This topic is adapted from the PursueGOD Video YouTube channel.
As a Christian, it can be confusing and challenging to have other believers disagree with you. Sometimes, these disagreements can even lead to disunity. This can occur within families, small groups, even entire churches. Though individuals can be confident and assured that their viewpoint is correct, disunity can bring harm to their Christian witness.
The Balance Board
The Balance Board is composed of the four major traits of God: justice, truth, holiness, and grace. Each of these traits accurately describe God. At times, though, from the human perspective, these traits can seem to be opposing. When envisioned as spokes on a wheel, these traits are seen to converge in the middle.
Disunity is rarely ever found in the acceptance of all four of these traits as actual characteristics of God. It is in the application of these traits to life situations and circumstances that present the challenge. How we think, act, and respond to the challenging situations of life can be where our varying viewpoints and opinions arise. Disagreement leading to disunity occurs over how these four traits come together and should be properly applied.
None of us is as wise as God. Yet we are called to the “ministry of reconciliation,” entrusted with the “message of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18-19), bringing God’s reconciliation to sinners.
The Attempt to Blend God’s Attributes
The typical believer’s response to challenging life issues is to favor less than all four of God’s attributes. One can feel strongly that their viewpoint is the godliest response. However, if any of the four attributes is ignored, then it is not an expression of the full heart of God.
Affirming
The believer who leans primarily towards justice and grace, chooses to affirm individuals when they act outside of God’s will. The focus is on the feelings of the others and an attitude of “anything goes” permeates the situation. In this case, God’s truth and holiness are ignored and denied by the believer.
Activist
The believer who leans primarily toward justice and truth chooses to act in anger, using shame-based tactics when people act outside of God’s will. The focus is on highlighting the evilness of sin, demanding repentance and restitution from others. In this case, God’s grace and holiness are ignored by the believer.
[Related: The Importance of God’s Truth]
Legalist
The believer who leans primarily toward truth and holiness chooses to condemn and judge individuals when they act outside of God’s will. The focus is on the truth of sin as opposition to God, with little room for mercy or grace. In this case, God’s grace is ignored, and justice misapplied by the believer.
Passive
The believer who leans primarily toward holiness and grace chooses to remain silent or to remove themselves from the situation when people act outside of God’s will. The focus is on one’s self by attempting to remain pure by staying uninvolved. In this case, God’s truth and justice are ignored by the believer.
[Related: Don’t Misunderstand God’s Grace]
Jesus’s Challenge
In John 8:3-11, a woman caught in adultery is brought to Jesus by the scribes and Pharisees. Their intent was to trap Jesus. According to the Law of Moses, the guilty woman was deserving of death by stoning. However, these religious leaders knew that Jesus often spoke of God’s love and the forgiveness of sin. If Jesus responded to them that the woman should be stoned, it would invalidate much of his own teaching. If, on the other hand, Jesus would recommend mercy rather than punishment, they could declare him a lawbreaker.
Jesus’s response was to pause and allow everyone to consider for themselves the situation. Then Jesus instructed all those present to throw the first stone, but only if they themselves were without sin. Jesus was declaring that the qualification for condemning the woman was based solely on the purity and sinlessness of the individuals who were accusing her. This demonstrated God’s truth as found in Romans 3:23 that all have sinned.
The accusers left one-by-one, as none of them was without any sin. After pointing out that she no longer had any accusers, Jesus stated that he did not accuse her either. This demonstrated God’s grace, as she was guilty of sin but not condemned.
Further, Jesus instructed her to go on with her life and not fall into sin. This was a directive to pursue the holiness of God. Jesus was leading her to live as God would have her live.
Lastly, God’s justice is demonstrated. To have committed adultery, the woman had to have been with a man who was not her husband. There was no man presented to Jesus, only the woman. Justice would demand that every guilty party, both the woman and whoever the man was, to receive the same penalty. To have punished only the woman would have been an act of injustice.
Believers will never completely agree with one another in all things. We should all be aware of the significance of these four attributes of God: justice, truth, holiness, and grace. Pursuing God requires that we seek to balance these attributes in the face of polarizing issues, working together to achieve a balance that honors God, strengthens our testimony, and furthers the Kingdom of God.
Written content on this topic by David Bassett.
Discussion Questions:
- Watch the video together or invite someone to summarize the topic.
- What is your initial reaction to this video? Do you disagree with any of it? What jumped out at you?
- Which of the four attributes of God – grace, truth, justice, and holiness – do you find to be the most important in your relationship with him? Why?
- Which of the four attributes of God do you find easiest to show to others?
- Do you believe that it is possible for believers to reflect Jesus’s balance of these attributes? If so, share either a time you were able to reflect this balance. Or share a time when you failed to demonstrate this balance and how you respond now given what you are aware of.
- Select a current issue that is divisive. Openly have every willing member of your group share their current perspective of how they believe Christians should think and/or respond to this divisive issue. Discuss how you believe God responds from grace, justice, holiness, and truth to people caught in this issue. What seems the best way to respond to this issue in a balanced way?
- Write a personal action step based on this conversation.
