Balance Requires Awarerness Of Two Opposit Extremes To Find Center Truth

Common Sense Commentary:  "Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself  over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself? Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time?" Ecc. 7:16-17. As a young minister, I avoided these two verses because I did not understand them. Now, I'm too old to be concerned with what someone may think about my interpretation of hard verses. I think the key words in understanding the verses are, "neither make thyself". A person can "make themselves" too self-righteous, or even make themselves appear to be more worldly they really are. Either of which is self destructive. We all understand self-righteousness, which is most often seen in religious demonstration, but self deprecation is a bit more difficult to comprehend. Actually it is just as common. We Christians are sinners saved by grace, and 
"....there is none good but one, that is, God." Mk.10:18. But we have all seen Christian men who have dressed like an Outlaw or Hell's Angel to hit the highway on their motorcycles or Christian girls or women who dress in suggestive, inappropriate clothing to wear to school, out shopping or even to church.  I think these verses are simply teaching spiritual balance. It is not spirituality if it is pretended.
The same is true of a "voluntary humility".  Pretending to be what we are not is "making thyself" a lie.
"Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility...." Col.2:18. The deeper lesson here is, "Be real, be true ... and be yourself", but be the "you" which God intended you to be when He created you, not a pretended "you", or a corrupted you, perverted by sin, which God did not intend for the real you. Balance is a fine line. It is not perverted to the right or to the left. It is upright and true to the gravity of God's standard like the high-wire walker. Our balancing rod is the Word of God which keeps us in the center of right and truth for a successful and safe Christian walk through life ... to the end of the line.
"And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left." Isa.30:21.

As we walk with God and progress through life, we must set out eyes on the straight line ... to our 
God given goal, and not deviate to either extreme, right or left. There are many slips, diversions, 
choices and dangers to avoid on the way. Highways have a center white line, two lanes and two ditches... one on each side of the highway, a right extreme and a left extreme. The ditch on one extreme is full of self-righteous hypocrites, crashed there. The ditch on the other extreme is full of unrepentant sinners... crashed there. Scriptural progress can only be accomplished up on the High Way where two lanes are carrying Christians who are  "going in and out, and finding pasture." Jn.10:9. Those in the two ditches have veered off the highway and are bogged down in the mire of an imbalanced extreme of one sort or another and are a hindrance to the cause of Christ and His Church which is  up there on "...the way, which leadeth unto life..." Matt.7:14.

In the exact center, where the white line of perfection divides the High Way, is where the Spirit of Christ directs traffic ... coming and going. His white line is the absolute center of truth and true righteousness. It is where the perfection scale or balance is decreed between law and grace and various extremes. All Christians travel this HighWay, but must always be conscious of spiritual balance between the self-righteous ditch on one extreme and the religious but unrepentant sinner ditch on the other extreme. You may cross the white line and change lanes but no one except Jesus can stay on that white line of absolute and constant perfection. Every driver wavers a bit to right or left, here and there, in his fleshly vehicle, but staying steady and balanced in the lane between extremes prevents a lot of pain, difficulty and expense.

Jesus must shake his head as those in the religious, self-righteousness ditch and those in the opposite, unrepentant, sinner ditch, on the other extreme, who are all pointing across the HighWay at each other and saying Thank God I am not in that ditch over there ...or ...  "I thank thee, that I am not as other men are". Lk.14:11. Strangely, both sides are throwing rocks at those who are up on "The Way", passing by, in their lane, doing their calling, with their eyes on the road, in God's will and on God's HighWay to God's purpose. RB  

This is an introduction to developing blogs on "Balance" between various biblical truths such as Law and Grace, Wealth and Poverty, Discipline and Reward, and Husband / Wife relationships ... as possibilities. RB