More about Acting Justly:  Magnify the Lord‧Walk with God

Doing justice means treating our neighbors well and sharing our blessings and grace

2016 was the 65th anniversary celebration of the founding of HKBTS. The “Magnificat” of Mary was the theme song chosen for our 65th anniversary celebration. Our faculty and students sang the song as a spiritual song and as a song of freedom.

In Mary’s time, people, in general, were very poor and endured heavy taxation and the whims of King Herod who sought out war and enjoyed violence. Nevertheless, when Mary sang the “Magnificat,” her soul was joyful. She glorified the Lord, praising God for His steadfast grace. She thanked God for not disparaging her humble state but instead choosing her to bring into our presence the long-awaited messiah.

Not only did Mary sing a song of life, but she also sang a song of freedom for those faithful poor people. She believed in the promise that God gave to Abraham and hoped that God’s justice would bring about a reversal of fortunes, “He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” (Lk 1:52-53) Mary foretold that God would dethrone the evil ruler from his high position. He would put a road in the wilderness of injustice where a person can walk and act justly.

Mary’s “Magnificat” reminds me of Micah 6:8: “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” The prophet Micah saw that the nation was eating away at the lives of its people and the government kept expanding its military forces while the people suffered under tyranny and heavy taxes. He also saw the wealthy enjoying their lives full of luxurious comfort and pleasure. There was no concern for the poor people around them. Micah pointed this out saying: These bullying and unequal relationships go against the justice of God. He called out to the government to study what justice is and how to do justice. Meanwhile, Micah also called upon the Israelites to be kind to their neighbors, and not to go against justice. In fact, they planned iniquity and plotted evil, seized other people’s fields and took away their houses. They should not have pushed other people around or defamed them, nor turned a blind eye to neighbors in need. God expects the Israelites to take action to abide by the covenant with Him: To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.

To act justly is to return the object back to the original owner

To act justly is God’s main expectation. “To act justly” (mispat) is not only giving others what they deserve. It is not a cool, calculative, contractual decision. To do justice is to care well for one’s neighbors, to share God’s blessings and grace with orphans, widows, travelers and the poor.

From another angle, to act justly is to not take away what other people possess or take their things for our own. To act justly is to use self-reflection, to find out what belongs to others, and to return items to their original owners.

Walter Brueggemann once told the following story. A fine lady went to a coffee shop to have a cup of tea. She ordered a teapot of tea and was planning to take some cakes from her handbag to eat. Just then, a man from Jamaica entered the coffee shop and sat down opposite her. He also ordered some tea and the lady tried to ignore him and continued to read her book. As she was enjoying her reading, she picked up a piece of cake from the dish on the table and ate it. However, she noticed the man sitting opposite her also picked up a piece of cake to eat. She tried hard to restrain her anger and continued to read. A moment later, she picked up another piece of cake. To her surprise, the man also picked up another piece of cake! She was all the more angry and kept staring at the man. At that moment, that man picked up the very last piece of cake and smilingly gave her half of it. She was furious. She paid the bill at once and left. Upon reaching the station, she opened her handbag to find some money to buy a ticket. Then, she noticed that her cake was still in her handbag!

That lady’s experience can also be ours. Sometimes, we feel like we own things that don’t actually belong to us but that we take for granted are ours. To act justly is to return items to their original owner.

To love mercy is to have a sense of solidarity

To love mercy is to have a loving heart full of mercy (hesed), a behavior that is linked with justice. Justice and Mercy have some overlapping qualities. To a certain extent, we may look at justice through the aspect of mercy. The Hebrew word for mercy may refer to kindness, mercy, or it may refer to a specific connection between certain related persons. It may also mean loyalty. When it refers to the loyalty of God, it means God is loyal to the covenant He established with us even as He loves the unfaithful Israelites with His everlasting love. He never forsakes or leaves His people. There is a sense of solidarity between God and His people. It is a mercy born out of attention, patience, and hope, not a top to bottom autocratic style of leadership.

Similarly, one who loves mercy must learn from God’s style of faithfulness to nurture relationships and to develop a mutual affection of solidarity. A real Christian will not be indifferent to other people or turn a blind eye to their needs. Instead they will diligently use their strength to generously help overcome the difficulties of others. The constancy of loving mercy is an indispensable element of a true faith.

The root cause of acting justly and loving mercy: Humbly walking with God

What is most important is that a person who acts justly and loves mercy is one who walks humbly with God. Humbly walking with God follows acting justly and loving mercy. On the one hand, acting justly and loving mercy are the antecedents and conditions of walking humbly with God. On the other hand, humbly walking with God is a precondition for acting justly and loving mercy. When we walk humbly with God, we are willing to live in love and justice. In other words, the root cause of these two requirements ― doing justice and loving mercy ― is walking humbly with God.

However, a lot of time, while we are willing to accept acting justly and loving mercy as an ideal, we often forget the importance and the ultimate nature of God. Some people would rather walk with false gods (for example, talent, fame, wealth, an increase in knowledge), the pursuit of their desires becomes what they trust most. One of the false gods that people worship most is the ego. Ego is the most ugly and most pitiful among all the false gods. It seems to be free, independent, full of style, but in fact, that person is shamefully willing to be a slave. If a person walks with their ego, itself a false god, then his spiritual life will become debauchery, like getting drunk with wine. If one takes his ego as god, then he may become wealthy and influential; however, what is inside his ego is something thin and weak, incomplete, poor, and empty. Such a kind of god cannot save themselves nor bring about salvation because they are just idols, not the eternal God.

Walking humbly with God: Let God be my God

When the prophet Micah uses the phrase “your God,” he clearly knows that “your God” is not the false god that contemporary people worship. The God Micah refers to is the God who is faithful, willing to be present, and who walks with us with a sense of solidarity. He is full of goodness and kindness: In His merciful and faithful love, He is not only the God of Israel but also the God of all the nations of the Earth. In the light of the garden of Gathsemane and at Calvary, we can see more clearly “your God” is the God who is willing to humble himself to be human and to sacrifice himself on the cross. Then, “to walk with your God” is not only a requirement, but it is also God’s gracious gospel. It is the presupposition of all commandments. Therefore, to act justly and to love mercy is not something that is too great a burden for us to shoulder but rather a call to freedom that God in Christ offers you and me.

Then, “to walk humbly with God” is to be humble before God, implying that we trust God, taking God as the giver of life, not forgetting that God is our creator, savior, and transformer. We have to cast away the false gods that we depend on, and not accept the temptation of the devil, nor rely on our own strength (turning stone into bread, hoping ourselves to be the source of life); nor covet worldly power and glory (fond of becoming the center of worship for people in the world); nor seek to control God (hope to jump down from the top of the temple, force God to provide protection). To walk humbly with God is to refuse all these temptations and to let God be God.

Humbly walk with God and with others

The commercial culture of society urges us to forget who God is, to let go of the covenant, to let go of living like the people of God should; it advocates competition rather than cooperation, self-contentment rather than mutual dependence, and individualism rather than a sense of solidarity as the mode of social operation. We need to step away from this thinking and express reverence for God as our God by living out the identity of God’s people, humbly walking with God. We must know that we ourselves only represent Jesus Christ and act in his name. What we need to do is to faithfully fulfill the responsibility of being “representatives,” not to see ourselves as “the ones who have the answers,” not to assume that we have God’s character, having the authority to draw people to us. Our authority will not exceed the authority we serve God and others. The accomplishments of our ministry must come through the empowerment of God’s grace. Instead of taking the place of Jesus Christ, we are just vessels chosen by Him.

Such “co-walking” drives us to regard other co-walkers as fellow companions. When we act as a guide in the name of Christ, we also walk on the same journey. Just when we show others the way ahead, we will likewise show ourselves the way to go. We are not standing high above on the top step to issue orders but rather we are standing on the flat ground, talking with others and moving forward with them.

In thinking about the significance of “walking with God,” I remember Rev. Chow Lien-hwa, who was the speaker for HKBTS’s 60th Graduation Ceremony. He is from our elder generation, our senior. In his 70 years of ministry, he paid special attention to the political problems in Taiwan society and was also concerned with its poverty problem. Rev. Chow served as the Chairman of World Vision Taiwan for a good number of years. From 1990 up to the week before he died, he annually took part in the World Vision Taiwan “30-Hour Famine” to personally experience the plight of the poor and the famine victims with a heart full of love. He fasted for 30 hours annually for a total of 27 years, and each time he fully completed the 30 hours of fasting. This 96-year-old elder had no longer been a Chairman, but he still insisted on caring for the people in need, willingly joining the 30-hour famine to show empathy by action and persevering to help the poor. Rev. Chow’s example of talk the walk and walk the talk is a demonstration of the true meaning of “to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”

Feb 2017