Steve Harvey's Closing Remarks - 6.22.26

Steve Harvey closed his show with a short, intense meditation on grace and mercy, prompted by a question from a younger family member. He defined the terms with a compact framework: justice is getting what you deserve, mercy is not getting what you deserve, and grace is getting what you do not deserve. The rest of his remarks were a passionate elaboration on grace as the central force in his life and the lives of his listeners.

The Framework: Justice, Mercy, and Grace

Harvey laid out the distinction in a single sentence. "Justice is when you get what you deserve. Mercy is when you don't get what you deserve. But grace is when you get what you don't deserve." He then focused almost entirely on grace, which he called "God's unmerited favor." The key word is unmerited. Grace cannot be earned, purchased, or traded. "There is no scripture anywhere that tells you what you have to do to get grace," he said. "Grace cannot be purchased. Grace is not tradable. Grace ain't on the stock market. Grace can only be given by God." This is the core mechanism of his argument: grace is a gift that arrives without any precondition of worthiness.

The Evidence: Personal and Observed