Balance is very difficult for us as Christians to maintain. But balance in worship, balance in doctrine, balance in good deeds, and balance in individual practice, are nevertheless required. At the same time, balance is to be defined according to the Word, and not according to the moderate nervousness the world has about religious things.
Such things do not check the indulgence of the flesh because they are an indulgence of the flesh. Pagans visit brothels to satisfy the flesh while professing believers do the same thing through making up rules not required by Scripture. Self-imposed religion, what the older theologians used to call will-worship, is an abomination to God. Everything we do is to be to the glory of God, defined by the revealed will of God. This sounds very spiritual, but it is not that easy.
We must never underestimate the importance of strict obedience. God expressly forbids imitative innovations in worship (Dt. 12:30-32); God struck down Nadab and Abihu for offering strange incense (Lev. 10:1-2); Saul was rejected as king because of his rebellion in taking Samuel’s place (1 Sam. 15:22-23); Uzza was struck down for touching the ark when the oxen stumbled (1 Chron. 15:12-13); King Uzziah tried to burn incense before the Lord contrary to the law and was struck with leprosy (2 Chron. 26:17-18); and Hezekiah destroyed the bronze serpent (2 Kings 18:4). Zeal in our religion is commanded (Titus 2:14); in a very important sense we are never to be moderate Christians. “So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth” (Rev. 3:16).
However, strict obedience is not necessarily the same thing as strictness generally. What does strict obedience look like when God tells us to take it easy? We are obliged to obey strictly what God has said, not what we thought He said, or what we assumed He said, or what we thought he should have said. “He who sends a message by the hand of a fool cuts off his own feet and drinks violence” (Prov. 26:6). Before we obey the Word, we must know it to be the Word. As soon as we know it to be the Word, our responsibility for submission is immediate and complete.
The first step in balance is realizing that perfection is not perfectionism. While the Word of God is absolute, a false assumption proceeding from this premise is the idea that the Bible therefore provides a tidy list of do’s and don’ts, all of which must accord with a respectable pieties of a Victorian library lady. Although the law required priests to have a certain lineage which the usurping priests of Christ’s day did not have, the Bible still treats Caiphas as the genuine high priest (John 11:51); Hezekiah requested that God receive certain defiled Israelites coming to a reinstituted Passover (2 Chron. 30:17-19); Namaan received permission to escort his master into the house of Rimmon, and there to help him bow down (2 Kings 5:17-18); David unlawfully ate the showbread and was praised by Christ for it (Matt. 12:4); and Christians should have no trouble in principle eating meat that was offered up to an idol (1 Cor. 8:4).
Perfectionism has the appearance of wisdom, but it is a work of the flesh. But we are not to counter perfectionism with imperfectionism; we counter perfectionism with obedience.
So of course, we must submit ourselves to all of Scripture. “But He answered and said, ‘It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God‘” (Matt. 4:4; cf. Dt. 8:3). Consequently, this is what balance means: 1. We should never obey just a portion of the Word of God. We must not subtract from the Word; 2. We should never grant extra-biblical authorities the authority of Scripture. We must not add to the Word; 3. We should never obey the Word “just right” with our mouths, but have our hearts far from the Lord. 4. We should never assume interpretive authority over the Word, as though we had a right to our own authoritative opinions.