Grace and Truth

I’m excited as we continue our series tonight called Salt and Light. We’re in our 2nd week of our series, and the goal of this series is to understand and embrace a calling that is greater than ourselves. Last week, we focused on the passage found in the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew chapter 5. For those of you that weren’t here, or for those who need a refresher, we talked about what Jesus meant when He says that we are to be the salt of the earth, and the light of the world.

Just as salt was used to preserve meat from spoiling and add flavor to it, Jesus calls his Followers to preserve the world from evil and to enhance the flavor of life. This means that we oppose what is evil and keep what is good. That we hold to our values, live with integrity, and stand for our faith. We are to be the salt of the earth.

Jesus also says that we are the light of the world. He gave 2 illustrations; a town on a hill and a lamp on a stand; both pointing to the importance letting our light shine before others. We talked about the importance of being in the world, and not of it, but more importantly that we are to imitate Christ. And we do this, Jesus says, so that people may see our good deeds and glorify our Father in heaven.

[Pause]

Tonight, as we continue to talk about how we live out our faith in our culture, I’m going to start going through the questions and topics you wrote on the white board. I would encourage you to continue to write down things as they come up, even if I can’t get to them this series. It’s helpful for me to know what struggles we have in this room as it relates to living a life that God is calling us to live. I’d like to spend the time we have together tonight addressing 2 of the questions on the board.

How should Christians respond to people who swear and use God’s name in vain?

When someone dresses or talks around you in a way that you don’t agree with, is it okay to ask them to stop or would that be pressing your beliefs on them?

To make it simple, I’m going to combine them into 1 question: How should Christians respond to people or things we disagree with? I’ll be sure to answer these specific questions, but I’d also like to answer this question in way that covers more topics than just responding to people talking or dressing in ways we disagree with.

Not only do we

I’d like to begin with one of my favorite passages that talks about Jesus, found at the beginning of the gospel of John. If you have your Bible with you, I’d encourage you to open up to John now, starting in Chapter 1, verse 1. The book of John is one of the 4 gospels, and emphasizes the deity of Jesus.

What is the purpose of being a Christian?

What’s the purpose of the Bible?

What’s the most

One of my favorite passages that talks about Jesus.

John 1:1–5 NIV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 1:14 NIV

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus is the light that shines in the darkness, and Jesus came full of grace and truth. And if you read through the gospels, the accounts of Jesus, we read how Jesus lived full of grace and truth as well.

How should Christians respond to people or things we disagree with? The short answer, is with grace and truth. It’s important we have both though. This is one of the biggest challenges we have today as Jesus’ followers; it is far too common for us to have one more than the other.

We are to have grace AND truth. This is one of the biggest challenges we have today as Jesus’ followers, and it is far too common for us to have one more than the other.

When we respond with only truth, it comes across as egotistical and arrogant, and results on rebellion. And when we respond with only grace, we miss out on the opportunity for others to truly know Jesus.

ILLUSTRATION

And this doesn’t have to be solely about religion. I had a boss in my restaurant days that was only full of truth. I remember one of the most embarrassing moments in my career was when we were in one of the locations I oversaw over lunch. My boss had flown in for a visit, and it wasn’t going well. He was a ‘matter-of-face’ type guy, and decided that the best way to address his disappointment in the visit was to sit down in the dining room, which was full of people eating lunch, and right in front of the line where our employees were working, and tell me how bad of a job he thought I was doing. He told me that the restaurant was filthy, our inspection scores were lower than he expected, and that I simply needed to do a better job if I want to keep on working there. It was one of the only times where I broke down at work, and it was in front of the employees and I’m sure with lots of customers watching. Not only was it embarrassing for me, but it didn’t motivate me one bit. If anything, it made me dislike working for him even more.

He decided that truth was important. And it is, my attitude about the company, and my motivation to do a good job would’ve been much better if there had been some grace with it as well. Acknowledging the good things that were happening or reminding me of how important I was to them would’ve gone a long way. Instead, all I heard was that I was doing something wrong.

JESUS - GRACE AND TRUTH

It’s really easy for Christians to lean more on the side of truth than grace, especially for those of us who have been Christians our whole lives. We know what is right and what’s best and we believe that other people’s lives would be better if they knew the same things as us and acted the same way as us. And although some of that may be true, I don’t believe that’s all that Jesus wants from us.

I

Don’t get me wrong, Jesus was full of truth. He condemned religious leaders for being liars and hypocrites, he talked about hell more than he talked about heaven, he told his disciples that they needed to take up their cross daily and follow him. He obeyed the law, set standards, and had high expectations from his followers.

BUT. Jesus was all grace as well. He welcomed sinners and tax collectors and ate with them. he had compassion on the crowds when they were hungry and far from home, He welcomed and loved children, he healed the lepers, the lame, and the blind. He saved the criminal on the cross.

Jesus was full of grace and truth! And although I don’t have any evidence to back this up, but I think maybe that in this verse John 1:14, grace comes before truth because we should lead with grace rather than leading with truth.

Instead of my boss sitting me down in front of my employees and customers and telling me how bad of a job I was doing, imagine how different it would’ve been if he would’ve brought me to Caribou next door, ordered a large extra hot white chocolate turtle mocha with no snickers, (don’t worry I don’t have a coffee problem) told me how much he appreciates the 70-80 hours a week I was putting in, shared some of the positive things he saw, and then told me of ways I could improve.

And as it relates to the questions you guys asked about responding to people who swear, who use God’s name in vain, or who dresses or talks in a way we disagree with, we need to respond with grace and truth. And I would encourage you to lead with grace first.

Swearing and God’s name in vain

I’d like to spend some time talking more specifically about these 2 questions. The first one was regarding people who swear and use God’s name in vain. How should Christians respond to them?

First, regarding swearing. If you go through the Bible, you won’t come across a list of bad words that people shouldn’t say. It does, however, talk about what kind of things we should, or shouldn’t, talk about.

Ephesians 4:29 NIV

29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

SCRIPTURE

Ephesians 5:4 NIV

4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.

The word unwholesome means: foul, rotten, or decaying. And Paul says in this verse that instead of saying those thing, we are to say things that are helpful for building others up, that it would benefit them.

Colossians 4:6 NIV

6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

I love this verse at it relates to what we’re talking about, because as we’re talking about us being the salt of the earth Paul says that our conversations should be seasoned with salt. That our words wouldn’t be words that destroy relationships or do damage. That they would preserve our relationships, and in Paul’s words that they would build others up.

So first, I would encourage all of us to take these things into consideration when talking. Are the words that come of your mouth damaging to others, or encouraging? I would encourage us all to not be in the habit of swearing, but also keep in mind that someone can be hurt with words that isn’t swearing.

Hearing someone drop the F bomb while stubbing their toe would hurt me much less than someone telling me I’m useless. That doesn’t mean that we should go around swearing, but I don’t want us to to think of the words we say simply as a list. We want to build one another up with the words we use, and ultimately glorify God.

SWEARING

As it relates to responding to someone swearing, my recommendation is that if it’s someone you know or have a relationship with, to let them know you’re uncomfortable with what they are saying, and why. It’s important our reasoning isn’t just because it’s right or wrong. For example, if someone is using a cuss word and calling someone a name, having a conversation about how hurtful it is to hear those things about someone will go better than telling them that they shouldn’t use a cuss word because the Bible says it’s wrong.

If it’s someone you don’t know or have a relationship with, so for example let’s say it’s someone in this youth group that you hear but you don’t know them, I’d recommend you telling your small group leader or myself about something you’re concerned with. That could sound something like “hey, just so you’re aware there’s some cussing that happens within this youth group. You might want to watch for that”.

This would be my encouragement to you; if you have a friend or family member that swears or that talks in a way that offends you,

The 2nd part to this questions is to how to respond to someone using God’s name in vain?

Only truth - “We need to do what the Bible says. If you don’t follow Jesus, you’re going to hell.” Truth without grace leads to rules and

Example of Ronan.

We need to have rules with relationship.

Only grace - “You can do whatever you want; whatever makes you feel good. God loves us”. This is becoming popular in our culture.

Grace without truth leads to “do whatever” and “believe whatever”

Truth is life-giving, it’s not restricting.

Only grace -

Lead with grace, but never compromise truth.

What did Jesus do?

It’s first to understand what this means. Found in the book of Exodus is the 10 commandments that God gave Moses. The 3rd commandment has to do with taking God’s name in vain. It says this:

Exodus 20:7 NIV

7 “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

Exo

He crossed lines because people are on the other side. We don’t draw a line to keep people out, we cross lines to bring people in. Life is messy. Truth is a person; Jesus is the truth!

This is the NIV, and the word here is “misused”. In other translations, it reads “you shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.

God is holy, and to take God’s name in vain is to fail to acknowledge God for who his. It is extremely common for people to use God’s name in vain nowadays. You hear on TV, movies, and kids pick up on it quickly as well.

I think how people use God’s name will give you a glimpse into their heart for God. And as Christians, our desire should be for people to love God not to change behaviors. Let me say that again. Our desire as Christians needs to be for people to love God, not to change behaviors. So instead of telling someone that they should stop using God’s name in vain, I’d take the opportunity to talk about who God is. If you’re friends with someone, that can be relatively easy to do, and that conversation can turn into how we talk about God. For some, though, it might be really weird for them to talk about God.

Ultimately, our job isn’t to change behaviors. That’s Jesus’ job. Our job as Christians is to point people towards Jesus. To imitate Christ, to show them love, to show them the truth. After all, Jesus himself said that He is the way, the truth, and the life.

John 14:6 NIV

6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

GOD’S NAME IN VAIN