Grace vs. Peace - Part 1

Dr. Charles Ryrie said, "If you cannot define a word, you will not use it correctly or carefully."

So many times when I try to define words for myself when speaking with others I am accused of just trying split hairs or make it seem that true definitions are a waste of time.  This has always seemed to be kind of dumb to not define a word.  I would consider myself to be an novice in the wordsmith world, yet it is disturbing that in common language, business language and theological language we are losing the battle to simplistic speech.  I believe that our speech should be "seasoned with salt" and simple to understand.  However, it is through the defining of words that will bring that simplicity.

Let's take the phrase we hear in the church world frequently, "You need to show them grace."  I will be sharing my thoughts on this in future posts, but for the meantime I would be interested in your thoughts to the following questions for this phrase:

1.  What is grace, really, not just the definition you learned in catechism or seminary?
2.  Can you actually give grace to someone?
3.  Is there a difference between grace and peace and if so, what is it?
4.  Are grace and peace mutually exclusive, why or why not?
5.  Is there a time to not show grace or peace?  If so, what would be the circumstances?

Please let me know what the "voices" are saying in your head, and I'll be sharing mine soon.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Preached At, Not Taught To

Image
How many times have you wished that your kids had a full relationship with God?  Working in youth ministry for close to two decades I cannot count the times where teens or collegians are told to develop spiritual disciplines in their lives.  They are told that these habits will deepen their walk with the Lord and help them to rely on Him while building their faith.  Yet that is where it stops.  It is as if we tell each generation, you get a good relationship with God.  When the push back of "Why?" comes the response is often no more than a spiritual "Because I said so."  We cannot expect teens/college kids to do the spiritual disciplines we have preached, but not taught. 1. "Because I said so" does not work How many times have you used that with your children.  I remember growing up I thought to myself, "That's dumb.  I will never say that to my kids."  I do not remember the first time I used it on my little ones (at the time) but I know
Read more

Now Is The Time To Stand For Truth

 Our world is full of accusations, allegations, condemnations, retaliations, polarization, victimization, and the list goes on and on.  What are we, as believers in Jesus Christ our God and Savior, supposed to do with all of these things?  How do we respond biblically?  The answer is simple, but it is not easy.  We stand for biblical truth. Let me give you three ways that are just the tip of the iceberg, but help us on our way to living out biblical truth. 1. We stand on the rock, Jesus Christ.          The believer cannot stand alone, nor even without the help of Jesus. Peter and Paul both remind us what the prophet states about Jesus by declaring,  “BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.” (Romans 9:33; 1 Peter 2:8 NASB) When those we look up to as models fail and fall we must look past them to Jesus Christ the Lord who is the only One in whom we will never be disappointed.  Every other person will fail an
Read more

When Life is Hard

Image
There are difficult things in life to understand, many of which, let's face it, we don't.  There are some who, at times, act like they understand.  For example, when the grandchild explains to the grandparent about all that is needed to beat the video game, talks about the hidden stages, and uses characters by name.  The grandparent nods, mutters mmmhmmm and ok, but has no clue what is going on.  You know, moments like those.  Yeah, sometimes life is hard to understand.  What happens when you don't know which way to go, what is happening, or why it is happening to you.  How can you explain your life, your faith?  What if you have trouble understanding it all. 1. Live on mercy As Christians, we can live on one of three levels. We can return evil for good, which is the satanic level. We can return good for good and evil for evil, which is the human level. Or, we can return good for evil, which is the divine level. Jesus is the perfect example of this latter approach (
Read more