“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 walk humbly with your God.“
Micah 6:8
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God requires that we act justly with each other—that we treat each person as an image-bearer of God, treating no one with harm or malice. God requires His followers to fight injustice and act justly. He can expect this behavior from His followers because this is who God is and what God does.
God is concerned about how we treat each other. Our interaction with others reveals our hearts. A person cannot love God and habitually treat others unjustly.
Acting justly starts with doing right by another person. It begins with the attitude of our hearts. If we consider ourselves superior to someone else, it will be virtually impossible to treat them as fellow image bearers. Yet none of us are above another. What do we have that has not been received through God’s goodness? We are each different, but God is no respecter of persons. We are all equal in the sight of God.
God expects us to love mercy. This could be described as the desire to extend forgiveness, a willing readiness to set aside offense by absorbing the hurt or cost with no expectation or requirement for restitution. How contrary to our sense of justice this can be—and yet this is exactly what God has modeled for us! In His perfect justice He took on flesh, bearing our burdens and our sins to show us His mercy.
As we saw on Monday, our concept of justice is often simply that everyone gets exactly what they deserve. Yet the biblical concept of justice is that all things in creation are put right, all people able to thrive in a just world that is perfectly tuned to God’s will and way.
Do we love this idea of justice? Are we willing, as followers of God, to give our lives to doing the work of justice?
In His mercy and grace God inverted our sense of justice in Jesus, though whom we have fellowship with God and eternal life. Unbelievable! Perfect justice has accomplished what we could never have conceived. As recipients of mercy and grace, how can we do otherwise but to work towards justice in an unjust world, extending mercy despite the pain of criticism or disagreement, and returning good for evil?
Questions for reflection and discussion:
- In what circumstance or circumstances do you need to act justly?
- How could loving mercy be lived out in your home, neighborhood, school, or workplace?
- How does the fact that God is just free you from the need to impose your own sense of justice upon others?
Church Reading Plan:
- Today, July 19: Jeremiah 15; Mark 1
- Saturday, July 20: Jeremiah 16; Mark 2
- Sunday, July 21: Jeremiah 17; Mark 3