The devil knows most of us are extremists; “If ones good, two are better.” He is an expert in getting Christian’s to go off the deep end. He wants us to get in over our heads. This way we lose all sense of what’s going on around us. He gets us to put all our eggs in one basket, knowing we’ll give them all our attention; while he fills the other baskets with rotten ones. If he can convince us tunnel vision is best, we’ll sacrifice consciousness of other things of importance for just one thing. He’ll urge us to put something or someone on one side of the scale, and then tempt us to remove the just balance on the opposite side, thereby resulting in overestimating that thing or person’s value.
For example, if you go overboard on Calvinism you become a fatalist. But to go too far with Arminianism you end up being a humanist. And to be overly concerned with the prodigal child, neglecting the good one, you may end up loosing both. “If we pay attention to the Spiritual, the devil will pay attention to the nerves” (Oswald Chambers). Satan relies on your extreme loves and dislikes to drive you in the opposite direction. To the outer limits, if you please. This way you end up in no mans land, and that’s no place to be. One extreme is as bad as the other. The only way to keep your Spiritual sanity is by keeping to the middle ground. I’m not speaking of compromise, but of sound, sensible evaluation of things and people in life. No hang-ups!
All extremes, except our devotion to Christ, are to be guarded.
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