(Micah 6:6 KJV) Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?(Micah 6:7 KJV) Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?(Micah 6:8 KJV) He hath showed 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?
How shall we come to worship God? What do we bring that will please Him? Our text tells us what God is looking for, what pleases Him. First of all, it isn’t just about being religious, not just going through the form, the rituals. It isn’t about doing some great sacrifice, not about self inflicted suffering, pain. What the Lord requires, what it takes to make heaven our home is still pretty simple: Our text summarizes it this way: do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with thy God. First of all, we are instructed to do justly, do what is right. This is the standard we are to apply to our selves, this is how we are to judge our own life. We need to cultivate a sincere desire to know what is right and to live that way. We need to give serious attention to doing what is right in every situation, with every one, all the time. We cannot allow those things that are wrong to continue in our life and expect to be pleasing to God.
The first instruction was how we are to deal with our self; the next is how we are to deal with others. We are to love mercy. This has to do with the attitude in which we view others, how we deal with others. Not with a hard, harsh spirit or attitude, but with an attitude that loves mercy. This is a heart like Gods, one that prefers mercy, is bent toward mercy. There is a tendency to grow harsh in our judgment of others if we resent the strong discipline, strict obedience we are to apply to our own life. We are to be compassionate, kind, merciful toward those around us. This is not condoning sin, ignoring sin. But it is an attitude of one who has been forgiven to desire that others find forgiveness as well, patient in our dealing with others.