"Walking the Tightrope" October 23 Readings: Jeremiah 49-50, 1 Thessalonians 2–3, Psalm 119:33–40, Proverbs 26:1

Today's Readings - Jeremiah 49-50, 1 Thessalonians 2–3, Psalm 119:33–40, Proverbs 26:1

Devotional 

I watched with wonder and some sense of disbelief as Nik Wallenda walked across the Grand Canyon back in 2013. One thing is certain, a man needs to avoid straying either to the right or the left when he undertakes a task like that. It doesn't much matter whether he falls to the left or to the right, the effects are pretty much the same.

Throughout the New Testament, there is a constant balance being struck between two sides of the character of God. He is good and loving and he is holy. God's holiness demanded a payment for sins and God's love moved him to redeem and forgive us. His solution, of course, was Christ. Jesus paid the price for our sins so we could experience the love of God.

Now, as God is, so must we become. The church and its people must be holy, walking in purity day by day. The church that tolerates sin does not honor God. But it is also called to be a place of love, where people are accepted with their faults and loved in their imperfections. We must be a people who balance grace and holiness.

In 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13 Paul prayed for the people of Thessalonica, and his prayer was that they would walk the tightrope carefully.

Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

Paul prayed that their love would increase and abound for one another - for a man as prickly and sometimes harsh as Paul, he emphasized love and unity as much as anything in his writings. But it was not a squishy love, one that ignored truth or holiness. It was a unity built on a common experience of war! Joining together on the battlefield in the cause of Christ, the church needed to love one another. 

But they also needed to walk in holiness. He asked the Lord to establish their hearts as "blameless in holiness" even to the coming of the Lord. 

This is a constant struggle. Love will sometimes move us to be overly permissive, to ignore God's holiness and his righteous standards. Holiness can sometimes cause us to be harsh and judgmental, superior and condescending. We must avoid both faults as we seek to love one another and grow in holiness. 

The good news is that we are not Nik Wallenda walking the tightrope across the Grand Canyon. One slip and he would have been dead. I've slipped often - sometimes this way, sometimes that. But God catches me, restores me and then renews my walk. 

Thank you, Lord, for constantly helping me to balance those competing qualities of love and holiness. May my walk and my ministry be a representative of both your love and your purity. 

Think and Pray

Do you tend to fall to one side or the other in this? Do you tend to stray toward permissive love or judgmentalism?

Think and pray through what it means to find the balance between love and holiness.