Within the many facets of ministry, it is difficult to come up with one philosophy of leadership. But for a clear vision for Christian leadership, I've decided upon John 1:14. It reads, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Here we see that Jesus is the incarnation of God in the world, he lived and dwelt among the disciples in real life, and in turn, they saw his glory as he ministered in teaching and miracles. And all this because he proceeded from God as his only begotten Son. Jesus was the God-man. Even more, Jesus was filled with grace and truth.
So I believe this "grace and truth" of Christ is the best paradigm to best understand how to conduct Christian ministry. We need both the grace and truth of Christ, not one or the other. For it is by grace that we receive truth and it is by truth that we can understand grace. God graciously grants the truth of the gospel to us, and he then gives us his truth to understand the true meaning of the gospel. The two are inseparably connected all through the Scripture. The challenge is to always keep these two in balance and in priority. In a complicated and broken world that can be difficult at times.
The priority of truth must guide us in our grace. And we must always be gracious as we teach and disciple the family of faith for we constantly need the grace of Christ to become Christ-like. But John 1:14 makes it clear that we also need the truth of Christ and we must never compromise the truth in an attempt to be gracious. We must always be true to the whole counsel of Scripture that God has given to us for the very purpose of knowing him. We must also always be gracious to our fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord as we all are recipients of grace. But the priority of truth must guide us in our grace. Amen, it is true.
So I believe this "grace and truth" of Christ is the best paradigm to best understand how to conduct Christian ministry. We need both the grace and truth of Christ, not one or the other. For it is by grace that we receive truth and it is by truth that we can understand grace. God graciously grants the truth of the gospel to us, and he then gives us his truth to understand the true meaning of the gospel. The two are inseparably connected all through the Scripture. The challenge is to always keep these two in balance and in priority. In a complicated and broken world that can be difficult at times.
The priority of truth must guide us in our grace. And we must always be gracious as we teach and disciple the family of faith for we constantly need the grace of Christ to become Christ-like. But John 1:14 makes it clear that we also need the truth of Christ and we must never compromise the truth in an attempt to be gracious. We must always be true to the whole counsel of Scripture that God has given to us for the very purpose of knowing him. We must also always be gracious to our fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord as we all are recipients of grace. But the priority of truth must guide us in our grace. Amen, it is true.
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