Micah 6:8: “He has shown you, O man, what is good; / And what does the LORD require of you / But to do justly, / To love mercy, / And to walk humbly with your God?”

November 29th, 2021 by Pastor Ed in devotional

Micah told God’s people that God had already given them His word and revealed in it what He expected of them. But to be even clearer, Micah summed up the Law into these 3 requirements: we are 1) to do justly, 2) to love mercy, 3) and to walk humbly with God. His people should have known this, but spiritual blindness had led them to offer everything except the things God desired. God wanted a spiritual commitment from the heart because out of the heart springs right behavior.

We will look at just one of these requirements. “To do justly” simple means to practice justice rather than plot unfairness toward others, or said another way, “don’t oppress or take advantage of others.” God presents to us absolute truth not situational ethics, meaning we are to do the right thing regardless of the circumstances. This is the opposite of situational ethics. In the heat of a battle, we cannot decide clearly what to do; we must already have settled in our mind long before the battle begins what is right and wrong.

The professor of a Christian medical school ethics class wanted to impress upon the soon-to-be doctors the gravity of the role their decisions and advice would play in people’s lives. They were asked to advise a married couple that was pregnant with their 5th child. The husband had syphilis and the wife had tuberculosis. Their 1st child was born blind, the 2nd died at birth because of the mother’s weakened condition, the 3rd was born deaf, and the 4th contracted TB and was presently suffering with that disease. Now, pregnant with her 5th child, they came to the doctor and asked if they should abort. The professor asked the students, “How would you advise this patient?” 70% of the class said they would advise the couple to abort the child. The professor then told them that they had just counseled the parents of Beethoven to abort him. We cannot let the pressure of situations dictate what we feel is right and wrong.

A young lawyer approached Jesus in Matthew 22 and asked Him to further reduce the Law, “‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?’ Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind'” (Matt. 22:36–37). Does that still sound like too much to remember? The Apostle Paul reduced it to one word: “For all the law is fulfilled in one word . . . love your neighbor as yourself” (Gal. 5:14, italics added).

“We thank You, LORD, that all the law is contained in the one word that describes You—love. Teach us to love this day, we ask in Jesus name.”