micah 6:8 – The Core of the Bible

Loving from the heart

True compassion for others begins with an all-consuming love for God.

Many believers are familiar with the prophecy of Micah if for no other reason than this famous verse about acting with compassion:

Micah 6:8: “He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”

But Micah is only signifying what God had repeatedly told Israel over and over. Notice how Micah says, “He has shown you…” This is not something that God had done in a corner somewhere distant; no, God had repeatedly told them how he desired their hearts to be right and to demonstrate compassion with others in all things, providing this justice and mercy in tangible ways.

Through Isaiah, he warned them of the impending judgment for their failure to learn that lesson.

Isaiah 1:16-17: “Wash yourselves, make yourself clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. Plead for the widow.””

Through Zechariah, he emphasized how there should be no evil in the heart, no falsity in the words out of the mouth in the carrying out of his commands.

Zechariah 7:9-10: ““Thus has Yahweh of Armies spoken, saying, Execute true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother. Don’t oppress the widow, nor the fatherless, the foreigner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.’”
Zechariah 8:16-17: “These are the things that you shall do: speak every man the truth with his neighbor. Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates, and let none of you devise evil in your hearts against his neighbor, and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate,” says Yahweh.”

This repeated injunction of focusing on the heart is emphasized in the teaching of Yeshua and his disciples, as well.

Matthew 5:8 – “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Matthew 18:35 – “So also my heavenly Father will do to you unless every one of you forgives his brother or sister from your heart.”

Most importantly, Yeshua emphasized how the basis of the Kingdom of God, and the righteous actions of the heart, were rooted in a sincere, genuine, and complete love for Yahweh. This was the first and greatest commandment which would lead to the second most important commandment: to love others.

Matthew 22:37-39 – He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”

The failure of the religious leaders to exemplify true and genuine compassion was also the condemnation Yeshua pronounced against them, using the same words of Isaiah:

Matthew 15:8 – “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.”

These compassionate actions are at the very center of the message of the Bible, and the Yeshua’s words in the Sermon on the Mount simply clarify something that God had been saying all along: the goal of all of Torah, or God’s instruction, is loving one another genuinely from the heart, not out of religious obligation. This is the message he taught his disciples: that true love for God causes us to truly love others. This was the message that the disciples sought to distill to those under their care and direction, as well:

Romans 8:28 – “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God…”
1 Corinthians 2:9 – “But as it is written, What no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human heart has conceived — God has prepared these things for those who love him.”
1 Corinthians 16:14 – “Do everything in love.”
1 Timothy 1:5: “but the goal of this command is love, out of a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith…”

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Keeping God’s commands from the heart

This is the stated goal that God has for all people everywhere.

1 Kings 8:61 – “Therefore let your heart be whole and complete to Yahweh our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as at this day.”

As Solomon was dedicating the newly built First Temple, he offered a long and detailed prayer to God that it would be a beacon to Israel and the rest of the world of God’s faithfulness. He prays for righteous judgment and forgiveness for Israel, for overcoming drought and famine, for victory over Israel’s enemies, and even for the foreigners who prayed God to also have their prayers answered.

As he concludes his oration by blessing the assembly before him, he issues the admonition quoted above, that they would remain whole-heartedly faithful to God by keeping his commandments.

1 Kings 8:57-58 – “Yahweh our God be with us, as he was with our ancestors; may he not leave us or abandon us, but incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances, which he commanded our ancestors.”

Key within Solomon’s admonitions to the assembly are two things: following God’s commands, and doing so with whole-hearts that are inclined toward God. This is also the hope and prediction of the prophets throughout the rest of Israel’s history:

Psalm 119:10-11 – I have sought you with all my heart; don’t let me wander from your commands. I have treasured your word in my heart so that I may not sin against you.
Jeremiah 31:33 – “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days” – Yahweh’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
Ezekiel 11:19-20 – “I will give them integrity of heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh, “so that they will follow my statutes, keep my ordinances, and practice them. They will be my people, and I will be their God.

The new covenant is all about keeping God’s commands from the heart. According to Yeshua, there are two commandments which are the summation of everything taught in the entire Law and Prophets, or the Tanakh, what we call the Old Testament.

Matthew 22:37-40 – “He said to him, ‘Love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.'”

If, as Solomon prayed, God’s people (even those who would have been considered foreigners to them) would simply keep God’s commands from the heart, they would be faithfully “walking in his ways.” This is the goal of all of the entirety of the Biblical narrative: that people walk in God’s ways sincerely and from the heart.

Micah 6:8 – Mankind, he has told each of you what is good and what it is Yahweh requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God.
Ecclesiastes 12:13 – When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: fear God and keep his commands, because this is the whole duty of humanity.

This is what integrity looks like: it is the fulfillment of all that Solomon prayed for, the promise that the prophets predicted, and the consummation of what Yeshua accomplished. Now it is up to us to go and live it out among our generation.

If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive on our Podcast Page, at Core of the Bible on Simplecast, or your favorite podcast streaming service.

Now also on YouTube, find us at: Core of the Bible on YouTube.

Questions or comments? Feel free to email me directly at coreofthebible@gmail.com.

We can only be truly compassionate when we are humble

We need eyes to see what God sees.

1 Peter 3:8 – Finally, all of you be like-minded and sympathetic, loving as brothers, and be compassionate and humble…

As Peter is summarizing his exhortations for the congregations he is writing to, he echoes a theme which is represented in the prophet Micah.

Micah 6:8 – People, he has told each of you what is good and what it is Yahweh requires of you: to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

This is such a powerful admonition that even today, a local congregation near where I live has adopted this verse as their mission statement represented simply in their name: “6:8.”

This same simple principle is stated by Yeshua when he was asked what the greatest commandment is.

Matthew 22:37-40 – He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. “This is the greatest and most important command. “The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. “All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

The entirety of God’s torah, his instruction, rests within the simplicity of these statements. What is captured in the writings of Micah and Peter, and more subtly in the statement of Yeshua, is a key element that makes this all-encompassing directive possible: humility.

When we can operate in true humility, we are freed to accomplish the purpose of God with others. When we remove our typical focus on ourselves, we can become his hands to reach out in love to others. This is how true compassion is manifested.

Philippians 2:3-4 – Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

In our vain and vacuous culture today, we are so accustomed to looking out for ourselves that this central biblical concept seems almost foreign. We are so focused on trying to gain prestige, honor, self-improvement, visibility, followers, and influence that we have no time or energy left for God and the purpose of his kingdom.

Expanding on the exhortation of Micah, Alexander MacLaren comments:

Some people would say that this summary of the divine requirements is defective, because there is nothing in it about a man’s duty to himself, which is as much a duty as his duty to his fellows, or his duty to God. But there is a good deal of my duty to myself crowded into that one word, ‘humbly.’ For I suppose we might almost say that the basis of all our obligations to our own selves lies in this, that we shall take the right view-that is, the lowly view-of ourselves.

Peter would agree as he encourages the believers to do that very thing.

1 Peter 5:5 – … All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

If we are not hearing from God and wondering why he appears to be absent from our individual lives and our current society, it is likely because he is resisting us. The passage Peter is alluding to here is from Proverbs 3:34, which says, “He scorns the scornful but gives grace to the humble.” God is scorning us due to our collective and individual pride. Our pride is in the way, distancing us from him.

God desires us to exercise his compassion to others but this can only come about when we become humble, or in biblical phraseology: lowly of mind. When we think less frequently about ourselves and more about the needs of others, we demonstrate our likeness to our Father who is compassionate and merciful with us.

Psalm 103:13 – As a father has compassion on his children, so Yahweh has compassion on those who fear him.

Humility sheds the scales from our eyes and allows us to see clearly the needs of those around us. The world that God would have us reach for him comes into view and yearns for our help. Only through humility can we truly exhibit God’s love to others, and in so doing, bring glory to his Name and reputation.

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God’s people are identifiable through this one practice

God simply desires his people to be a compassionate people.

Luke 6:31 – Just as you want others to do for you, do the same for them.

In one timeless and profound sentence, Yeshua encapsulates everything that God had been repeating to his people time and again through his prophets.

Ezekiel 18:5, 7-9 – “Suppose a man is righteous and does what is just and right: … “He doesn’t oppress anyone but returns his collateral to the debtor. He does not commit robbery, but gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with clothing. “He doesn’t lend at interest or for profit but keeps his hand from injustice and carries out true justice between men. “He follows my statutes and keeps my ordinances, acting faithfully. Such a person is righteous; he will certainly live.” This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.

Zechariah 7:8-10 – The word of the LORD came to Zechariah: “The LORD of Armies says this: ‘Make fair decisions. Show faithful love and compassion to one another. “Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the resident alien or the poor, and do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.’
Zechariah 8:16-17 – “These are the things you must do: Speak truth to one another; make true and sound decisions within your city gates. “Do not plot evil in your hearts against your neighbor, and do not love perjury, for I hate all this” – this is the LORD’s declaration.

This is the great social justice that the Law was designed to create among the nation of Israel: people taking care of one another’s needs, demonstrating love to one another in practical ways.

Romans 13:8-10 – Do not owe anyone anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, Do not commit adultery; do not murder; do not steal; do not covet; and any other commandment, are summed up by this commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the law.

Love is the fulfillment of the Law; love toward God first and foremost, and love for others. This is the summary of the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount.

In our current day, it appears we, as a society, have strayed from both of these aspects. Love for the God of the Bible may be present in our private beliefs, but is not as evident in our outward actions toward others. If we love God, then we should demonstrate compassion and love to those around us who need it most.

James 2:15-18 – If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? In the same way faith, if it doesn’t have works, is dead by itself. But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works.

1 John 2:9-10 – The one who says he is in the light but hates his brother or sister is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother or sister remains in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.
1 John 3:10 – This is how God’s children and the devil’s children become obvious. Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother or sister.
1 John 4:8-11, 21 – The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. … And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.

Yeshua said he didn’t come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them. If Yeshua fulfilled the Law through love, then we should, also. This is why John states that if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.

With this much prophetic pronouncement and apostolic emphasis on this topic, there is no doubt that this practice of outward compassion should be the primary characteristic of God’s people.

Micah 6:8 – Mankind, he has told each of you what is good and what it is Yahweh requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God.

God simply desires his people to be a compassionate people. He has made it abundantly clear that our lives should be examples of love, mercy and compassion. And in the actual doing of this, people will see God.

If you enjoy these daily blog posts, be sure to visit the growing archive of the Core of the Bible podcast. Each week we take a more in-depth look at one of the various topics presented in the daily blog. You can view the podcast archive at https://core-of-the-bible.simplecast.com/ or your favorite podcast streaming service.

Now also on YouTube! Just getting started, but new videos will be added regularly on many different topics, find us at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvR_aNEyA7WEZJtF4B8fZ6g

Questions or comments? Feel free to email me directly at coreofthebible@gmail.com.