Sunday, June 26, 2016

God's Requirements Reflect His Priorities

The life and death of Jesus reflects God's preference for humans over his own well being. Last week I wrote about God's prioritizing of humans (here). This week I will write about how his requirements of us reflect this.

Micah 6:6 is a well known scripture that summarizes what's in the heart of God; here he tells us what really matters most to him about how we live. It's in response to the questions posed in the previous 2 verses which imply that God must want religious sacrifices (prayer, fasting, offerings, worship assembling, etc). The prophet responds strongly by saying no to the religious sacrifices, but rather:

"He has told you, human one, what is good and
        what the Lord requires from you:
            to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God." (CEB)


Three things: "do justice"; "embrace faithful love (mercy)"; "walk humbly with your God."

There are many different directions I could go with this, but I simply want to point out that what God asks of us is all about our treatment of others and his desire that we do this humbly with him.

The New Testament backs this up with some overarching instructions: Jesus says in Mark 12 that the greatest commandment is to love God and to love others; all of the scriptures are fulfilled in this one commandment. Later Paul says in Romans 13:8-10:

"Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law. For the commandments say, “You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not covet.” These—and other such commandments—are summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.  Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.'" (NLT)

God prioritizes humans; his requirements of us reflect how important people are to him.

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