How often do we hear that the fear (not reverence!) of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. What is being emphasized today is love! love! love! This is an imbalance. The American believers, for example, think of God as the great Santa Claus in the sky; a kindly old gentlemen who is wringing his hands while his boys behave like the sons of Eli. Compare this concept with the Fire that flamed from the Most Holy Place and slew the two sons of Aaron.

There always is Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, the blessing and the curse. To ignore Ebal while we stress Gerizim results in tragedy. If we would bear a true testimony of God we must tell of His unfathomable love and also the terror of His wrath.(Deut 27:12,13)

There is a problem that arises when we seek to balance the necessity for godly behavior with a continual stress on God's love, mercy, and grace. Some preachers and teachers of today are bringing into view the numerous passages of the Scriptures that speak of the necessity for moral change in the believer. Immediately the warning is issued that we must balance any preaching of the necessity for moral change with several references to the love, mercy, and grace of God.

Here is an example of the incorrect application of the principle of balance. Let us give a simple example of an incorrect application of the principle of balance so the reader may understand what we are saying.

The Scripture states that the covetous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.

For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. (Ephesians 5:5)

It would be incorrect and destructive to seek to balance this statement with an appeal to God's love or to New Testament "grace." Such an attempt would parallel Satan's advice, "You shall not surely die." Either the covetous believer will inherit the Kingdom of God or else he will not. Which is it to be?

There is an awesome difference between balancing doctrine and compromising the demands of the Kingdom of God.

We are in error when we attempt to "balance" the necessity for moral transformation with the passages that emphasize the love, mercy, and grace of God. The result is the concept that if we do not obey the laws of God we will receive the Lord's blessing in any case because of God's new-covenant grace.

This is the way the Gospel of the Kingdom of God is taught today and it has produced moral disaster. The Lord Jesus has removed many of the lampstands of the Christian churches. The Divine testimony has been extinguished in many "Christian" nations because the Divine warnings have been removed from Gospel teaching.

The conclusion that is drawn when an attempt is made to balance godliness with grace is that while we ought to try to do good, if we do not God will receive us anyway. To emphasize the importance of godly behavior and then to modify this with the idea of God's forgiveness is to confuse the basic operation of the new covenant.

To be continued.