Humans have a very difficult time reconciling Justice and Mercy. We tend to want mercy for ourselves when we have wronged others and justice for ourselves when we have been wronged by others. We possess a strong sense of both–two truths seemingly opposed to one another. Why? This is an essay I continue to update as I explore this tension.

I left white conservative evangelism over two years ago (3 months pre-covid) to take a longer-than-anticipated journey in the wilderness.
In my former corner of Christianity, sermons often pitted truth and love against each other using, what I believe to be, a misinterpretation of Eph 4:15. The question was always, “Do you err too much in truth or too much in love?”
I believe this to be a false dichotomy. Full truth and perfect love are never at odds with one another. The truth leads to love and love leads to truth. I tend to view full truth and perfect love as synonymous. (More on this later.)
However, I do see many tensions in Christianity difficult to resolve this side of heaven:
Justice and Mercy, Individual and Communal, Fate and Choice, Unity and Diversity, Different and Equal, License and Law, etc.
Today I want to focus on the tension between Justice and Mercy. Humans have a very difficult time reconciling the two. We tend to want mercy for ourselves when we have wronged others and justice for ourselves when we have been wronged by others. In court, after a person has been found guilty of a crime committed against another person, the defendant and their family almost always plead for a light sentence. Can we blame them? However, is a light sentence the just response to the person who has been wronged? Humans possess a strong sense of Justice and Mercy—two truths seemingly opposed to one another. Why?
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