A Healthy Balance, part 5
Who is the God of the Bible? Even though we only have one book (the Bible) that serves as a source for our knowledge of God, impressions vary tremendously about the nature, and even demeanor, of this God. The Bible portrays God as perfect in all things. This includes the fact that He is perfectly balanced in relation to His purpose for this world. If we have any hope of becoming more balanced Christians, then we must continually grow in our understanding of His balance.
Like us who are created in His image, God is a mixture of character traits that work together simultaneously in any given situation. We see many examples of His love, patience, and gentleness. We also have instances of anger, judgement, and vengeance. As Paul examined the relationship of both Jews and Gentiles in relation to God, he wrote about “the kindness and the severity of God” (Romans 11.22). Yes, God has both.
Failure to recognize these realities, in a balanced way, will lead to lives that lack the harmony which God desires. For example, with a knowledge of the Bible, one could focus on events like the flood (Genesis 6-7), Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5.1-11), Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10.1-3), the words of Jesus from Matthew 23, and nearly any book classified a “Minor Prophet” to illustrate the seriousness of God and how careful we need to be with everything that we do in relation to God. An unbalanced view of God which focuses primarily on these actions can lead to a relationship with God that is overwhelmingly fear based. This is not how we would identify a healthy relationship between a father and child.
On the other hand, one could focus on the story of the prodigal son (which is actually a bad description of that parable since it begins…“There was a man who had two sons…”) from Luke 15.11-32, Jesus’ constant mission to “tax collectors and sinners,” Jesus’ heartfelt call to all those who are weary (Matthew 11.28-30), and the knowledge that we are all sinners in need of God’s grace and conclude that as a child of God with immeasurable mercy, it really doesn’t matter what I do since God is always willing to forgive and just wants me to “try my best.” This, alone, also does not reflect a healthy relationship between the creation and the Creator.
Neither of these ideas, individually, represents God’s ideal life for Christians. As a loving Father, He certainly does not desire our relationship to be fear based, but neither does He exist for the primary purpose of ensuring our earthly happiness in a life of our personal desires and wishes. Failure to find a healthy balance in our understanding of God can cause us to either create unnecessary anxiety over less important details or a life that continually treats God as secondary to myself.
We serve an amazing God. If we ever question His love for us, we need look no further than the cross. He is unbelievably patient, but there is no place for apathy in our service to Him. This world is His and as Christians we have acknowledged that our lives belong to Him in every way.