One of the ways that we avoid biblical balance in speaking is by assuming some kind of distance between truth and kindness. But Scripture says, “Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart” (Prov. 3:3). Merciful kindness and truth go together. They are to be tied together, and both of them together are to be hung around the neck. If this does not imply an attachment close enough, Solomon goes on to say that they are to be written upon the table of the heart. This is one of the great fulfillments in the new covenant-the two great features of that covenant are forgiveness of sin (Heb. 10: 17) and the internalization of God’s law (Heb. 10: 16), written on the heart.
In this we find two great motives for speaking the truth mercifully, or speaking mercy truthfully. We who have been forgiven must be extremely wary about taking a carnal sort of hard line with other sinners, lest we find ourselves like the wretch in the parable who had been forgiven millions but then became quite hostile and indignant with the fellow who owed him a quarter. The second motive is that we have no right to externalize anything other than what God has internalized. And in the Christian faith, what God has internalized is mercy and truth together. And this is why the two must never be strangers in the words of our mouths.