Engaging the Community
Daily Old Testament Reading: Micah 3-6
Daily Focus Passage: Micah 6
How believers and the church engage the community around us declares who Christ is in us and proclaims how we view Christ to the world. Our engagement with the world must look different from the ways of the world because we hold a greater understanding of true right, wrong, respect, and dignity. We allow the Bible to provide the revealed truth of the Lord concerning interaction with others in the world. Thus, we learn to engage the culture in justice, mercy, and humility.
ACT JUSTLY
In Micah 6, the prophet charges the people to act justly. Justice is the act of carrying out what is just. For believers, what is just must be defined by the truth of God’s Word. In the Bible, justice centers on receiving what one deserves. Thus, to act justly means that justice flows from a sense of fairness.
The first step to acting justly flows from receiving justification from the Lord and not receiving the justice we deserve due to sin. Faith is the basis of justification and offers us the pathway to enter the right relationship with the Lord. We extend justice the way the Lord extends justice to us. We seek to live fairly in relationships and to respect and respond to others as part of God’s creation. Thus, we seek to live in a manner that extends dignity. We must strive to live justly.
LOVE MERCY
Mercy occurs because of compassion that withholds the punishment one deserves. In a more specific sense, biblical mercy is forgiving the sinner and withholding the death penalty deserved from the presence of sin. As a follower of Christ, we experience the great mercy of the Lord. Salvation occurs by faith but also includes the experience of God’s mercy. God’s mercy comes because of God’s love.
The mercy we experience must become the mercy we live out toward others. The mercy God extends to us must become the base of the mercy we extend to others. We live out mercy when we refuse to live in vengeance and seek to offer forgiveness to others even when forgiveness is not earned or deserved. We must seek to extend the justice of care and protection because of the mercy grounded in God’s mercy.
WALK HUMBLY
The ability to act justly and love mercy flows from the action of walking humbly. Humility is not merely thinking lower of oneself but occurs when we strive not to think of the self. This approach to thinking about the self must be analyzed to aid in the battle to walk humbly. Philip Brooks mentioned a test for humility. “The true way to be humble is not to stoop until you are smaller than yourself, but to stand at your real height against some higher nature that will show you the real smallness of your greatness.” In a nutshell, believers must stand upright in the presence of the Lord to see the truly small and unholy nature of the self.
When believers walk humbly, they attempt to respond to others non-arrogantly. They seek to approach others in a manner that follows the expectations of the Lord and brings the Lord glory. When we respond to others in humility, we desire that they see Christ in us so that they may respond to the invitation of Christ to receive justification and eternal life. Thus, our walking in humility is part of affirming the greatness of the Lord.
We must ask ourselves tough questions about justice, mercy, and humility. Have you trusted in the Lord through Jesus Christ and received the justification for your sin to gain the gift of everlasting life? If so, are you living out the same type of justice that the Lord extended to you? Are you extending mercy to others in the same manner that the Lord has extended mercy to you? Are you living in humility or allowing pride to control your life? The basic question becomes, are you acting justly, loving mercy, and walking in humility?
