You might be wondering what I mean by balanced, so let me explain. This morning my reading was Acts chapter nine. This starts with the story of Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus, then goes on to tell us that after he stopped persecuting the Christians, the Church experienced a period of peace. This is summarised in verse 31:
“So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.” (ESV)
Balance
The balance that we are referring to here is between the “fear of the Lord” and the “comfort of the Holy Spirit” – a balanced Christian walks with the experience of both; they belong hand in hand. Of course, many who identify as Christians do not have this balance. Some have things the opposite way around, living in fear of the Holy Spirit, but viewing the Father as a cuddly daddy. For others, the Father is seen as distant and unapproachable, and for yet others there is no sense of awe at all.
Our society tends to have a negative idea of fear, something harmful even, but then it tends to have a negative attitude to constraints, to rules. The idea that a healthy ‘fear’ should guide our behaviour doesn’t sit well, unless of course it is a fear of not being accepted because we stand out against what are considered to be social norms, others’ ‘rights’ to be wrong; their right to live at odds with how God created us to be and to behave.
Fatherhood
Fatherhood is a tricky concept for those whose experience of a human father has not been good. Fathers should represent security to their children; acceptance, support and abundant love. But they should also represent authority in the home and the family. Not, of course, a domineering authoritarianism, but a quiet understanding that ‘dad’ is to be both trusted and obeyed. Such a father is respected and looked up to, and is a type of our heavenly Father. The reference in the verse in Acts is to walking in the fear of the Lord. This is a reverential fear, as described in W. E. Vine’s ‘Expository Dictionary of Bible Words’, which expands on this to explain that it is:
“ …. a controlling motive of the life, in matters spiritual and moral, not a mere fear of His power and righteous retribution, but a wholesome dread of displeasing Him, a fear which banishes the terror that shrinks from his presence, and which influences the disposition and attitude of one whose circumstances are guided by trust in God, through the indwelling Spirit of God”.
In other words, a wholesome, submissive respect; a feeling of awe, but warm rather than cold, positive rather than negative.
Comfort
Respect and awe for the Father is balanced with comfort of the Holy Spirit. The original Greek word that is translated as comfort is “paraclesei”, which combines the words for beside and calling, so a calling to one’s side. This is someone who is with us and comforts and supports us. It is this support that the early church experienced, and that we can no less know in our own lives walking with God. When we experience the Holy Spirit, we know God’s presence with us as our support and comforter. He is, of course, also our advocate and guide. As those who have received forgiveness for our sins, those who have been born again of the Spirit, it is vital that we come to know the presence of the Holy Spirit walking alongside us. Apart from the matter of balance, the Spirit of God is also with us to empower us through his gifting and anointing for ministry. Without this, we have only our own natural strength and ability to rely upon, which can never be adequate for undertaking Kingdom work.
Adoption
So we come back to the original question – Are you a balanced Christian? Do you have a healthy awe, respect and trust towards the Father, but also know the comfort of the Spirit of God dwelling with you? As mentioned earlier, there are some who are very mixed up and confused about how to respond to God. If we have received salvation, and are committed to living in the way that God wants, then we have no cause to feel a negative fear of God; we have been adopted as sons of the Father, as outlined by Paul:
“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” Romans 8:15
The word Abba is the familiar term that equates to Daddy, demonstrating that for us God is nothing like a distant tyrant, but someone with whom we can enjoy a close and supportive relationship like those of a child with their human father. This doesn’t undermine respect or awe, but shows us that God, who is Almighty and morally perfect, has a heart for us, adopting us as his very own children. This in no way dilutes God’s attributes, but rather shows us more of who he is. He, of whom we should rightly be in awe, is also he who draws us to himself as a child to their father.
Enabler
Many are also confused about who the Holy Spirit is, perhaps not even recognising that he is a person. We can have a relationship with a person, but if we don’t know him to be a person, then that excludes the possibility of our having any relationship with the Spirit of God – we can’t have meaningful relationships with things!
I believe that we can understand quite clearly that the Holy Spirit is a person, but at the same time be afraid of him in the negative sense. We could be anxious about what he might get up to if we let him into our lives; if we allow him to come close. We might simply fear his presence, or we could be reticent to know what he might ask of us. Just as our heavenly Father is someone who seeks a real, meaningful and close relationship with us, so the Spirit is there neither to condemn us nor demand things of us, but to support, encourage and empower us. He comes beside us to enable us to become all that God intends us to be – not conformity to a standard pattern, but fulfilment of what God has chosen us to be and to do in his Kingdom, our own personal calling.
Restoration
Your response to this may be a resounding Amen. On the other hand, you might recognise a need to restore balance in your walk with God. Anything that is out of balance is incapable of following a straight path; its passage will inevitably be distorted. We need to seek that balance if we are to be fruitful in our Christian lives and ministry. We see that this is what occurred when the early church had such balance; it grew and multiplied. We all seek to grow in our knowledge of God and his ways, and most of us also seek to see his kingdom grow and multiply, but this only occurs when we have a right relationship with God, walking hand-in-hand with the three persons of the Trinity – Father, Son and Spirit.
.