Grace and Truth

From time to time I get questions about the relationship between grace and truth. This is something that I wrote a few years ago that I feel compelled to share again.

Any time I talk about grace and love, I run into someone who wants to talk about truth. To them, the idea is this: truth trumps grace. Grace is only good in their mind when someone abides in the truth. But I ask, whose truth? They will insist that their interpretation of the Bible is true. But what some people call truth becomes a hammer to hurt people. This is exactly what Jesus fought against. Real truth draws people toward our Father.

I am all in favor of truth, but I think we need to be very careful. Most people understand grace. You can feel it and it feels good. It is rooted in love. It is unchanging. Grace and love are universally identified by humans.

Truth is a little different. Some of what I thought was true when I was 18, I no longer believe to be true. Truth can also be a matter of opinion. Even on biblical passages, people have so many opinions on the truth. Truth was never meant to be a hammer. If Jesus is the truth, then somehow truth is connected to love because Jesus is the man of love.

I believe in truth, but I think the list is much smaller than we think. To me it boils down to something like this:
God loves you.
He sent Jesus.
Receive that.
Love back.
find the joy.
Share the joy.
live the joy.

Gosh that sounds a lot like grace. I am not going to spend much time arguing with people about grace and truth. At one time in the past I spent a lot of time arguing with people. I have lived the life where I thought I knew the truth and I would push it on others. All I did was hurt people. Today, I choose the life of grace. It feels much more like the life for which humans were created.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.