{"id":1651,"date":"2024-09-15T08:01:04","date_gmt":"2024-09-15T08:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drkenrpruitt.com\/KP2\/KP2\/?p=1651"},"modified":"2024-09-06T17:30:16","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T17:30:16","slug":"september-15-act-justly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drkenrpruitt.com\/KP2\/september-15-act-justly\/","title":{"rendered":"September 15, Act Justly"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n

He has shown you, O man,\u00a0what is good.<\/p>\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of you?<\/p>\n\n

To act justly\u00a0and to love mercy<\/p>\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and to walk humblywith your God.<\/p>\n\n

Micah 6:8<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

He has shown you what is \u201cgood.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

In Hebrew thought, \u201cgood\u201d indicates something more than\u00a0just short of best<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cGood\u201d becomes an expression of the fullness of God\u2019s truth, for all His ways are right, just, completely absent of evil, and full of spiritual light. His truth and His ways all reflect the excellencies of His nature, and therefore all His ways are good. The Scriptures declare that God\u2019s goodness extends from His nature and becomes expressed in everything He does.\u00a0\u00a0This demonstrates the value of His truths:<\/p>\n\n

You are good,\u00a0and what You do is good; teach me your decrees<\/em>. (Psalm 119:68)<\/p>\n\n

God’s goodness is perfectly fulfilled in Jesus Christ.\u00a0\u00a0Hebrews 10:1 defines God\u2019s goodness not simply in the law, but in the fulfillment of the law through the Son: “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming\u2014not the realities themselves<\/em>.”<\/p>\n\n

So, God\u2019s goodness became fully understood in the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

From the foundation of God’s infinite goodness, what does He desire and require in His children?\u00a0\u00a0What becomes the perfect offering of our hearts to Him?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

The sixth chapter of Micah reads like a conversation between God and Israel. Although God’s people approached Him in their outward demonstration of religion, the sacrificial rites and offerings common to Israel\u2019s national and spiritual heritage were not that which God ultimately desired.\u00a0\u00a0The prophet pointed to the standard of God’s goodness, and then summarized what God truly desired from their lives with three very significant commitments.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

To act justly.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Here, justice emphasizes strict equality.\u00a0\u00a0When these words were given to Israel, injustice was a significant problem.\u00a0\u00a0And the root of this problem was the blurring of what is right (just) with what is unjust.\u00a0To act justly<\/em>\u00a0indicates living with a deep sense of right and wrong in God\u2019s sight. In the judicial leadership of Israel, this was forgotten:<\/p>\n\n

“Woe to those who plan iniquity,\u00a0to those who plot evil\u00a0on their beds!<\/em><\/p>\n\n

At morning\u2019s light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

They covet fields\u00a0and seize them, and houses, and take them. They defraud\u00a0people of their homes; they rob them of their inheritance.<\/em>”\u00a0(Micah 2:1-2)<\/p>\n\n

Israel and their leaders were held accountable for their injustice. God called them according to His own goodness\u00a0to act justly<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 to return to a deep sense of what is right and wrong in God\u2019s sight.\u00a0\u00a0For, although they continued in their religious activity, they had forsaken God’s way and God’s Word.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

Jesus addressed the same atrocity among organized religion:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWoe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth\u00a0of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God.\u00a0You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n

(Luke 11:42)<\/em><\/p>\n\n

So, clearly from both the Old and New Testament history, there existed among many adherents of religion the right acts that disguised the wrong heart.\u00a0\u00a0And this becomes the validation for Micah\u2019s call today.\u00a0\u00a0God has revealed what is good and acceptable in His sight: we are called to act justly \u2013 to act according to His rightness.\u00a0\u00a0This does not reflect legalism, but our necessary alignment with the heart of Christ, and with God\u2019s will in the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

So today, how can you act justly?\u00a0\u00a0How can you better act according to God’s standard of what is right? How will you live out the heart of our God and the love of our Savior to this world?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

God has shown us what is good<\/em>, so let’s bring His goodness into situations that need to be set right by His standards. If we have been changed by the love and grace of Christ Jesus our Lord, we will certainly feel His leading to act justly in an unjust world.\u00a0\u00a0And let’s begin with those closest to us. In our speech, our conduct, and in our attitudes toward others, let’s respond to the goodness of our God, and let’s act justly.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

Blessings.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He has shown you, O man,\u00a0what is good. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of you? To act justly\u00a0and to love mercy \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and to walk humblywith your God. Micah 6:8 He has shown you what is \u201cgood.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 In Hebrew thought, \u201cgood\u201d indicates something more than\u00a0just short of best.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cGood\u201d becomes an expression of the fullness of God\u2019s truth, …<\/p>\n

September 15, Act Justly<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-todays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drkenrpruitt.com\/KP2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drkenrpruitt.com\/KP2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drkenrpruitt.com\/KP2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drkenrpruitt.com\/KP2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drkenrpruitt.com\/KP2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1651"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/drkenrpruitt.com\/KP2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3432,"href":"https:\/\/drkenrpruitt.com\/KP2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1651\/revisions\/3432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drkenrpruitt.com\/KP2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drkenrpruitt.com\/KP2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drkenrpruitt.com\/KP2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drkenrpruitt.com\/KP2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}