Instead of balancing grace and truth, we must be full of grace and truth. Read John 1:14. Grace and Truth. One of my childhood memories is our school playground. We had a giant slide, monkey bars, swings, and see-saws. Many times, instead of pushing up and down on the see-saw, we would try to balance our weight so we hung in mid-air and held it there for as long as possible. As a pastor, leading a church, I feel that many times I am trying to balance grace and truth. Early in my ministry, I understood truth and judgment more than grace, so I may have been a little heavy on truth. In recent years, I have received criticism for focusing too much on grace and ignoring God’s truth. I’m sure my early self would have had the same criticism as my recent self.   As we travel the journey of faith together, we do not have to ignore the truth in order to extend grace. Likewise, we do not have to refrain from extending grace to make sure people know the truth. We are to be like Jesus. Jesus successfully managed the tension between grace and truth. The Apostle John declared that Jesus was full of both. He did not see that grace and truth were to be held in tension with one another in some kind of balancing act. So my focus today is not balancing grace and truth, but being full of grace and truth like Jesus. 

Come, Lord Jesus, we commit ourselves like you, to be full of grace and truth. Forgive our shortcomings when we refrain from extending grace or ignore your truth. Give us wisdom, courage, and compassion to hold grace and truth together. Amen.