Embracing grace and truth in a divided world

General Superintendent Mark Pugh explores how to navigate differences with the wisdom of Jesus

You are probably surrounded by other people’s preferences and opinions, and of course you will also have your own. When your opinions match others there is a beautiful, sweet spot of harmony – but when our preferences and opinions are at variance with others, a decision is required as to how best to respond.

Our options of response can range from trying to learn from each other’s different perspectives through to falling out and avoiding each other for the rest of our lives. In society at large we are seeing an increase of this latter approach, as those who don’t conform to the preferences and philosophies of this world are deplatformed and excluded.

How would Jesus handle our current climate? The answer is with both grace and truth. He was full of both – one didn’t water down the other.

If a line were drawn displaying a spectrum of grace and truth, with the full extent of grace on one side and the full extent of truth on the other, Jesus didn’t respond from the middle of the line – he presented the line in its entirety. He was, and is, full of both – and the church is called to be full of both as well. It is tempting and easier to be full of just one.

We can emphasise truth and take down everyone who doesn’t see things the way we understand the Bible says they should, or we can be full of grace and not too concerned about people falling short of biblical standards. There have been many examples of both approaches throughout church history where people have excelled in one at the expense of the other.

It’s not how Jesus did it, and it is not how we should do it. Jesus was full of grace and truth, and the church is called to be the same. The Pharisees were heavily critiqued by Jesus for emphasising the letter of the law but failing to honour the spirit of the law. It created an environment where their response to a life-transforming healing was anger. Why? Because Jesus performed the miracle on a sabbath.

On the other hand, Paul critiqued some in the early church for continually applying grace without holding sin to account. We should not excel in truth at the expense of grace, and we must not excel in grace at the expense of truth. Jesus is full of both – and if the church is to be full of Jesus it also needs to be full and overflowing with both grace and truth.

As well as being inspired and challenged by my personal need to be filled with both, I am also stirred by the biblical order. Truth follows grace – not the other way round. If we are to represent Jesus well to this broken and fragmented world then we need to be mindful of this order. We need to be people and communities of grace from which truth flows. Truth liberates and sets us free, but only in the context of grace that ‘saved a wretch like me’.

May our lives, our families, our churches, and the whole Elim family be full of grace and truth. Would you join me in asking the Holy Spirit to fill us afresh so we will be more like Jesus?

Let’s ask the Lord to fill us with his grace that we may forgive and release those whose opinions, preferences and actions have offended and hurt us. Let’s invite Jesus to be our Lord and not just our Saviour, and live our lives in such a way that the truth of the Scriptures searches not just our actions but our hearts as well.

I pray that all of us in Elim will fully represent him without compromise to everyone around us.

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.

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