TRUTH

For the law was given through Moses, but GRACE and TRUTH came through Jesus Christ – John 1:17

So often we assume that all that’s required for a worthwhile Christian life is to achieve a balance of grace and TRUTH – just enough truth or just enough grace. Or perhaps that these are options to one another: that there are times for grace but other times when primarily truth is what is needed. Being at extremes has landed many a church leadership in trouble as they dealt with issues in the Body. It’s sometimes good to avoid extremes and look for balance in many aspects of life, but not with respect to Grace and Truth! Looking at Jesus’ life, we see that when it comes to grace and truth, it isn’t a matter of balance. He was a hundred per cent Grace and hundred per cent Truth! He did not lay aside the one to become the other.

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” – John 1:14

“For the law was given by Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” – John 1:17

As Jesus walked on this earth, and even now, He administered grace while speaking truth. We too are exhorted to be “speaking the truth in love” (Eph.4:15). The injunction is not to “show some love and then hit them with the truth.”  Nor does it say, “speak the truth and follow it up with some love.”  Both love (grace) and truth are to be present at the same time. The Lord Jesus brought this perspective of grace and truth into worship in John 4 when the Samaritan woman identified two different styles of worship, questioning which way was acceptable: the Samaritan method or the Jewish method.

Samaritan Method of Worship: In John 4:22 Jesus said of the Samaritans, “You worship what you do not know.” They were limited in knowledge, accepting only the first five books of the Old Testament (the Pentateuch). Their worship was enthusiastic but lacking in the proper knowledge. They typified “zeal without knowledge”!

Jewish Method of Worship: They accepted the entire Old Testament and hence did not lack knowledge but their hearts weren’t in it. Jesus used Isaiah’s words to describe them, “These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me” (Mk.7:6). They demonstrated “knowledge without zeal”!

Jesus responded, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in SPIRIT and TRUTH, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth” (Jh.4:23-24).

The Father seeks both zeal and knowledge, spirit and truth, grace and truth!  He is looking for life and truth, enthusiasm and sound doctrine – Grace AND Truth.  This applies to how we worship our God; how we deal with others; and the entirely of our lives. The whole of our lives should be filled with both Grace AND Truth if we are going to be Christ-like.