The knowledge of God's mercy and compassion must be held in tension with knowledge of His judgement. These are not incompatible with each other, they are two sides of the same coin. "For God so loved the world that He gave..." John 3:16. This is the same God who will also allow His wrath to remain on the wicked and disobedient. "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already..." John 3:18. And later on John says: "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." (John 3:36)
The knowledge of God's compassion and His judgment must be held in tension like a perfectly tuned guitar string. If I tune the string too tight (that is if I focus too much on His judgment) it will be too high pitched and threaten to break. If I tune the string too low (that is focus too much on His mercy and compassion) the string will become slack and lose its distinct sound. When tuned right, along with the other strings on the instrument (that is, the church) and played together a beautiful melody of praise to God is created.
How do we know when the tune is right? This can only come from time spent in relationship with the Lord, reading His Word, talking to the Lord in prayer. The daily disciplines cannot be emphasized enough. We do not practice spiritual disciplines in order to avoid God's wrath; we practice the disciplines so that we might fine tune our listening skills which are needed to properly "tune the string."
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