Common Sense Commentary: A natural, human norm for people is expecting too much or expecting too little of ourselves, our mates, our children and of everyone around us. It is a human flaw to swing in extremes and go too far or not far enough.
Physical, mental and spiritual balance eludes us unless we know where to find it. Only spiritual growth adds the missing factor .... balance ... true balance in all things. We are each locked into a channel of inherited predisposition and environmental preconception. All the genealogical traits in our DNA, plus thousands of traits learned from the environment we grew up in, make us who we are ... in the flesh. Learning balance is as important in life as it is in walking a tight wire over a canyon. To overcome all the preconceived error in our human make up, we must turn to our Creator God and His word. Only He truly knows us, our exact need and how to forgive us and fix us. "For their heart was not right with him, neither
were they stedfast in his covenant. But
he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and
destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away.... For he
remembered that they were but flesh...." Psm.78:37-39.
God told His prophet Isaiah in 40:6 ... "The voice (of God) said, Cry. And he (Isaiah) said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass,
and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field." The Apostle Peter brought this verse into the New Testament in 1P.1:24 "For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of
grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away." Our flesh is no better than withered grass and our accomplishments in the flesh are faded flowers.
Only Jesus Christ could accurately delineate the flesh from the spirit, diagnose the disorder and prescribe the remedy. In effect, He said, there is no hope for the flesh, infected by sin, so ... "Except a man be born again ...." he is doomed. A man asked Him how that could possibly be. Jesus answered that, of course, a person had to be physically born first, a water birth (a fetus lives in water and is 98% water); And then, later, be born again, in a spiritual birth of conversion. "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. that which is born of flesh (water) is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." John 3:3-6. Three chapters later, Jesus said, "It is the spirit that quickeneth (zoopoieo=to give/preserve life) the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you are spirit and life". John 6:63. Jesus commented again, "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." Matt.26:41.(two opposite things)
Therefore, all of mankind, in its natural, human, fleshly state is out of balance with truth and truth's God. Even after we are saved, as long as we are in these fleshly bodies, our flesh continues to interrupt and miss-direct our born again spirits, because our flesh is not born again. That is why the Apostle Paul, in frustration, confessed,
"For that which I do (fleshly) I allow not (spiritually): for what I would,
that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not... it is no more I that do
it, but sin that dwelleth in me (not my spirit but my flesh). For I
know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will (free will)is
present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
For the good that I would I do not: but
the evil which I would not, that I (flesh)do.
Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me (in my flesh). I find then a law, that, when I
would do good, evil is present with me. (in my flesh).
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man (spirit): But I see another law in my members (flesh), warring against the law of
my mind (spirit), and bringing me (flesh) into captivity to the law of sin which is in my
members (fleshly outward man). O wretched man that I am (flesh)! who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind
(spirit)I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin." Rom.7:15-25. (This is a key to interpreting Scripture).
The end result of this constant battle between body and spirit is confused false doctrine, backsliding and Christian frustration and extremes, unless the person understands the discord between the body and spirit, the physical man and the spiritual man, the outer man and the inner man, the unsaved sinful flesh and the born again sinless spirit. If you cannot understand that, you cannot find balance, and you will drift into discouragement, self-righteousness, apostasy or cults.
Balance is an absolute essential to a happy, contented, productive Christian life.
Otherwise, husbands and wives will live in disharmony, and parents will vary from too hard and strict, to too easy and permissive, with their children. But even worse than either extreme is the parent who swings to both extremes.
Husbands and wives often expect too much of their mate, their children and even themselves and everybody else. Just as bad, is to expect too little and just be passive or give up and quit trying to even do right and give leadership to our children.
Preachers are also guilty of extremes. On the extreme right, you have the legalistic, perfectionist preacher who keeps a constant guilt trip on God's people and creates a cultist atmosphere that either enslaves or drives out the members. These guys set such a "high standard" that, in reality, nobody can pole vault over that high a bar ... not even that "preacher". But he, and those who follow him, learn to pretend they are that holy, and do it so effectively they convince themselves they are holy (self-righteousness).
On the extreme left, you have the professional religionist, Right Reverend, who has no real standards or firm convictions except keeping his job, pleasing the board, the members and the denominational leaders. He sets the bar so low Judas could walk right over it without tripping. He and his parish comfortably lives up to his low standards.
The true and only effective, productive and biblical standards are the Holy Scriptures which can be honestly followed only by sincere, humble and true believers in Jesus Christ who study them consistently, prayerfully, and repent and forgive quickly. And even they ... still have that universal battle between spirit and flesh, the inner man vs. the outer man, to deal with, as did the Apostle Paul and every other Christian who ever lived. Ask Billy Graham or better still, read the Apostle Paul in Romans 7&8. RB
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