Okay, this post is one where I think I am actively inviting perspective and comment from others. Because I have read something, and feel I have a real “ethnocentric” block in my mental processes. I have been thinking for hours, and just cannot make sense of this passage the other way it is being presented.
The passage is Micah 6:8:
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walkhumbly with thy God?
The question is, what does it mean to do justly, and how do you love mercy while still doing justly, and how do you do both of them as part of a humbly walk with God? Much of the answer someone gives depends on how they define the word justice.
1a: the maintenance or administration of what is just especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of merited rewards or punishments
c: the administration of law; especially: the establishment or determination of rights according to the rules of law or equity
2a: the quality of being just, impartial, or fair
b (1): the principle or ideal of just dealing or right action(2): conformity to this principle or ideal :righteousness
c: the quality of conforming to law
3 : conformity to truth, fact, or reason :correctness
So justice is an impartial determination of rights based on the rule of law. The question is whose rights? Is it the rights of an individual, or the rights of a group?
From my perspective, I see justice as a standard of law before which we can all come, before which we all have status, position and freedom. To do justly is to ensure that we treat others according to those fair and impartial standards. We don’t just change things to do what seems or feels right to us, we judge it against the impartiality of the law.
In this status, mercy is the showing of compassion to someone AFTER they have received a negative judgment, a compassion or forbearance shown to an offender. Walking humbly is walking with humility. Humility is not thinking of yourself either higher or lower than you are, knowing who you are and where you fit into things.
I know what it means, and how to do justly and love mercy in this context.
But when you see this as social justice, justice means “equal distribution of power and privilege among all people.” Justice becomes a taking of things from some people to give it to others. Where does mercy come into this? What does it mean? And how do you walk with humility in this environment? Instead of knowing and being who you are, no more and no less, there is continual leveling and change. Obviously I do not understand how this would work.
Anyone that can explain how mercy and humility work in this environment of taking and giving, I really would enjoy understanding.
Creational and relational type Renaissance man (writer, singer, thinker) holding to C.S Lewis's credo that if you follow truth originality takes care of itself, (anyway, originality is so yesterday, anyway.) That I have my wonderful wife Jasini is proof enough for me that life isn't fair. If it was fair I wouldn't have her, and instead she is my most faithful example that I am blessed beyond measure. My two adult children are the same unmerited blessing to me. We should all be thankful life is not fair but blessed.
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At The Rainbow 