Living with truth and grace is loving with your words and actions.  Our talk must match our walk so that we do not cause anyone to stumble or turn away from God.   We have the perfect example in Christ who laid down His life for sinners.  He loved us so much that He conquered death.  Most of us will not be asked to give our lives for another, but we are asked to show love and to serve others.

Questions for further thought:
1. Who in your life needs you to show them love?

2. What are some of the things you can do to show them that love? 

Challenge: Take time to show the individual you identified above love by completing an act of service.
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What would the world look like if all Christians strived to live in harmony with one another?  The world would be a very different world.  Evil would not be repaid with evil.  Individuals would speak kindly and compassionately to each other.  We do not live in such a world.  Even though others may not want to live in harmony, we are still called to live in harmony.  So, when others do evil or insult you, God instructs us not to retaliate in kind, but with grace and love.

Questions for further thought:
1. Think back to a time when someone wronged you, what action did you take or what words did you use?  

2. How could you have handled the situation differently?

Challenge: Ask God to show you who you might be struggling to live in harmony with and how you might be able to improve the relationship.

Jesus walked among us; teaching and investing in others.  We need to be like Him and be involved in our communities and those around us.  Others will want to hear the “Truth” we have when they see and experience grace from us.  No one will listen to you if all you do is rant the Truth at them.  They need to feel and see God’s love in our lives in order to open their own hearts to the “Truth.”  This is not something that is done overnight, but as the relationship is cultivated, the opportunities to share the “Truth” will come.

Questions for further thought:
1. What was your reaction when someone ranted the truth at you?

2. To whom can you show grace and truth today?  Pray for God to show who that might be.  

Challenge: For the individual identified above, take a step to build trust or show grace to them.  

Just like God gives us grace, we are expected to live and show grace to others.  When someone wrongs us, we need to forgive.  When others are speaking harshly, we should be the ones to speak softly.  When others gossip and tear others down, we must be the ones to build them up.  Just like we don’t want God to withhold His grace from us, we need to make a conscious choice to give others grace.

Questions for further thought:
1. What is something you have asked God to give you grace for?

2. Who in your life today needs your grace?  Ask God for help in doing this.

Challenge: Give grace to the individual identified above.

We are expected to live in the “Truth” or in Christ each day.  What does that look like?  It is making choices Jesus would make; putting His and others’ needs in front of your needs.  For example, instead of watching your favorite T.V. show, you read your bible, take a meal to a sick neighbor, or listen to a friend or family member who is struggling.  I am not saying you can’t take time for yourself, even Jesus took time for himself.  The key is the downtimes shouldn’t outnumber the times you are loving God and loving others so everyone sees you living in the “Truth.”

Questions for further thought:
1. What usually gets in the way of living in the “Truth”?

2. What is something you can today to live in the “Truth”? 

Challenge: Take action on what you identified as something you can do today to live in truth.

Have you ever seen a kid’s eyes light up as they listen to a story or transform a block into a high-flying airplane? Watching kids grow up is fascinating and fun, but there’s another side you may have seen, too. At around age 2 or 3, kids start to say “Mine!” when you take away a toy and “Me!” when they want to go first. Toddlers don’t learn this from watching their parents or guardians because all kids do it. As we get older, we learn to disguise selfishness. But if we are making decisions based on what makes us feel good or holding on to what we think is ours, we are living with a toddler’s mindset. Colossians is a letter, originally written to the church in Colossae. The author, Paul, reminds the church that believing in Jesus and following Him means no longer living for ourselves. Our lives have shifted from being all about what we want and what we desire, to what God wants and desires. All that matters is Jesus. And if we are living for Jesus, that’s all that should matter to us. Instead of worrying about how we look or what others think, we are to wear “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (Colossians 3:12). But above all else, we are to put on love. To put something on is a choice. Just as we choose to put on a coat when it’s cold or a rain jacket when it’s raining, we have to choose to put on love. 

Questions for further thought:
1. What is one way pursuing love leads to unity?

2. Do you find yourself putting on love, compassion, kindness, and gentleness? Or, do you find yourself holding tightly to what’s yours and demanding to be first?

​Challenge: 
Colossians 3:12-14 explains how we can clothe ourselves to reflect Jesus to others. As you get ready for your day, ask God to clothe you with these things as well.

Jesus gives an A++ prayer for future believers in this section of John. In it, Jesus prays for all who would follow Him. He prays for unity, protection from the evil one, and sanctity. Doesn’t this give you a sense of confidence as we work for His kingdom? I once heard it said that if we could hear Jesus praying for us in the next room, we would never fear anything ever again. Jesus’ great desire for His disciples was that they would become one. He wanted them unified as a powerful witness to the reality of God’s love.  Jesus prayed for unity among believers based on the believers’ unity with Him and the Father. Christians can know unity among themselves if they are living in union with God. Unity does not require sameness. We can still have our diversity in other ways outside of our love for Jesus and for each other.

​Questions for further thought:
1. In what ways are you helping to unify the body of Christ in the church?

2. If you’re having trouble answering question #1, take a quick inventory of your unity meter. How could you change your approach to pursuing unity with other brothers and sisters in Christ?

Challenge: 
Ask God to show you who you might be struggling to live in unity with and how you might be able to improve the relationship.

What are the five things Christians aren’t supposed to do?  These lists do exist out there, right? Rules for what to do. Definitely rules for what not to do. Rules, rules, rules, and more rules! The problem with rules, however, is that rules only inflame our desire for sin. Paul said it this way: “If it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness” (Romans 7:7–8). So how do we change and pursue unity in the Spirit? And here it is. Real change, biblical change, comes first from admitting we have a heart problem. Change begins with admitting we’re broken because of our sin. Then, turning. Only God can change a heart. “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:25)! Change comes through an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus who lives His life through us by His Spirit within us. It doesn’t come from panting and straining to keep up with somebody else’s list of rules. A life lived by control of the Holy Spirit. The kind of life that actually makes you want to obey and pursue unity.

Questions for further thought:
1. What particular rules do you think are most essential to Christian living? Why do you think you’ve chosen to place priority on these areas above others?

2. What have you noticed about your heart and attitude when your focus is on following rules?

Challenge: 
Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you today and give you a heart of obedience and unity.

​Angels. If one of these messengers from God happened to walk in and start talking to you, or came onto a platform and addressed a crowd, nothing that anybody else was saying at the moment would be of any interest to you whatsoever. And yet Paul, writing to the church in Corinth, said, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” Even an angel, in other words—if speaking without love—might as well shut his mouth. There’d be no point in anything he had to say. In Corinth, they held firmly to the truth—they just didn’t love each other. And absolute truth in the hands of absolute sinners is absolutely brutal. Look, I’m not saying you shouldn’t be fired up about the truth. You should be. I’m just saying you to need to be fired up about the truth about truth-and-love. Because anything less is a lot of painful noise that’s probably better left unsaid. Unless you can say it in love.

Questions for further thought:
1. What’s been your experience with someone who’s all truth and no love?

2. If you see this tendency in yourself, what would you pinpoint as the root of it?

Challenge: 
Father, help me live with Your perfect love that puts others before myself and puts grace ahead of judgment. Show me how to trust more deeply in Your Holy Spirit to do the convicting work I sometimes try to hijack. I ask You to make me a person who sees love as the centerpiece, and sees truth as a loving part of it. I pray these things in the name of the One who personifies truth and love—the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

It turns out that loving Jesus is the easy part. And why shouldn’t it be? We who deserved so little have received so much. We who’ve earned nothing have been given everything. We who merit only judgment have been extended total forgiveness through Him. But while loving Jesus is vitally, centrally important—“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30)—our love for Jesus is not what creates the most lasting impression on the people around us. The thing that does the best job of helping people see and know what He can truly do to change a person’s life is our difficult obedience to this single, new commandment: “just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” Outsiders are not as intrigued and impressed as we think by how well we do our worship, how well we teach our classes, or how well we proclaim the Word from our pulpits. But the assurance Jesus gives us, if we will faithfully develop and nurture this kind of love for one another, is that “by this all people will know that you are my disciples.” Our love for each other is what will convince them. That’s what people really want to see.
 
Questions for further thought:

1. Think of one or two relationships with other believers where you’re withholding love from them. In light of Jesus’ commandment, how justified do you feel in your reasons for keeping your distance? 
2. After praying about it, what are some practical ways the Lord would lead you to show genuine love to these individuals? 

Challenge:
Take action on what you identified as something you can do today to show genuine love to those individuals identified above.