One can find in this world wherever you go, in people who long to do right, a sway of two important principles. These two are the principles of Truth and Grace. In any given situation, a temptation to be had in the given situation by those who seek to do what is right is to fully lean into one or the other of these ethical principles to the neglect of the other. On these lines, one will find institutions split on different sides of support, political sides formed, and even the church itself divided and this breaks God’s heart and tears it in two.

You see, Truth without Grace is brutal condemnation. It gives us information but in such a way that we cannot really hear it for who can handle a truth that does not allow rehabilitation and restoration. This leads to bitterness and rebellion that will never be mended by any amount of truth so long as grace is not included.

However, Grace without Truth is negligent condemnation in that it sees where one’s actions will lead and does not care that it will destroy themselves and those around them. It allows and even encourages blissful ignorance of the truth until the one who receives this finds themselves hurting others and themselves and wondering how they got there and if there is a way out. This leads to self-condemnation, a feeling of helplessness and utter despair that can never be mended by any amount of grace so long as truth is not included.

These two principles are held as if they are opposed to each other in different ideologies all over our world, and in each place, it may be held to varying degrees, all with the best of intentions, but the fact is that when one of these is held to a higher degree of importance than the other, then it leads to condemnation. But neither of these is Love. For Love never condemns but always convicts. This is not sometimes the case but always the case. Love is always Truth and Grace combined. Love always tells the truth of wrongs done and always shows the truth of grace that those wrongs are already forgiven. It convicts us in that it always pushes us toward reform for this is what is best for both ourselves and others around us. Its ultimate reform is to shape us more into Love.

God is Love, and the fact that God is Love is God’s glory. Love is the logic by which God created the World. There was no other way in which He could create the World because Love is who He is. He created this world using his logic of Love and with His Logic of Love spoke it into existence. Love has also been manifested to us. In fact, the very Logic and Word of Love “became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

To separate truth and grace is to try to separate God from himself. This is why it breaks God’s heart in two. For neither Grace nor Truth on their own is love, and to call them by themselves Love is to defame the character of God himself. As Christians, in each and every situation in our world, it is our task to be the voice and action of truth and grace, balanced and combined at all times. For only when we do this can we truly be love spoken and lived out in our world. We can only do this by walking in the Spirit who is Love; it is what brings Glory to God who is Love and to the Son who is Love manifested on earth to us.