The Imbalance of Balance

I have a guaranteed way to gather a crowd. String up a wire between two buildings, and people will gather to watch you walk across. Easy enough. Staying on the wire…that is another matter. Add some wind, and a few rocks thrown by spectators, and you have a truly difficult task.

Balance is not just for tightrope walkers. It is topic of discussion in many areas of life. Balance is lifted high as that fundamental feature in a healthy business, ministry, marriage, doctrine, etc. Certainly there is danger when there is gross imbalance, but what about balance itself? Could it become a dangerous thing? Can there be an imbalance of balance? Can balance be used to rein in that which should be powerfully unleashed?

Someone has beat me to the punch on this topic. A pastor/blogger named Nicholas McDonald is a skillful writer that routinely puts out some very helpful articles. On this issue, he has written something that gets to the heart of my unease when it comes to “balance.” One of the reasons it is so helpful is that it is so concise. He did in less than 300 words what I couldn’t have done with 600. In the realm of doctrine, he deals with a misuse of balance which is extremely helpful. Yet, his article ends with a hitch. I will address this at the end, but first the full article itself:

You Can’t Overemphasize Truth

It’s impossible to overemphasize any truth.

It is possible to emphasize to the exclusion of something else.

It’s not possible to overemphasize God’s sovereignty. It is possible to emphasize it to the exclusion of human responsibility.

It’s not possible to overemphasize social justice. It is possible to emphasize it to the exclusion of evangelism.

It’s not possible to overemphasize the preached word. It is possible to emphasize it to the exclusion of community care.

It’s not possible to overemphasize religious affections. It is possible to emphasize them to the exclusion of doctrine.

It’s not possible to overemphasize anything, because no aspect of God or his law can be emphasized enough. It is all worthy of infinite exploration, and exposition.

The goal, then, is not to stay “balanced” as though half-heartedly proclaiming one aspect of truth was doing another some favor. Downplaying any aspect of truth ultimately leads to the poverty of the rest. Paradox doesn’t deflate truth; it makes it more colorful, more full, more wonderful.

So we don’t believe 50% in justification, and 50% in sanctification. We believe 100% of both, and neither can be emphasized enough. Both make the other more beautiful.

But one might be emphasized to the exclusion of the other.

The goal, then, is not to “balance” but to maximally emphasize all truth, all the time.

This article was ringing bells for me over and over. It dealt a glorious blow to the subtle taming of powerful truth in the name of balance. We all feel this tug. We are tempted to tone down the full proclamation of some glorious truth, simply because we feel the unease of those who prefer the complimentary side of that same truth. Now, to be sure, that complimentary side needs to be unleashed as well. But each should be reveled in, not truncated because we fear the accusation of being imbalanced.

Here is the one hitch to the article. His last line reads, “The goal, then, is not to ‘balance’ but to maximally emphasize all truth, all the time.” That is impossible. The reality is you can only say one thing at a time. If you are maximally emphasizing one thing, that means you are not maximally emphasizing another thing. You can’t do all things all the time. You have to do each thing in its time. Or as the preacher says in Ecclesiastes, “there is a season for everything…” This then becomes the true trick of balance. Balance must not be used to truncate doctrines, but instead true balance is giving paradoxical doctrines their full due over the course of your ministry. Here is where a regular overview of your teaching becomes necessary. Look over the last year of your preaching, or the last 50 blogs you wrote, or the last couple Sunday schools you taught, or your normal conversations. Did you give some doctrines far more airtime? Did you give one side of a doctrine more exposure? Did you neglect or lightly deal with a particular truth?

We are all prone to this. We all have some doctrines that grip us in powerful ways, and understandably we will love to speak of them. But there is no ugly truth. There is no embarrassing doctrine. If you secretly feel there is, that is the very place where you need to study up.

Once you have done the study, and your heart sings over both sides of a paradox, now you can preach the “full counsel of God.” Give full and robust sermons and Sunday schools and writings to any feature of a doctrine. Sure, a mention of the complimentary side can be made. But more importantly, at some point wisely to be determined, you need to give correspondingly full and robust sermons and Sunday Schools and writings to the other side of those doctrines. The reason is not to appease people, the reason is to glorify and exalt those real truths. In this sense, let the pendulum swing. Make truth big and loud on one side; then make it big and loud on the other side. But a lukewarm middle ground that mumbles about both sides can never be the balance we aim for.