About Jesus  -  Steve Sweetman

Biblically Balanced  

One thing I have noticed over the years is that some Christians are one topic Christians.  For example, all they want to talk about is end time Bible prophecy, abortion, baptism, or whatever.  At times I have been approached to concentrate my teaching on end time Bible prophecy, but I can't.  I attempt to be a balanced Biblical based believer.      

I like what the Apostle Paul said in Acts 20:27.  I believe it is relevant to what I am saying.  After telling the elders at Ephesus that he would probably never see them again, Paul said this.  "I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God," or, "the whole counsel of God" as the King James Bible puts it.  If Paul proclaimed the whole will or counsel of God to the believers at Ephesus, I suggest that he did not want them to be one issue Christians.  He expected them to know and embrace the full extent of God's will or counsel.  He wanted them to be balanced believers in their understanding and in what they taught.       

There is more to the entire counsel of God than just prophecy, abortion, baptism, or whatever.  Majoring on one thread of Biblical truth at the neglect of the multi-threaded truth of Scripture is problematic.  Paul was not an unbalanced Biblical believer, and neither should we be one.  We need to know the full extent of God's counsel and allow the Holy Spirit to implement it into our teaching and into our lives.  This cannot be attained apart from a progressive and balanced understanding of Biblical truth, which really, is our spiritual food by which we live and grow as Christians.   

In Matthew 4:4 Jesus told us that we do not live on bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.  I maintain that "every word" means "every word," not just "some words."   It is in every word that we find the entire counsel of God and every word is found in every page of the Bible.  Being Biblically balanced, therefore, provides the spiritual nutrition that brings one into spiritual maturity.  Of course, being Biblical balanced presupposes that one is Biblically literate.

We all realize that a balanced and nutritious diet is needed to maintain a healthy body.  Living on fruit alone, as healthy as fruit is, will do little to keep your body in good health.  The same is true with our spiritual growth.  Living in Biblical balance will not only do wonders for your growth as a Christian, it will cause you to be the effective witness for Jesus that you were called to be.

Beyond the individual being in Biblical balance, the local church should also be Biblically balanced, thus creating an atmosphere for growth among all of its members.