Skip to main content

Goodness! Do...act...love


He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8 NASB)

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.(Micah 6:8 NIV)

         Do you live well? Do you live a good life or are you so busy chasing the "good life" to have time to live a good life? Or, perhaps, are you too busy trying to have a good time to live a good life? These are easily confused. I've provided today's passage in two translations to make it clear that the point being made is actually being made. God has told us what is good. He has told us what a good life looks like.
            The first thing we have to do is act justly or do justice. Before I reread the verse, I remembered it more along the lines of "seek justice," which is more along the lines of being a social activist. There is nothing wrong with social activism if it's conducted with love, but that's not quite what is being said here. Doing justice, or acting justly is lots harder than seeking justice. Seeking justice has to do with someone else. Doing justice requires that you deal with yourself.
            The second thing we have to do is to love kindness or mercy. So often,  justice and mercy or kindness are considered opposites. Here, I think they are the same thing. When we do justice or act justly toward someone else, we are not examining their behavior, we're examining our own. As a result, we live well, we do good, and we show them mercy and kindness.





























































































































































































































































































































































 
 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen!

  While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (Matthew 17:5)            Do you like roller coasters? I don't. You spend forever climbing a hill. You get to the top and have half a second, then you race down to a low point. Sometimes the racing down involves tying your insides into knots. At the bottom, you either have to be dragged up another hill or you get off the ride. Peter's life was a roller coaster from the time he met Jesus. There would be miracles, and then Jesus would teach things that didn't always make sense, and then they'd go out and perform miracles, and return to be taught. Peter was praised for giving the right answer to "Who do you say that I am?" Jesus said that said answer came from God. Peter was at the top of the hill.            ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Prayer Lists

                 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. (I Peter 2:2-3)   In connection with what I wrote yesterday about the possibility that I’m wrong, I’m feeling the need to go back to basics - craving spiritual milk because somehow, I missed something. It’s a little embarrassing, craving milk like a newborn, but the truth probably is that we are newborns many times in many ways in our lives. From God’s perspective, we may never be anything more than newborns, forever needing that milk. On the other hand, being a newborn can also be exciting because so much is new. My mind is playing pinball - ricocheting from one idea to the next and through six more before it happens to hit the third again. The main topic is prayer. I have at least seven organizing structures all somewhat influenced by the movie War Room , which I’v...
Post a Comment
Read more