The Importance of Balance

In today's article we will be going over the differences between the soft and hard virtues. I believe this to be an important topic to study because the Lord tells us the path to life is narrow (Mat 7:14), therefore we must be careful not to go too far to the left or too far to the right.

So first we must distinguish what are the hard and soft virtues. The soft Virtues consist of Love, mercy, forgiveness, Grace, and Kindness. The hard virtues are Truth, Righteousness, Holiness, and Justice. What is essential to understand is that all these virtues are Good.

The Balance of Virtues in God

Some people make the mistake as either painting God as a cruel, intolerant monster because they only see him exacting Justice, aka the hard virtues. Others see Jesus as a soft pushover that only preached love and the soft virtues. Neither of the these two caricatures accurately describe completely the true God of the bible. This is because God is the embodiment of both the hard and soft virtues.

Let's compare God to a police officer. When at work the police officer is responsible to catch criminals subdue bad guys, but at home he also is seen as kind to his wife and gentle with his kids.
The God of the Old Testament is sometimes seen as violent and evil by those that don't truly understand him. They will bring up the passages of the global flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah to try and show how mean he is.

However my God doesn't go around hurting people for no reason! God flooded the world because the thoughts of man's heart at the time was only evil continually and the earth was filled with violence (Gen 6:5, Gen 6:11). He gave them ample warning of his wrath for over a hundred years (1Pet 3:20, 2Pet 2:5, Gen 6:3), he saved those that were righteous (Gen 6:9-10), and then he finally poured out his wrath (Gen 7:20-22), although he didn't have to he gave mankind a fresh start (Gen 9:1).

The same is true for the story of Sodom. He saw that that they were exceedingly wicked (Gen 13:13), they were given time to repent, Lot and his daughters were spared, and finally judgment was dispensed. Likewise bible critics may use 1 Sam 15:3 and accuse God of being a homicidal maniac, however we must remember that the Amalekites attacked Israel first and targeted the weak/stragglers (Deu 25:17-19). This was simply divine payback for their actions!

It is evident from the story of Ninevah from the book of Jonah that God isn't all about destruction and killing because even though they were a pagan nation filled with violence God had mercy on them when they repented (2Pet 3:9, Eze 33:11). God is even kind to the unthankful and evil (Luk 6:35).

Those that paint Jesus as just some guy who preached love and forgiveness (Mat 5:44, Mat 6:14-15) need to be reminded that he also preached that he was the only way to the Father (Joh 14:6, and that he had righteous indignation against those that sold in the temple (Joh 2:15). Furthermore it is Jesus who will be dispensing the wrath of God at the end of the world (Rev 19:11-21).

All one has to do is look at the Cross in order to see the perfect balance between the soft value of Love and the Hard value of Justice. Because God is just he must punish sin it isn't optional for him because he is perfect. The problem is we all have sinned and therefore must be punished (Rom 3:23). Because God is Love (1Joh 4:8) he came down to die in our place (Joh 15:23), this satisfied both the hard and soft virtues in that God could righteously punish sin while simultaneously offer mercy and forgiveness.

The Need of Balance in Christians

We too as Christians need to have both the hard and soft virtues if we want to be truly following Christ. First lets take a look at the liberal approach (soft virtues) and see the weaknesses in it then we will discuss the hard virtues.

Liberals want love and acceptance above all else, to them love is what really matters; because of this Truth and Righteousness must take a back seat. They are the ones who support the underdog or the seemingly oppressed minority.

In regards to race and job opportunity etc they want priority to go to the minority (aka blacks, asians. hispanic, etc). The conservative on the other hand wants the job to go to the most qualified regardless of skin color, after all people in Asia don't stir up rallies to get more white people into the workforce.

In regards to gender, liberals support feminism and believe women should take the lead over men (Isa 3:12) and that they should do all the same jobs as men. The problem with this is that although women are equal with men they are still different in that they are better at different things. Although this may sound harsh generally speaking the truth is women are weaker than men (Jer 50:37, 1Pe 3:7) and therefore shouldn't be participating in jobs such as military combat/firefighting were lives are at stake.

A famous campaign that the Liberals made was to close the gender pay gap, they state that a woman makes 77 cents on the dollar a man makes. This is a lie however because only adds up the average earnings of men and women working full time jobs without taking into consideration things like Job occupation, Job tenure, and number of hours worked. When you factor these in there virtually is no gap.

Then their is the issue of sexuality, the liberals support gay marriage; after all to them love is all that matters. I just want to take a moment to share some information regarding gay "marriage" and relationships. Namely that they are typically more violent, disease-prone, and promiscuous than heterosexual couples.

A gay married person is 270% more likely to kill themselves, an astonishing 65% of AIDS cases are reportedly from homosexual encounters despite the fact that they only make up 1-3% of our population. Another thing to consider is 66%  of gay married couples are unfaithful within their first year that they are married and there is a 90% chance of this within 5 years. It is also a fact that generally speaking homosexuals live an average of 20 years less than heterosexuals because of their depraved lifestyle.

Another  difference between Liberals and Conservatives is that Liberals desire the inclusion of many faiths whereas conservatives appreciate the values of the Christian faith. Liberals are for big government and look out for the collective instead of the individual; they desire socialism which means taxing the wealthy in order to help the poor. Conservatives on the other hand believe in personal responsibility, want small gov, and think that hard work and education should be rewarded and not punished.

To liberals it's all about not hurting anyone's feeling they are ruled by their heart/emotions (Pro 28:26, Jer 17:9), and not their head. This can also be understood as Hedonism which is the belief that if it gives you pleasure then it is the best good aka being ruled by pleasure. To a liberal truth claims are regarded as "hate speech".

So what are the consequences of a society influenced by Liberals? Since the 1960's "summer of Love" there has been a rise in Divorces from around 25% prior to it to now around half of marriages end in divorce. STI's are around 20 million a year, Emotional problems have increased as well Depression, low self esteem, and anxiety. In the U.S alone during this post-modern era we see that there has been around 60 million abortions, the majority of these were the result of unplanned pregnancy due to promiscuous sex.

Another study shows that 40% of kids in the west grow up in homes where their dad doesn't live. This results in increased rates of suicide, incarceration, depression, divorce, and substance abuse. They also are more likely to have Lower Job security and average income level, as well as an increase in mental or social behavior problems.

Another problem that arises from being a liberal is instead of helping such people that believe they are a dog, a cat, an infant, or even an adult male who thinks that he's a six year old girl (i.e. transgender-ism); they instead reinforce these people's delusions (mental illnesses) instead of helping them to get better.  Liberals face the danger of 2Th 210-12 when they give up the truth and practice only "Love".

See also: 1Tim 4:1, 2Tim 3:4

On the Other hand The conservative camp has their problems as well. This can be seen by the examples of the Pharisees of Jesus' day. They forbid Jesus to heal on the sabbath (Mar 3:1-6, Luk 6:6-11), and even forbade his disciples pluck corn as well (Mat 12:1-2). They were so zealous of the law that they added there own man made rules to the sabbath, which condemned man for doing just about anything on the sabbath. They spent so much time studying and acquiring knowledge that they were puffed up (proud) (Luk 18:11, 1Co 8:1), and unmerciful (Mat 23:23, Luk 11:42). They asked our Lord's disiplces why he ate with publicans and sinners (Mat 9:11). As Christians we can't be afraid to go and preach to the lost (Mat 28:19).

See also Mat 16:12, Luk 12:1, Mat 5:7

So what is the solution (Conclusion)? As Christians we need to balance both the hard and soft values. Yes we must must tell the truth but it has to be done in love (Eph 4:15), Yes we need to study the scriptures so that we will have knowledge of truth and righteousness but that alone will not benefit us without charity (2Tim 3:16-17, 2Tim 2:15, 1Cor 13:1-8). This means being longsuffering, kind, humble, and selfless among other things.


Reference: Youtube Video Series Titled The War On Truth 
pts 1-10 by the Fuel Project Channel.