8 He has shown you, O mortal, 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.
The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Mic 6:8.
As I moved farther and farther away from the conservative evangelical and reformed culture of my youth, I am frequently accused of “antinomianism.”
Literally, antinomianism means “against law”. It is generally used to attack those who question the rigid rules of those in power. The law of God is interpreted and if one disagrees with that interpretation, they are accused of being “antinomian”.
It is also used to attack those who show too much love and deference to sinners, especially the “sinners” who are considered outside the camp of the acceptable ones. In Jesus’ day, it would be prostitutes and tax collectors. In our day, it would be LGBTQ+ folks and Democrats. If you would like to test the theory, mention sometime that Christ’s love for the gay community compelled him to come into the world to redeem and bring them to himself. They might still be gay or trans after Christ calls them, because the Holy Spirit is not bound to our political opinion.
This is what got me tried and found guilty of being a false teacher, and today you might see the pejorative term “antinomian” attached to my name, perhaps with some spittle or other forms of rage.
Like the Pharisees disdainfully said of the “rabble” – They don’t know the law.
I don’t really want to critique again. I actually want to write something more positive. God is clear about what he loves and what he hates.
He has given us the Ten Commandments, which summarize our duties to God and to man. But Moses and later Jesus summarized that duty by saying,
“You shall love the Lord your God. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Paul said that love is the fulfilling of the law. If you love as God loves, you don’t need laws written on stone. You aren’t dreaming of stabbing your boss in his sleep or cheating on your wife if you only had a chance. A man made perfect in love is a perfect man. A man without love can only keep the outward form of the Ten Commandments, but he cannot fool God, and the world will eventually see what kind of a man he actually is.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise, for this is the teaching of Jesus all through the gospels. “Clean the inside of the cup” he said, “And the whole cup will be clean.”
In our age as in every age, there are new questions about morality. What do you do if your teenager announces that he is trans and wants to change his name and his pronouns? What do you do if your daughter says she is gay and wants to marry her girlfriend? How do you help your children navigate a difficult world?
They see the contradictions in the conservative church – they went through the purity classes and wore the ring and vowed to be pure then watched their parents and their religions leaders slavishly follow a rapist and a serial adulterer as the savior of our nation – yes, our children are watching that.
They’ve had the ten commandments pounded into their heads from their youth, about honoring parents and all in authority, and then watched you scream at government officials about wearing masks or paying taxes.
They watched you drive the abused woman out of your fellowship because she refused to live with the man who beats her every night.
And they watched their while their friends were forced to stand in front of the church and confess their sin of getting pregnant while their leaders were raping children, committing adultery and other forms of spiritual abuse and receiving standing ovations at the next church service.
The kids have watched us meticulously strive for cleaning the outside of the cups and whitewashing the tombs, while the rot and filth on the inside is destroying the church.
So maybe they aren’t listening when we talk about the “sins” of others.
I would suggest that rather than trying to shame them and casting them out for their struggles trying to navigate a very complicated subject of sexuality and gender, let’s leave that work to the Holy Spirit, to complete in his time and in his way.
And instead, let’s summarize the law the way that Moses, Jesus and Micah all did.
Micah used slightly different words, but the concepts are the same. He gives three things that the Lord requires of Adam (human).
Do justice
First, practice justice. Do justice. Mishpat (justice) is the practice of doing that which is right, being impartial, good to all, and striving – as far as our place allows – for a just and equitable society. African American theologians today and yesterday have written volumes on what a just and equitable society looks like. Perhaps take a look at some of the writings of Dr. Martin Luther King, who puts it far more eloquently than I can.
The prophets of the Old Testament also dealt with injustice. The rich trample the poor, destroy their houses to build bigger estates for themselves. Take food from widows and children in order to get richer.
The judges take bribes and those who don’t have the money to pay don’t get justice. Bribes are still taken that pervert justice, but in different forms. I’ll contribute to your campaign; I’ll sign that bill for your zoning, if you condemn that widow’s house. All the deal making that we see every day cries out to the Lord of Justice.
Every time a man is pulled over simply because he is black, the Lord sees.
Every time a woman is bullied into silence or called a “gold-digging whore” for accusing “such an outstanding man”, the Lord sees.
Micah is telling us what the Lord asks of us. He asks us to see as well. Not only to see, but to do.
DO justice, he says.
Love “mercy”
I put “mercy” into quotes because that is how most people memorized this verse, but it isn’t really exactly what the Hebrew says.
The Hebrew is hesed, which doesn’t really have an English equivalent. It has to do with loyalty in relationship. It is a defining characteristic of God. His “hesed” is everlasting, is repeated in every verse of Psalm 136.
It has so many different angles. At a minimum, it means that you keep your contracts. You fulfill your vows. You follow up on promises.
It is translated “mercy” because God is merciful to us because he made a promise to his Son – through Abraham, through David, through Jesus. And he cannot break that promise because his hesed is everlasting. Hence, mercy.
The King James version, knowing the uniqueness of this word, translated it loving-kindness, to distinguish it from other words, such as love, kindness, mercy, loyalty, faithfulness – it is all this and more.
Let me try to explain.
God created us in community. Our decisions and our actions affect our families, our neighbors and our communities. If you decide to drive drunk and put your neighbor’s life in danger, you are not acting according to “hesed”. You are acting treacherously.
There are unspoken rules about living in society. Don’t curse people. Don’t spit on people. Don’t hit your brother. Don’t rape your neighbor’s wife. Some are written down. Some are solemn vows, like marriage vows or business contracts.
A person who loves hesed is one who will make a vow and keep it even if it means loss for himself. A person who loves hesed is reliable, faithful, he keeps his vows to his wife. He honors and cherishes her, even when no one is watching.
A person who loves hesed is someone who will never use the body or the house or the possessions of another for his own gain, but always treats a human with dignity and honor, honoring their possessions and their home.
He helps his neighbor’s donkey out of the ditch, even if that neighbor isn’t a very nice person, because he is hesed, just like his God is hesed.
These two are the heart of what God expects of us with respect to other humans. The Good Samaritan acted with hesed; the priest and the Levite did not.
The examples in scripture can be multiplied again and again.
We might boast about the “art of the deal”, but God calls it treachery, and he sees it.
Because he is just, he will set things in order in his time.
Walk humbly with our God
There is so much that we don’t know. So much that we have not seen.
Where were we when God laid the foundations of the earth?
And yet, he loves us.
We want to pry into his counsels and into his decrees. We want to say that God hates the same people that we hate and that God loves the same people that we love.
We want answers to everything. We draw a circle around ourselves and our tribes. We are the chosen ones, the smart ones.
My mother asked me the other day what the difference was between the Reformed churches I grew up in and the church I attend now.
I had been thinking about it for a while. I think it comes down to “distinctives”. If you belong to a NAPARC congregation, you know what I am talking about.
Every conservative Reformed denomination has what they call “distinctives”
Some have two services on Sunday
Some don’t allow women to vote in congregational meetings
Some only sing Psalms
Some never use instruments
And on and on it goes.
Having been brought up with it, I can attest that these are far more than simply preferences. These are lines in the sand. They are circles around the tribe. Really good, godly faithful people only sing Psalms. The rest of you cannot be called a true church.
And yes, at every meeting where a minister is being examined, they will ask about the “true church”. Can you be a true church if you only have one service on Sunday?
Can you be a true church if you do not force every family to baptize their infants?
These are the people who are “in”. Everyone else is “out”.
Where I attend now, we spend almost no time at all drawing lines in the sand. It is refreshing. And you can give me all the arguments about truth and error, and I won’t answer you because I’ve tried before and it was a worthless waste of time.
And you can share this with your buddies and laugh or sadly shake your head and pat yourself on the back for driving me out of your pure church, and it won’t hurt me anymore.
Nor will I change my mind, because I have confessed since childhood, “I believe in the Holy Spirit.”
He is far more capable of correcting where correcting needs to happen than I am.
This is what it means to walk humbly with God.
You don’t have to go to the mat on everything. You don’t have to fight to the death over wine or grape juice. You don’t even have to drive you kid out of your home because his preferred pronoun isn’t the one you think he ought to have.
There is so much about the human brain that we don’t understand. But the one who created the brain knows, and sees, and cares.
Teach that to your kids.
Do you know what is far, far more important than your pronoun?
Fight for justice. Love Hesed and tolerate nothing less.
And leave God’s work in God’s hands. He knows. He cares. He can handle it.
This isn’t antinomianism. It is understanding how God works in the world. It is what the law really means.
My Only Comfort 