November 24, 1999

GREAT QUESTIONS OF THE BIBLE:
"What does the Lord require of you?"
Micah 6:8
___How can we find favor with God so that fellowship with him is a result?
___The Old Testament prophet Micah dealt with this question 800 years before Christ. In answering the question, we will do well to remember that God doesn't change and what he requires of us doesn't change.
___Micah puts words into the people's mouths that describe their attitudes and half-hearted attempts at finding favor with God. He begins with a common belief that God's favor is

CLINT YOUNG Pastor, First Baptist Church, Quanah

something to be earned. In his day, the meaningful sacrifices and offerings had become merely ritual. Micah makes it clear that right actions can become wrong because of wrong motives (6:6,7a). God did not establish the sacrificial system to take away sins, but to remind them of the costliest of sin, and to point toward a final sacrifice.
___Some were just going through the motions, only to return to their sinful lives. Others had just become busy about doing religion; the ritual had become an end in and of itself.
___It is not much different today. People attend church and give their money but live double lives--which makes their actions hypocrisy and quenches the Spirit. Good people fall into the trap of becoming busy about their religion. It is always easier to do religion than to be religious.
___Micah also points out the futility of trying to make wrong actions right because of right motives. In Micah's day, an offer to sacrifice one's children would be the ultimate in religious gestures (6:7b). Today, we rationalize; convincing ourselves it's right when we know it's wrong.
___The prophet makes it clear that we are to respond to what God has done for us and to recognize who he is (6:8); "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God," is a constant awareness that we do not deserve what God has done for us.
___True religion is treating others as God has treated and is treating us--not because we deserve it, but because we can afford it. It is being constantly aware of God's favor, his grace. God gives to us, and we pass it on, which makes us more aware of what we have.
___Our relationship with God is interconnected with our relationships with others.


Previous Columns: 7/14, 7/21, 7/28, 8/4, 8/11, 8/18, 8/25, 9/1, 9/8, 9/15, 9/22, 9/29, 10/6, 10/13, 10/20 10/27. 11/17.

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