Micah 6:8 He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy… Prof. Huxley calls this verse "the perfect ideal of religion." And he says that "the true function of science is not to set herself in antagonism to religion, but to deliver her from the heathen survivals, the bad philosophy, and the science falsely so called, which have obscured her lustre and impaired her vigour." Consider what this "perfect ideal" is, and what it involves. The prophet, whether Micah or Balaam, sums up the whole duty of man in doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God. Can we accept this summary as setting forth the very substance of religion? Yes, if we are allowed to take the words of Micah in the sense in which he used them. Taken simply by themselves, indeed, and apart from their prophetic use, they postulate the existence of God, and of a God whose character is the standard and rule of the justice and mercy we are bound to show. A God, therefore, to whom we owe a constant obedience, with whom we are to walk in a living sympathy and communion, and toward whom our proper attitude is one of profound humility and devotion. What did a Hebrew prophet mean by a "just" man, if not a man who walked in all the commandments of the Hebrew law blameless? Whence did this man learn that justice must be tempered with mercy but from the self-same law? What was his standard of compassion and charity but the charity of God? Assuming the words of the text to mean only what a modern man of science would use them to mean, have you considered how much they involve; how difficult it is to apply them to the complex and often conflicting claims of human life; and how much more difficult it is to render them a living and constant obedience? Is it always easy to ascertain What "justice" demands? The fatal defect of all the ethical schemes put forward by those who reject revealed religion and yet are fain to find some substitute for it is that they take no account, or not sufficient account, of the fact and power of sin. We who believe in God and Christ contend that to men defiled and weakened by sin, only faith in God, revealed in Christ, will enable them to do their duty, and to embody the perfect ideal in their lives. (Samuel Cox, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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 walk humbly with thy God? |
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