In places where dogs are left to roam about, it is common to watch a dog find a carcass, pick a piece of bone from it and bolt away, leaving the rest of the stuff behind. If he happens to come back for more, he would pick another piece and bolt away again.
The above can be likened to the way we tend to treat God’s Word. Many a time we come across a scripture or a teaching in the Bible, we pick it and ‘run away’ not caring about the whole stuff. This happens mostly for three reasons:
i)When what we come across says what we love to hear;
ii) When we come across what we have a soft spot for; and finally,
iii) When God enlivens a specific area of the Scripture for a particular occasion, only for us to make it a doctrinal issue. If we happen to come back to the other portions of the Scripture, we take another piece and behave as if that is all there is in God’s Word.
One of the most crippling problems challenging the validity of most people’s Christianity is the imbalanced way they understand God’s Word and do the things of God. The result is that sceptics make excuses and take advantage of the contradictory doctrines and theologies in order to ridicule Christianity; truth seekers get confused as others relapse to settle for what is tickling to their ears. The New Age Movement and Post-modernist thoughts are gaining popularity and acceptance for their religious versions of political correctness, tolerance and relativist ideologies.
In order to make it popular, many preachers and commentators avoid the rigorous and vigorous transformative training in God’s Word and the consequent practice of the same. They, instead, present the Gospel as if the most important things about it are the instant therapies against poverty, calamity, sickness, etc. instead of espousing the constant entreaties for integrity, sobriety, humility and selflessness. Yes, it is true God’s Word can fix problem of any kind but suffice it to say, these are not the most important things about it. The most important things about God’s Word, however, are the regeneration, transformation and reconciliation that a man receives when he accepts Christ as Saviour and Lord in his life. These are evidenced in a resolute pursuit of righteousness and holiness, regardless of the prevailing circumstances.
Fundamentals of Balanced Christianity is trying to convince the one who presents Christ as 'Lion' and the one who presents Him as a 'Lamb' that they are not contradicting one another; that different people can harmoniously build different parts of the same house. This means that we can teach about God's judgement without necessarily negating His compassion.
