You know that verse that says to seek justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God? I realized today that it never tells you to seek justice. It tells you to do justice and to act in a just manner. Look it up in your preferred translation! I’ll be sticking to the ESV for this post, as usual.
Micah 6:8
He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
Three requirements were given to the people of Judah as they were to be taken into captivity. These same instructions seem appropriate to the people of God today as our culture celebrates depravities that Babylon would blush at. Our context may not be the same, but God’s character is forever unchanging. Let’s break this down.
We are to do justice. This implies that we can know what justice is. Where ought we find our definition of justice? If we are to do this as Christians we need to begin our understanding in the word of God before inquiring into any concept or tool available around us.
Justice is not at odds with Mercy. Neither one is to be disregarded as we tend to the other. Put another way, when God tells Israel to show no partiality to the wealthy or to the poor in your judgments, He is not setting aside His perfect mercy in order to demonstrate His perfect justice, nor is He setting aside perfect justice in favor of kindness and mercy.
As we wrestle with our imaginary tension between justice and kindness we all tend to have a sinful leaning against the third command, to walk humbly with our God. How can I say that? We are so proud of our humility! And that is part of the problem. We define our humility in unbiblical ways, castrating our own usefulness in our communities in the name of loving our neighbors. If becoming useless to those around us is our Christian witness, we are like the wicked servant who buried his talent rather than using it to further the Master’s estate.
Proverbs 12:10b the mercy of the wicked is cruel.
We do this by accepting definitions of justice, kindness and mercy that contradict the word of God. We act as if God is not there and has not spoken. Allow me to share an affiliate link to a book that will show that God is there and He has not been silent! Remember it is the fool who has said in his heart that there is no God! You can say with your mouth that there is a God, but if your life reflects a contrary view, you have become the fool.
Not only that, but when you seek your wisdom first beyond the revealed will of God you have placed something above God in your search for righteousness. You no longer have the kingdom of God and His righteousness as your primary goal. You have added a new god to your own pantheon, breaking the first commandment to have no other gods beside the one true God. You have succumbed to the original temptation in the Garden that you will be like God, able to define good and evil apart from God. And this requires that you first covet the right of definitions owned by God. You desire that right for yourself, breaking the tenth commandment.
I can’t think of a way to do all this while you are walking humbly with your God. As a co-sinner in this world, I honestly tried to come up with a convoluted explanation on how this might still be OK in the eyes of God. Not that I believe this to be valid, but I was trying to construct some version that might launder such an attitude into something other than what it is. Sin.
Answering a question by saying that something is a grey area when God has spoken clearly about it is not a sign of humility but a sign of arrogance. It is not you being winsome toward someone you would like to win for the Lord. Rather, it is that person using your own insecurity to win you toward a faith that is as useless as their unbelief. It is you lowering the bar of God’s standard so that this person might be able to clear it. It is you disregarding the fact that only the blood of Jesus can make anyone presentable before God.
Likewise, taking a stance on a tertiary issue and elevating it to a top tier matter is legalism. It is you proclaiming the adherent to be more within the will of God while the one who doesn’t meet your standard is destined for Hell. You have changed the gospel of grace into one of works, absent the saving work of Jesus in His life, death and resurrection. Yes, the law has two ditches and both are forms of legalism. And legalism is a form of self worship.
Walking humbly with your God sounds like the least of the three commands, but it is essential to have any hope toward meeting the two others. We need a standard of kindness and of justice that is outside our sinful selves. So naturally, humans look for tools to help us out. Tools here and there, but only the ones that are not in the category of “Thus saith the Lord” and that happens far to often among those who call upon the name of that same Lord.
CRT is disqualified as originating in a repudiation of the tenth commandment along with it’s older brothers Marxism, Socialism and Communism. There is no justice, kindness or mercy to be found there. The revealed word of God is the only solution that can work, but only if we apply it. And to apply the word of God in the world around us is another say of walking humbly with our God. We submit to Him and are blessed for it with justice, kindness and mercy.
Seeking justice is very different from doing justice. Seeking has a certain passivity to it. It involves pleading with the authorities and stopping there. Granted, it is a step farther than most Americans today are willing to take, as you will see if you count heads at a school board meeting. Doing justice allows for you to work through these channels still, but it highlights you doing your part, not just being a bystander or, God forbid, a helpless victim.
Do justice. Love kindness. Walk humbly. And do all in the confidence of your God because you have searched the scriptures and are being conformed to them. This is all summarized for us here, so I’ll leave with the words of Paul, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 12:1-2 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
