creeps in with complaints such as '..then why did God do this....' which makes into an emotional issue as well.
As being made in His image, *we* also are logical and emotional and must facilitate both when communicating to others- the balance must be found..it *may* not be an even balance, and it very well may have to be fine tuned as long as one lives, but it is neccessary.
God's Love vs God's Justice.
You cannot separate God's love from His justice- the two go hand-in-hand, yet there are many liberals whom would claim that God is love (and love is God) and in being so could not do anything unpleasant and would not send anyone to hell.
Then we have the legalists who would have us still adhere strictly to the Old Testamant law.
Though one could get a more thorough analysis of law vs grace under the 'Christianity vs Religion' page..there is a distinction here which I will attempt to address:
Without Love, God would be a cold and unbending tyrannt who would punish at the slightest infraction of His perfect standard. (Which unfortunately is the common misconception many have of God in regards to the Old Testament.)
Without Justice, God would be no better than us..permissive and too relaxed about sin, not caring too much what we do to others or Him- thusly making Himself less than Holy.
Without a standard, anyone could do absoutely anything they want and get to heaven- cheapening Christs sacrifice...which is the greatest demonstration of love.
As R.A. Laidlaw once correctly stated:
"God's love would have forgiven the sinner, but God's rightousness prevented the forgiveness.
God's rightousness would have judged the sinner, but God's love restrained the judgement."
As you can see, it is a mistake to favor one of God's qualities over the other..you must take Him for who He is, or not at all.May our Father bless and protect you and your family and guide you into all truth by the power of the Holy Spirit in Jesus' name.The Reason Why