Finding Balance

Posted on February 10, 2005 by robert

David writes at Challies’s new community blog on finding balance.

I have observed that in the discussion of various issues that people will compare opposing views and conclude that the correct position is a ?balance? between them. Each view is wrong, but the right combination of wrongs will be right.
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That approach … is hardly a correct formula for truth. It implies that there is no truth that transcends our experience. Simply compromise opposing extremes, experiment until you find the middle ground that produces the most pleasing results, and there you have it: truth.
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God?s word does not contain opposites that must be mixed, like acid and base, to reach the correct pH level. All of God?s word is truth, and it does not contradict. God?s law and his grace can both be under-emphasized, but not over-emphasized. One can be excluded, causing an erroneous understanding of the other. They can be distorted and interpreted incorrectly, but never can they be taught too much.

I’ve written before about viewing things like “truth” and “love” not as opposites that must be balanced but as complementary supports (e.g., legs of a stool). But David knocks it out of the park.

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5 Responses to Finding Balance

  1. david says:
    February 10, 2005 at 4:05 pm

    As Eeyore (of Winnie the Poo) says, “Thanks for noticing me”. Actually, this is an issue that has annoyed me for as long as I can remember. I just finally got an opportunity to vent it. I’m happy you found it useful.

    David

  2. Kyle says:
    February 11, 2005 at 9:35 am

    I’ll check out Challies next, but I can think of a set of scriptures off of the top of my head that calls into question the idea that ‘God?s word does not contain opposites that must be mixed, like acid and base, to reach the correct pH level’:

    Proverbs 26:4,5 Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself. Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes

    Perhaps Theological truth isn’t found by balancing extremes – Aristotle pointed out that some things are already naturally balanced – but certainly Christian practice has to have a balance of extremes.

  3. Robert says:
    February 11, 2005 at 11:36 am

    I don’t think your text supports your conclusion. Those proverbs are bits of wisdom on how to respond to different circumstances. There are some fools to be answered, and others to be ignored. We don’t mix the two together and answer a fool a little bit.

    Christian practice has to have a balance of extremes.

    Can you give examples?

  4. Karl Thienes says:
    February 12, 2005 at 1:06 am

    “[The Church] separated two ideas and then exaggerated them *both*.”

    It isn’t in the balance of extremes, but in the believing and living of them all at once without watering any of them down.

    Chesterton’s “Orthodoxy” has a lot to say on this, especially chapter 6:

    http://www.ccel.org/c/chesterton/orthodoxy/ch6.html

  5. Peaches says:
    February 20, 2005 at 6:07 pm

    What you are describing is a polarity. These items are not conflicts to be resolved or choices. They are simultaneous imperatives that we have to live with. We do the best when we refuse to live in the middle, trading off one for the other in a transactional exchange. Rather we maintain the essential focus of both.
    Evangelism/Fellowship
    Grace/Truth
    Intimacy/Outreach
    These are all around us in our Christian life…Jesus was a “both and” kind of guy.