A PARABLE OF THREE BROTHERS

Bob, Jack and Jim were brothers living in the high plains of Lubbock, TX.  They decided to drive to Dallas; each in his own car. Bob had a morbid fear of his car drifting to the left and hitting oncoming traffic or crashing into the ditch on the left side of the road.  Consequently he drove his car as far to the right as he possibly could. All went well until darkness overtook them and his right front wheel hit a pothole just where the pavement on the right met the shoulder. Poor Bob lost control of his vehicle and before he knew it he was in the ditch, his car ruined and his trip spoiled. Even though he was roughed up a bit, he survived his accident and lived to tell others about the dangers of driving too far to the right, while trying to avoid the ditch on the left.

Jack had just the opposite fear from Bob.  He was so afraid of running into the ditch on the right that he hugged the center line as he drove along. A large truck happened by and Jack had drifted over just enough that the truck sideswiped him, knocking his car out of control.  Even though he tried manfully to wrestle it back into his lane, he smashed into the ditch on the left, doing costly damage to his car and getting bunged up himself. 

Jim was a bit wiser. He knew the dangers of running off into either ditch, be it on the right or left.  Consequently Jim drove in the center of his traffic lane, careful not to get too far to the right or the left. He made the trip successfully and enjoyed his visit.

This parable has a great lesson for the Lord’s church. There are brethren who are so afraid of legalism on the right that they are drawn into the ditch of liberalism on the left and in the words of Paul made “wreck of the faith” (I Tim. 1:19). On the other hand there are disciples so afraid of liberalism on the left that they are drawn into the ditch of legalism on the right.  As one stands observing these two cases of wrecked faith, wisdom reminds us that there is no consolation to the either that they successfully avoided the opposite ditch. The fact is, they wrecked on their journey and failed to reach their destination.  It was Jim who exhibited wisdom by steering his car in the middle of his lane and thus avoided either ditch. So in the church in these early years of the 21st century, wise men will avoid both ditches since either is destructive to faith As Solomon said it, “Let thine eyelids look straight before thee...Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: Remove thy foot from evil” (Prov. 4:27).