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Recently, several people have mentioned our frequent use of Micah 6:8 in our materials.  They wondered if it was just because it was a popular verse on justice or if we had really thought through what it means to us.  It is a good question, because it is a very significant and formational verse for our ministry.  The verse says:

“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you?  To justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

While I won’t develop it in detail here, we read this text through the lens of Jesus’ Great Commandment, to love God with all of who & what we are, and to love others as ourselves.  Jesus said this was the fulfillment of the whole Law & the Prophets.  The Law & the Prophets represented righteousness & justice-right relationship with God and right relationship with others.  So doing justice is at the heart of God’s ultimate intentions, at the heart of the Gospel.

Through that lens, we read Micah 6:8.  Our commitment to “do justice” means that we are committed to both serve with those impacted by the injustice and to address the root of the injustice.  Therefore, there is a degree of prophetic confrontation and activism inherent to doing justice.  We believe that the justice of God is primarily restorative, so our activism is deeply peace-based and non-retributive.  This commitment reminds us that God’s Kingdom is breaking forth into the brokenness of the current world, not just being concerned with a spiritual after-life.

Our commitment to “love mercy” orientates the focus of our justice efforts to be primarily motivated by loving desire for restoration, not condemnation.  Demonstrating compassion and mercy is a critical expression of the loving Gospel of Christ.  Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, comforting the mourning- these are at the heart of God, so they should be at our heart as well.  However, mercy reminds us also of God’s merciful grace for us, so we must also approach the perpetrators of injustice with mercy as well (though not compromising justice).  God’s justice seeks to restore all relationships, because that is the nature of His grace.  So too should it be reflected in our commitment.

Finally, our commitment to “walk humbly” reminds us that we are also often complicit in the injustices others suffer.  Whether knowingly or not, how we spend our money, where we choose to live and work, how we use our privilege (be it racial, gender, economics, etc.) are connected to the realities of our increasingly small world.  We must have the humility to acknowledge, repent and change when necessary.  Colonial mentalities still shape well intentioned missions and ministry, which must be continually addressed.  Further, this humility reminds us that we are participating in God’s redemptive work that is essential for our own salvation.  We are not coming as the great hope for the poor, but we come, in the words of Lilla Watson, because our liberation is caught up with theirs.

This three-fold understanding of Micah 6:8 is central in shaping our Justice Discipleship Training School (JDTS).  We are aware of the dangers of short-term missions and maximize the experience to avoid those dangers (NOTE: Our JDTS is significantly committed to the important lessons learned from the book “When Helping Hurts”.  It shapes the nature of our program).  We are still looking for a few more students interested in participating in this program.  Check it out.

Does this resonate with you?  Do you understand Micah 6:8 differently?  What place does justice have in the Gospel?