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.
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