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Micah 6:8
Micah 6:8
8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
The call of God on the people of God is summed up perfectly in Micah 6:8. A single verse. Of course the whole of Micah proves the statement, but if you know the context, then you know how true this statement is. Explain the basic concept of Micah I could preach at least 10 sermons on this singular verse. It is such an all encompassing passage. And though I often joke to the students that my favorite verse is Jn 11:35 , Micah 6:8 is without a doubt the most formative verse for me the last 4 or so years.
35 Jesus wept.
8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
My dad and I had a conversation yesterday. The conversation focused on the differences between authors in the Bible like Paul and authors in the Bible like James. The discussion essentially boiled down to this. Where do we draw the line between graciously living in our God given identity and what we actually do. explain very concise.
Paul says, you say you have faith, You are now righteous through Christ, now act like it!
James says, you say you have faith, but there is no evidence, then you are not saved!
So Which Is It?
So Which Is It?
I want to bring us back to our focal passage. Lets focus on the last mandate of Micah 6:8 to walk with God.
8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
So How Do We Walk With God?
So How Do We Walk With God?
Obviously walking without God is not a literal statement, but a metaphorical one that describes the way we live. We are to live in humble relationship with God. This is how scripture has always used the word walk in this context. One of the most famous places we see of someone walking humbly with God is a man named Enoch.
22 Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters.
23 Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years.
24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
There is little definition give here in Genesis about how it was that Enoch pleased God, but Hebrews 11:5-6 Gives a little more information.
5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Walking with God ment that Enoch sought after God. He looked for God, Desired God, and wanted to be with Him. “He believed in God and that God rewarded those who seek him”
We as Christians, post-new testament, have even clearer instruction of how to do this found in Colossians 2:6-7
6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,
7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
To walk humbly with God is to draw near to God knowing exactly who you are before Him, and reflecting everything about Him in every direction because of how awesome of an experience it is.
I don’t have many real world hero’s, so I want to paint an analogy with this with a fanciful analogy. If there was a world where Batman exists.... I would die trying to always be where he is. without a doubt, I would chase batman all around Gotham city as his number one fan boy. I would be filling out applications, that I myself made, to be his next robin. And ultimately I would fall prey to some terrible accident attempting to jump buildings and fight criminals, but somehow batman would continue to save me. And I would never, stop, chasing him.
This is what walking humbly with God should be like, so amazing that its worth risking everything. In the example, I know I’m not batman, nor would I ever be as good as him, but I also couldn't ever stop trying to be like him.
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—
10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
I don’t follow Jesus because i have to… I follow Jesus because I get to.
It is so worth it. the adventure will change you. You can’t follow someone like Jesus and not have your life completely flipped upside down. The best part is, because Jesus wants us to be with Him, he give us the power to stay with him through everything through Holy Spirit. You can not earn righteousness or salvation, but when you chase after Jesus, when you walk humbly with God, you experience it. You experience His salvation. You experience his deliverance. you experience his justice and then, naturally, you do just like Him. It has never and will never be about things you have to do. It has always and will always be about things we get to do with our God.
You Get TO, you don’t have too.
You Get TO, you don’t have too.
If time, Liken it to marriage.