#11. An examination of several books of the New Testament in
which “balance” is an integral factor in true interpretation.


We have put a number of the doctrines of Scripture into the scales, and found that truth is whole when truth is balanced, but when truth is not put into the scales it can easily be perverted. The reader of The Berean Expositor cannot read many of its pages without realizing that this element of balance plays an important part in our arrival at the truth of an epistle, a book, a passage or the whole purpose of the ages. From the vast outline of the age purpose commencing with Gen. i. 1 and ending with I Cor. xv. 28 (which we have considered in Nos.2 and 3 of this series), to the “one word” quoted by Paul from Isa. vi. (Acts xviii. 25-27) this balance and correspondence is discoverable, and a judicious use of it is an all important factor in interpretation. Let us take a few examples, most of them known to the reader, but which if brought together in one article may prove a demonstration that cannot be denied.

Let us apply this principle of balance to the Gospel according the Matthew, the Acts of the Apostles, the epistles to the Ephesians and to the Hebrews, and while avoiding anything like fullness of detail let us note the outstanding features which most clearly testify to the value of this method of study.


Without the addition of any further material, it is evident that the references given, clearly indicate that the Gospel according to Matthew falls into two distinct portions, and when this is recognized, no scheme of interpretation will be acceptable that does not give full place to this inspired subdivision.

We turn next to that most important book, the Acts of the Apostles, and once again, by observing the balance of its parts, we are compelled to recognize that the book is practically an account of and a comparison of two ministries, those of Peter and Paul.


The reader is asked to remember, that in the effort to reduce the four subdivisions of Acts, into four lines of print, the unavoidable exclusion of detail may give a false impression. If however, each section is taken and examined, the balance of parts will become so evident that the purpose of Luke, in vindicating Paul from the charges laid against him by the Jews, will be clear. In the series of articles on the Acts, which commenced in Volume XXIV, this analysis is taken to a considerable length and the interested reader may acquaint himself with what has there been presented.

The first epistle of the Mystery is the Epistle to the Ephesians, and whether our exposition has been of Genesis on the one hand or of the Apocalypse on the other, every article in The Berean Expositor has been written with Ephesians as the basic epistle of our calling constantly in mind. We have set out the structure of this Epistle in its literary form, in Volume XXXV, p.123, and in XVIII, p.167; as a chart in the form of a tree in Volume XXIV, p.4, and as a pair balances in Number 10 of the Berean Messages.

The last example of this particular aspect of the subject “Truth in the balance” is the presentation of the epistle to the Hebrews.


Hebrews is addressed to believers, “Holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling”. The exhortation is “let us go unto perfection”, the warning is the alternative of “drawing back unto perdition”. Examples of unbelief are taken from Israel in the wilderness who did not mingle faith with the things they heard, while examples of belief are taken from the Old Testament characters who from Abel to Moses manifested the truth that “faith is the substance of things hoped for”.

Truth in the balance is the sacred imprint on all Scripture.

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(From The Berean Expositor, vol. 36, page 241).

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