"Swinging"

"Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."  2 Timothy 2:15

About a month or so ago the Lord spoke something to me in prayer.  He said, "The church is swinging again".  I knew exactly what He was talking about.  One of my former pastors used to use the phrase, "swinging from one side of the pendulum to the other", a lot.  The church has had a habit and repeating pattern of "swinging" from one extreme to the other.  It is like we can't find a "balance".  We did it with the prosperity gospel, the confession principle, the message of grace and now we are doing it with "love". 

When the Lord said to me that the church is swinging, He meant that we are swinging in one direction with the message of love.  We aren't balanced.  We are making it all about love.   But we are only presenting one side.  Yes, the gospel is a gospel of love.  God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son.  There was no greater love exhibited than at the cross.  God is love and by the way we love people will know that we are His children and followers. 

The Bible tells us to rightly divide the Word of Truth.  The Word itself was given for reproof, rebuke, correction and instruction in righteousness.  That is the counterpart of love.  Jesus who is love is the Lion and the Lamb; the Savior and the Judge; the Lover of our soul and the Just One.  He loved, showed love and taught us how to love when He walked the earth.  But He also drove the moneychangers out of the temple with a whip.  He told the woman caught in adultery to go and sin no more.  He told the man He had healed at the Pool of Bethesda to stop sinning lest a worse thing come upon Him.  He rebuked the Pharisees and religious leaders calling them blind leaders of the blind, hypocrites, vipers, etc. 

Jesus showed us love and rebuke.  Love and correction.  Love and consequences.  Love and holiness.  To "love" people only without telling them the rightly divided truth, without letting them know what the whole Word says, without correction, without accountability, without warnings is to not love them at all.  Why do we correct our children when they need it?  Because we hate them?  No, because we love them.  We know it is good for them and will save them in the long run.  What would happen if we gave our children nothing but a diet of sweets and sugar-- the stuff they like?  It would destroy their bodies and open the door to all kinds of health problems.  They have to have vegetables and proteins to stay healthy and balanced.  If we are only giving people "love"-- the stuff they want to hear-- without letting them know the whole truth, they will be spiritually deficient, spiritually unhealthy and unbalanced.  

Have a great day.  We have to stop "swinging" and get balanced with the gospel.  It is the whole gospel that saves-- not one side only.