Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Micah chapter 6 is this conversation between God and the Israelites. The Israelites, they've just strayed from the Lord. They've disobeyed God. In verse 6 they say, "What can we bring to the Lord? What kind of offering should we give Him?" That's their way of saying, so how can we worship because we recognize we've just sinned. What can we bring to You, Lord? This is what God says: "Do what's right, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God."
Not a Checklist
It's easy to look at that and say, well, those are the three steps that you need to take. And if you do these things, God will accept you. Because we live in a very performance-based culture and we love checklists, right? We just want to check off the box. If I'm going to church and if I'm tithing, then I'm good, right? But that's not the Gospel.
The reason we obey and do good is because we're accepted. We don't obey so that God can accept us. We're saved to do good works, but we're not saved by our good works. The Gospel has to be applied to this verse, and we need to understand that we can't do this unless we lean on the strength of God. This is a result of a transformed life.
A Response to Mercy
When God is working in my life, I want to do what's right. I want to walk humbly with God. I want to love mercy. Why do I want to love mercy? Because as a Christian, I'm under mercy. I'm not under wrath. God has shown me His mercy. The Bible says that His mercies are new every single morning. So why do I extend mercy to those around me? Because it's been extended to me.
Making It Practical
Now let's make this a little bit practical. How can I do what is right? One of the practical things that my wife and I love to do is we love to open up our home and just practice hospitality, because there's something about getting to know your neighbor, opening your home, because there's a lot that happens around the table. As believers, we're called to be salt and light in our sphere of influence, right? There's people that I'm going to touch that my friends will never touch and vice versa, because God has placed me in a certain sphere of influence.
When the writer says, "Do what is right, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God," we cannot do that on our own strength. I love how he says, "And walk humbly with your God." The first two—do what is right and love mercy—focus on our horizontal relationships. Then the third is our relationship with God. It reminds me of Mark chapter 12, verses 30 and 31, when Jesus was asked, "What's the greatest commandment?" Love God and love people.
Our Job: Shine the Light of Christ
I want to close with this. As we look at our nation, it's easy to just say, well, there's so much injustice, because one version says to act justly, right? We can look around our nation and say, but there's so much violence and there's so much hatred. What do I do with all that? How can I wrestle with all of that?
Our job is to remember vengeance is the Lord's, and we have a just Judge who will restore all things very soon because Jesus is coming back. Our job is to shine the light of Christ where God has placed us—to do what's right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before the Lord.