A Balanced Christian Life

"Ephraim is a cake not turned" (Hosea 7.8). This is a figurative way of saying ‘not balanced’. The cake is burned on the one side, uncooked on the other; on one side it is overdone, on the other, totally undone. The cake is unfit to be eaten and is thus destined to be cast out. Our God is most balanced. He is love and He is light. Our Lord Jesus is full of grace and full of truth. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of wisdom as well as of revelation. In creation, God "hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with a span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and the hills in a balance" (Is. 40.12). Concerning redemption, it is said that "mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth springeth out of the earth; and righteousness hath looked down from heaven" (Ps. 85.10,11). The new creation, therefore, must be well balanced. In this present volume, Watchman Nee attempts to show from God’s word the perfect equilibrium of divine truth. Human nature, however, is prone to emphasize one side to the exclusion of the other side of truth. This has caused much confusion and many problems among God’s people. It is essential that we know the balance of truth and hold on to both sides so that our Christian life may be well rounded as God has ordained. The contents of the book opens with a treatment of the balance between the gate and the way; continues with a presentation of the balance between the objective and the subjective; includes a discussion on the work inward and the work outward in the Christian life, as well as on the rest given and the rest found as promised by Christ; contemplates the other side of prayer frequently neglected, namely, to watch; and concentrates on the other less emphasized aspect of the trespass-offering, that of restoration. The book then provides a commentary on the contrast between the truly meek and the spiritually poor, and finally concludes with a consideration of the equilibrium that is so necessary between the believer’s faith and the believer’s walk. May all who read this volume be brought into a balanced Christian life.