Truth Without Grace
Galatians 6:1 Brothers and sisters, someone in your group might do something wrong. You who are following the Spirit should go to the one who is sinning. Help make that person right again, and do it in a gentle way. But be careful, because you might be tempted to sin too.
Over the last couple of days, we’ve been talking about truth – God’s truth. But even His truth is sometimes wielded as a weapon by His people, in a way that wreaks havoc rather than bringing healing.
Truth without grace is a dangerous thing. And sadly, you see it emanating from “Christians” all too often through their judgementalism. A man whom I greatly respect, Carey Nieuwhof, puts it like this:
Jesus said Christians should be known for how deeply we love. Yet studies show that in the eyes of many non-Christians, we’re known for how deeply we judge. The problem in many cases is not that unchurched people don’t know any Christians. The problem is that they do. And they don’t like us – for good reason.
If that doesn’t make us sit up and take notice, I don’t know what will. He goes on to say this: Remove grace from the truth and you don’t actually have the truth at all, but a cold, steely imitation.
How easy – how incredibly easy – it is for us to look imperiously down our nose at people in a spirit of judgement, imaging that somehow we’re doing the right thing.
Galatians 6:1 Brothers and sisters, someone in your group might do something wrong. You who are following the Spirit should go to the one who is sinning. Help make that person right again, and do it in a gentle way. But be careful, because you might be tempted to sin too.
When you see someone doing something that you know absolutely is wrong, what’s your first reaction? Is it to judge them, or is it to help them in a spirit of gentleness? Well?!
Let me say it again: when we remove grace from the truth, we no longer have truth, but a cold, steely imitation.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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