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
-- Micah 6:8
This really moves me. Sometimes we want to boil everything down to a set of rules; "If I do X, Y will happen. If I do A, God will like that because of B, I shouldn't do C. Do this, Do that."
But this isn't what we read, it tells us, we know what's good, so let's "Do Justice", let's "love kindness" and "walk humbly".
It reminds me of when Paul says:
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
-- 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
God tells us in Micah, that "We know what is good", but as with all things, if we try and do these things without love, it's useless, because this is the central part of our beings: Love.
This goes along with "Walk Humbly", like Paul also says "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.". If we know what is good we can sometimes rest of this knowledge alone, "puffing" us up, giving us an inflated sense of things, We can say"Oh I've read the entire Bible 14 times this year, I can recite the Sermon on the Mount from heart...", but without love, all of this knowledge is useless.
We can't really help our fellow brothers (and sisters) without loving them. Without love we can't genuinely care about them enough to help them, why? Because we just do the bare minimum and then move along, and people can tell easily if we are being genuine or doing it 'just because'.
"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
-- Jesus (by way of John 13:34-45)
Or in the words of the Great Rufus:
Be Excellent to one another.
I'm not a Christian or any other formalised creed, as you know, but these are the elements of organised religion I can appreciate.
ReplyDeleteI try to live by the word of the Great Rufus: be excellent to each other.
It carries through as the core sentiment of most faiths, if people would focus on the important parts, and it's the only instruction I need. :)
aaah.. the great Rufus. I will add this.
ReplyDelete*guitar solo*
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