Are You Living a Balanced Christian Life?

My friend, former Florida College classmate, and fellow preaching colleague, Steve Wolfgang, posted a comment to Monday’s blog “Just Be Nice.”  He writes,

Thanks, Ken, for a very needful “challenge!” Sometimes it is all too easy to let life’s daily grit abrade our spirits and make us cranky, petulant, and impolite — whether with strangers, Christians, or even our families.

Might I politely suggest (without becoming “un-nice?) that an even bigger challenge for many Christians is often to imitate other characteristics of Jesus (since focusing on any one aspect produces a uni-dimensional shallowness). I fear it is far easier in many cases for us to recover our “niceness” than to occasionally confront, in the kind of direct language Jesus used, the challengers to God’s sovreignty and purposes. The generic cultural aversion to militancy has too often infected Christians, and sometimes “being nice” can simply mask a non-committal spiritual laxness.

 Balance is a watchword easier to say than do! Thanks for the challenge!

Thank you Steve!  I believe balance is definitely a challenge in our Christian lives.  Regarding Steve’s point, while Jesus was nice, he did not shrink from a scathing denouncing of the Pharisee’s hypocrisy (Matt 23).

Niceness is not an excuse for overlooking sin.  Defending sin.  Or engaging in sin because we want to be “nice” and not offend anyone.  That’s taking “niceness” to an extreme.

I also  thought of some more things in life that are  important but must kept in balance with other truths.

Family time.  That’s really important.  I write about. Teach on it. And preach that families need to invest time being with one another.  Yet, family activities become imbalanced when we forsake the worship, skip bible study or ignore our church family.  Is family time important?  Absolutely!  But not to the point of neglecting our spiritual obligations.  Balance is needed.

Working to Provide.  We live in an age of entitlement.  There are some folks who don’t work.  They could.  But they won’t.  The Bible teaches that a man who won’t work and provide for his own is worse than an unbeliever.  Yet, a man may become so engrossed is his career, earning a living, and climbing the ladder of success, that his wife feels neglected.  In fact, she is neglected!  But, he argues, I provide for her and give her everything she needs.  Yes, everything except you!  Your love. Your affection. Your attention.  Balance?  Yes, it’s needed here too.

Church activities.  Many churches have a lot of opportunities to serve out side the assembly.  Men’s classes. Ladies classes. Small group meetings. Work days. Visiting.  Hospital calls. Seeing shuts ins.  Teaching classes.  Encouraging weak brethren.  And that’s in addition to three services on Sunday and one on Wednesday.  Would anyone question the dedication of a Christian who was constantly working for the Lord?  Yet, there are other obligations.  Work. Family. Community.  No one person can do it all, not even the preacher!  In fact, I’ve known of some preachers who were never home because they were so busy trying to convert world. As a result they lost their own children.  And in some cases even their wives!  Balance.  It’s needed to even in the “Lord’s work.”

Mark this down. Whenever we emphasize one truth in isolation from and to the exclusion of all other truth we will ultimately find ourselves in error.

Yes, Steve, “Balance is the watchword.”  And, you’re right.  “It’s easier said than done!”  BTW, I didn’t think you were being “un-nice”!  In fact, it was nice of you to give me fodder for another post!

–Ken Weliever, The Preacherman