Do Justly

When I said in my last post that I would explore portions of Micah 6:8 in future blogs, I had intended to be a little more punctual! (cough, cough) Even though quite some time has past, I still want to take a closer look at “do justly.” For reference sake, here is the whole scripture:

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? Micah 6:8 NKJV

Adding some context, look at verses 6 and 7:

With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

Micah seems to be speaking rhetorically here on behalf of the people who are outwardly religious but inwardly sinful. Countless offerings made for the sake of custom, law or appearances are nothing but empty ritual if not done with love, honor, fear and respect for God. It’s not about the “stuff” for Him; He’s saying, “I want you! I want your heart!”

And He wants us to do what the Word says, as in James 1:22 ~ But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

So we come to Micah 6:8, where it’s explained what God wants of us. One is to “do justly.” A few synonyms for “do justice” are: amend, balance, do right by, esteem, put right, reconstruct, rectify, restore, set straight, treat fairly, and vindicate. Quite a list! In addition, fairness, honesty, impartiality, integrity and virtue are synonyms for “justice.”

So it should be part of our modus operandi to treat others fairly, honestly and with integrity. We should do what is right, even if no one else would know, like the person who turned in my husband’s set of keys that fell out of his pocket at the gas station. They were waiting at the counter for him to pick up because someone did the caring thing. If we see a wrong and it’s within our ability to do something to help right it, we should. It kind of reminds me of the Golden Rule; we should treat others the way we ourselves wish to be treated. That means we won’t cheat, or be dishonest in our dealings with other people, regardless of how they operate.

Now doing what is just is not the same thing as administering justice. That is for the courts of the land and ultimately for God. We should appreciate other people as the creation of God that they are, and realize that no matter how “messed up” we deem them to be, God cares for them and Jesus died to save them, too!

God has told us to “do justly.” How much better would our communities be if we followed that command, replacing it for the hatred and injustice that seem so prevalent in our society today? Micah says, He has shown you "O man" (through the person of Jesus Christ!) what we should do. So let's obediently follow the heart of the Lord and interact with others (whom He loves) with fairness, integrity and honesty.

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