Justice, Mercy, and Humility

Last Thursday I went to my son’s elementary school dedication.  It’s a brand new school and on the outside wall of the building is a verse of scripture that seems like a motto for life.  It comes from the book of Micah Chapter 6:

And what does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Seems simple enough but I think, as I really reflect on the verse, it is not quite that easy.  Let’s look at the three requirements with a little more light.

1)   To act justly

         The definition of “just” is:


         Based on or behaving according to what is morally right and fair

        The definition of “Justice” is:


       Just behavior or treatment, the quality of being fair and reasonable, the administration    of the law

“Behaving” – that’s hard enough right from the start! Behaving morally right and fair presumes that there is a standard to which we are to adhere.  Who defines morals?  Man?  Society? If that is the case, the standards are always moving and quite frankly the standards keep falling to a lower level.  The Bible is clear that God alone is the moral lawgiver and the only standard by which are to measure ourselves.  To act justly requires us to know the standard and to see that, if we are totally honest, we fall woefully short much of the time.  That leads to repentance but also leads us to be able to better fulfill the next requirement of the verse we are examining:

2)   To love mercy


            The definition of mercy is:

Compassion or forgiveness show toward someone who it is within one’s power to punish or harm

An event to be grateful for

Performed out of a desire to relieve suffering; motivated by compassion

God is asking us not just to display mercy but also to “love” it!  We aren’t to say, “Oh, alright, I forgive you, if I must.”  We are to be like, “Of course I forgive you.  Who am I to withhold forgiveness from you when I have been forgiven SO much?” We are to be grateful and to lend compassion to those who are suffering.  Sounds easy but I think we need to examine our hearts and see if we are withholding mercy from anyone or if we are seeking our own desires at the expense of another.  Our spouse?  A friend?  A co-worker? An enemy?  Jesus said it’s easy to love those who love us but we are to love our enemies.  UGH!  OK, Micah didn’t say the Lord suggests.  He said the Lord requires.

3)   To walk humbly with your God

This implies that we are walking with God in the first place.  To walk with him requires us to be made right before him and the only way to be made right before him is to have been born again through faith in the One who gave his life for us.  The ultimate act of justice was God pouring his wrath out on Jesus for the sins of those who deserved death for their sin.  Justice demanded punishment (death) and in order for God to maintain his justice someone had to pay the penalty.  We deserved it but he took it.  So, it was also the ultimate act of mercy.  What an awesome example of fulfilling the Micah verse.  So we begin our walk with God by trusting in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus but there is an adjective in this verse - “Humbly” How hard it is to be humble?  How easy to say, “Look at what a good person I am.” Or “See how much better I am than the guy next door.”  Paul said, “what a wretch I am.” And, called himself “the worst of all sinners”.  Jesus, the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, washed the feet of his disciples.

As we live our lives let’s try really hard to keep this verse close to our hearts and seek to do what the Lord requires.  We can’t do this on our own but “with God, all things are possible.”

Peace Friend,

David