BALANCE!
Every effective, healthy, and enduring preacher I’ve known through the years has understood the importance of balance. My earliest memories in my preaching life of hearing about balance came in a week-long graduate course taught by brother Wendell Winkler.
Brother Winkler spoke passionately about the need for balance in every area of our lives. He painted a beautiful and practical picture of how balanced can be achieved in the life of a preacher. Even though that discussion took place nearly forty years ago, his words still ring loudly in my ear. I confess that I haven’t always done as well in this area as needed, but the understanding is surely in my mind and heart.
In our brother Paul's letter to his young friend, Timothy, he emphasizes two aspects of fighting the noble warfare. It seems clear that Paul is instructing Timothy, as well as every preacher, to work to remain balanced in a world that is sorely imbalanced.
He says we fight a good fight by, "keeping faith and a good conscience." Throughout the New Testament, Paul, as well as the other writers, place this two-fold emphasis on right teaching and right living. We must be interested in doctrine and godliness. Correct teaching and purity of life go together.
Some place the emphasis only on doctrine and promote the idea that as long as you teach a correct view of Scripture, you can get by with immoral living. Others place the emphasis only on a pure life and promote the idea that as long as you live right, what you teach doesn't matter.
Paul says you can't have one without the other. We are called to a higher view of Scripture and a higher view of life. Right belief and right behavior go hand in hand. May God help us to fight the good fight by, "keeping faith and a good conscience." With this proper understanding of the need for balance we will be able to endure whatever life throws our way!