Graceful Living Can Be Dangerous Living

Please read below the response to my previous blog about extending grace to all at all times. The response captures so much of the difficulty of living by grace. I love the candor and question posed. I think we can all relate to it. Thanks to the person who sent it.

Ok, yes I believe that what you have said is very true, however, where is the thin line of "Self Preservation" come in especially in a world where 90% of the people you interact with do not hold the same standards. How can one conudct business with this same attitude, why you would be run over as all business is conducted in a world of law not grace. This one broad brush of grace approach gets much trickier in the world of business contracts etc. So, as a business person I struggle with this one way fits all thinking when it comes to our "personal faith and practice" and our "business faith and practice."

This is an excellent point and thanks again for bringing this up. Your point about a think line between self perservation and extending grace is something I believe we all feel, regardless of whether it is in a business context, our family relationships or otherwise. There can be all kinds of risks and costs when grace is involved. Jesus extended grace and he was crucified. Simply because graceful living is costly and risky it does not mean we don't live by grace, otherwise Jesus would never have died on a cross and His words to follow Him would be empty. Instead, Jesus' words to us are to count the cost when following him and that cost involves losing our lives for Him.

With this said, let me offer a bit of claity about what living by grace is and what it is not. Living by grace and extending grace to other does not mean extending trust to everyone. Graceful living is akin to fogiving; and we can forgive someone, but not necessarily be reconcilded to that person. A person who has offended or hurt us needs to be forgiven by us. However, if that person does not change, then we do not and cannot be reconciled to that person because it is simply not safe. This may not sound very Christian, but consider how this dynamic plays out in relation to God and creation. God, through Christ, extends forgiveness to all creation, but all creation (the offenders) is not reconciled to God. So gracefull living is not always reconciling, but it is always forgiving, while maintaining appropriate boundaries. Even Jesus, is recorded in the gospel of John to keep such a boundary. It says that Jesus would not entrust himself to men, because he knew what was in all men. Still, he extended grace.

This leads me to the question, "What is grace?" As we look at Jesus, we see that when we were at our worst, God gave us God's very best. This is what it means in Romans 5:8, that when we were powerless in our sin, Christ died ofr us. So in business or any context, when people give us their very worst, we in Christ are to give them our very best. This is graceful living. Perhaps because it is so dangerous to live this way in the business world is the reason why it is so imperative to follow Jesus by always extending grace in that context.

Thanks for the push back. This blog is an appropriate forum for push back. I love it, keep it coming.