The Balancing Act

My friend, Susanne, wrote a post on her blog about God and His love of mercy and justice. How we can be more like Jesus and what that would look like.

Prompted me to read some more to figure out just how we might balance these loves of God.

In Micah 6:8, it's written:

He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God?

First thing that jumps out is that it says "require" in there. Not, what the Lord suggests or what the Lord likes or what the Lord hopes we'll do. Nope, it says it's a requirement.

Upon researching more on this topic, Doug Goins wrote

The call here is to “do justice,” not just be supportive of justice accomplished by other people. We ourselves are to be people that live out justice. It requires pro-activity on our part.

Ah, a call to action by God. I like that Mr. Goins pointed out that we can't just give a thumbs up to others doing justice, we are to be a part of that. About kindness he goes on to say:

The second requirement is to love kindness or, as some translations may say, loyalty. The New International Version (“NIV”) says to “love mercy.” The Hebrew word is hesed , which means “loyal love,” the greatest attribute of God in the Old Testament. It defines his steadfast covenantal love. Our call is to love people in the same way that God loves us: unconditionally, mercifully, passionately, consistently, kindly, and with loyalty. God is attentive, and faithfully loyal to his covenant relationships. Again, as followers of Jesus Christ, our relationships are to be marked by this kind of covenant loyalty.

If I stop to think about it, it makes sense that mercy/kindness can co-exist with justice. Think of a true friend. That friend that you are able to speak truth in love to. Isn't that a combination of kindness and justice?

I didn't realize some translations use the word loyalty in place of kindness. I like the picture of God being attentive and faithfully loyal. It reminds me of Ruth's relationship with her mother in law, Naomi.

Ruth 1:16 But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. ¹⁷ Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." ¹⁸ When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

I thought another person's perspective on the topic was great.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, justice and love are not opposites. It is impossible, in this perspective, to seek love without justice. To practice, permit or allow injustice is to destroy love. An unjust society is characterized by trampling upon others, the opposite of loving our neighbors as ourselves. Following the order of justice under the laws of God produces in a society the highest fulfillment and harmony between human beings. Mercy may be offered for the truly repentant, but the unrepentant are to be brought to justice! The Hebrew Scriptures constantly enjoin the rulers to give themselves to righteousness by bringing justice! The solution to the human miscarriage of justice is not to do away with the process of judgment, but to bring this process under the standard of God through godly judges!

What an interesting concept. If we love kindness , we will not permit others to be trampled on, we will fight for justice. Why? Because this is how we would want to be treated. A great reminder in the golden rule.

This is rather rambling and it's late. I will need to keep studying this in order to keep growing.