One of the greatest privileges of being a global worker—and a Christian—is teaching God’s Word to those who want to understand and apply it to their lives. What an honor to share the Lord’s message with others! But along with this noble task comes the sobering responsibility to teach the Bible correctly, that is, not to distort God’s truth in any way. How can we avoid making mistakes? 

One of my professors at Bible college said something that has stuck with me for all these years and—I believe—can reduce the chance of teaching what is false: “Truth out of balance becomes error.” 

Before I go on, let me admit that none of us is correct one hundred percent—or even ninety percent—of the time. We all have dogmas that God would probably shake his head at, so I’m not implying that we must have perfect doctrine because there’s no such thing (how can there be when there are no perfect people?). Nonetheless, we should continually seek—and teach—the truth as much as possible. 

And this is where balance comes in. The quickest way to stray off the path of truth is to look at verses that present one side of a matter while ignoring those verses that appear to give a different view. For example, if we only focus on God’s love, we can get the impression that the Lord will accept and forgive everyone. On the other hand, if we only concentrate on God’s wrath, he becomes a strict judge that we should fear and obey with trembling. Both views are truth out of balance. 

The psalmist understood the human struggle to comprehend the truth, so in Psalm 25:5, he prayed for the Lord to guide and teach him what was true. Without the Holy Spirit’s help, knowing the truth is impossible. But his assistance will be limited if we deliberately ignore inconvenient passages that don’t fit our preconceived ideas. 

As we search for truth, let’s look at the entire picture the Bible paints, and the Holy Spirit will lead us to all truth.