Love/Grace Vs Justice/Correction

​So last week we hit on LOVE: What love really is, or rather who it is and what it looks like when we love others. Something that comes up more often than not when talking about God’s love with people is a fear that if all we do is love then there is never correction or justice. At the same time, most people try to make the point that we have to correct and always pull everyone in line. This is such an important conversation to have.
So let’s try to imagine a pendulum… and there are people on both sides. On Side A is Love/Grace and Side B is Justice/Correction. Each side believes that they are right: we need to show grace to people in sin, or we need to correct, rebuke and hold people accountable to their sins. Side A looks at Side B and thinks that all they are is mean, judgmental, and hypocritical. While Side B looks at Side A and thinks that they super passive, let anything slide, never correct, and turn a blind eye to any and all things.
From a worldly perspective, they appear to be separate and Christians must pick a side. But when you do that you are left blind because you either live one of two ways: “an eye for an eye “or “looking the other way”. But in the Kingdom there isn’t Side A or Side B, because they go hand in hand. Love is correction which produces Justice which comes from Grace.  

​See, when we encounter God and His love we are transformed by His Grace. In that transformation Correction comes in our hearts, our thinking, and our actions. With Holy Spirit’s Correction, we realize that it is Jesus who justifies us. In Jesus’ Justification we receive His Grace which we now give freely because as we freely receive we freely give. As citizens of God’s Kingdom we are no longer blind but see through the blood of Jesus the same way that God sees us.
Galatians 6:1-6 is critical for us to understand what God wants from us, so let’s look at it:
Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3 If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. 4 Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, 5 for each one should carry their own load. 6 Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.
This is so beautiful because it shows us how we are to LOVE and receive LOVE. So when we talk about God’s love with people there is no fear that if all we do is love then there is never correction or justice. Because we know that Love is correction which produces Justice which comes from Grace.