Three Empowering Virtues – Part Two
“He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8
Three virtues resonate in our text.
The first speaks of morality. We are “to do justly.” “To do justly” refers to our ethical response to other people. To “do justly” there must be a standard for what is just and what is unjust. Some conduct is right and some isn’t.
A new virile virus has been loosed in our culture under the guise of a new virtue. Because of its rapidly increasing influence it needs to be reexamined. It is called tolerance.
For generations people have espoused tolerance. The definition normally given is: “the disposition to be patient toward those whose opinions or practices differ from our own…”
That is now called “negative tolerance.”
Positive tolerance is defined as: “every single individual’s beliefs, values, lifestyle, and truth claims are equal.” That’s positive tolerance. It is broadly advocated.
If that is true then the door to the jail cell of the Unabomber, Ted Kazinski, should be opened and he set free. Timothy McVey, your beliefs that prompted a lifestyle that blew up the building in Oklahoma is acceptable. You can go free.
Positive tolerance has replaced the virtue of justice. Positive tolerance and justice cannot co-exist. They are mutually exclusive.
An advocate of positive tolerance defines for him or her self truth. One opinion is as good as another. Likewise one statement is as good as another. Such a person can state as true what facts reveal as not being true and still say, “I did not lie.” If there are no absolutes there is no truth and no falsehood. In the mind of such a person whatever they say is true.
This time in history is now being called the postmodern era. It is reshaping cultures’ concepts of truth. Lying is impossible since it presupposes objective reality. To the postmodern mind there is no objective truth. Truth is subject. That is, what I as the subject define it as. Such a person can say, “I did not tell him to lie” becomes a “true” statement because lies don’t exist. To such a mentality words don’t have a fixed meaning. They mean what the user wants them to mean at the moment. An interpretation may be different from an interpretation tomorrow.
God has expressed His desire for us: “Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom” (Psalm 51:6).
Our value-free, morally neutral, education opens the door for sources in Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and yes, Nashville to bombard young minds with thousands of hours of sounds and images that glamorize immorality and mock Biblical values.
Remember you are “to do justly” in your response to people.
Three Empowering Virtues – Part One
“He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6: 8
A tree can be identified by the fruit it bears. So a true believer can be identified by the fruit he or she bears. The succulent fruit of justice, mercy, and humility are fruit born only by a child of the Lord.
Jesus spoke of “justice, mercy, and faith” and said of them we “ought to” do these things.
Visitors to our nation’s capital enjoy the beauty of the Library of Congress Building. In it are beautifully decorated alcoves providing reading rooms. The various alcoves are dedicated to different disciplines: art, history, science, philosophy, and religion. Each alcove has a distinctive design and motto. The committee responsible for choosing the motto for the religious alcove requested prominent ministers to make suggestions. The one chosen: “What does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”
When President Jimmy Carter took the oath of office as our nation’s leader he quoted the prophet Micah: “He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8).
At a time in the life of ancient Israel when moral depravity and religious decadence corrupted the people, God sent forth four prophets simultaneously to preach to His people.
Amos and Hosea were His heralds in the North.
Isaiah and Micah sounded forth the truth in the South.
Amos preached justice.
Hosea struck the note of love.
Isaiah called for reverent, humble fellowship with God.
Micah gathered the gist of all three and summarily said, “What does the Lord require of you but to do justly, To love mercy, and walk humble with your God?” (6:8).
Three virtues are mentioned in our text that are described by God as “good.” It should also be noted they are required of us by God. Jesus confirmed this when He said of them we “ought to” do them, meaning it is good for us to do them.
Start today to practice the three one at a time. Following are four more posts on the three.
Motivation for Doing What You Ought to Do: Part Three
Romans 7: 22 – 25
To develop a Biblical worldview you have to view the world through the Bible. Too many of us are like the report given by Brit Hume, ABC White House correspondent, on our President’s trip to South Korea: “He was the very picture of an engaged commander-in-chief standing with his men on an outpost watchtower to gaze at the enemy territory just across the way. Whoops! Those field glasses do work better with the lens cap off.”
Preset your mind set. All of us do without realizing it. Most often it is done unconsciously. For example, are you an optimist or a pessimist? How did you get that way? Likely you evolved into it.
The brain is sophisticated and complex. Here is an elemental insight. Negative thoughts produce certain chemicals in the brain. Positive thoughts produce other chemicals. In turn these chemicals tend to attract thoughts that produce them. Therefore, if you have been thinking negatively, you have a negative chemical flow. This causes more negative thoughts. If you have been thinking positively, you have a positive chemical flow and will tend to continue to think positively. You have a preset mindset.
The matter of doing the right and not doing the wrong comes down to mind over matter. “So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, and with the flesh the law of sin.” (Romans 7: 25)
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”
Is this a time when our Lord would have you reset your mindset? It takes conscious practice. Start with these. Resolve:
I WILL BE GRATEFUL FOR WHAT I HAVE.
Without stopping to appreciate what you have, you tend to devalue it. All of us have things for which to be grateful.
Our text says “I delight in the law of God” (Romans 7: 22). Learn to get pleasure from God’s way of seeing things.
Resolve: “I thank God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7: 25).
I WILL BE ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT EVERYTHING I DO.
If you consider every activity a positive adventure, it takes on new meaning and inspires others.
I WILL MEMORIZE SCRIPTURE AND CONSCIOUSLY SEEK TO APPLY IT.
Pre-program your mind on the Word of God. This can enable the development of a Biblical worldview.
I WILL PREMEDITATEDLY SUBMIT MY THOUGHTS AND ACTIONS TO JESUS AS LORD DAILY.
To be right, and do right, think right.
Motivation for Doing What You Ought to Do: Part Two
Romans 7: 22 – 25
It is expedient to learn mental discipline. A technique for doing this is noted in II Corinthians 10: 5.
“…casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ…”
Here improper thoughts are illustrated as being two strong fortresses. These fortified positions crumble before the weapons of the Spirit.
They are spoken of as “arguments” and “high thing(s).”
Arguments refer to intellectual pretension or human conceit. It is any deceptive fantasy.
The expression “high thing” refers to improper pride.
In summary the two refer to any barriers of pride that are erected against the knowledge of God.
Then follows the appeal to bring “into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ…” The New English Bible translates this, “we compel every human thought to surrender in obedience to Christ.”
That great theologian Barney Fife said: “I don’t have time to deal with those trivial trivialities.” Neither do we.
Therefore, when you have a deceptive fantasy or improper pride, rethink the subject and superimpose a thought you are confident Christ would have if thinking on the subject. That is what is meant by bringing our thoughts into captivity.
Start by praying with the Psalmist: “Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression.
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight. O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.” (Psalm 19: 12 – 14)
Preempt improper programming and preset proper pure ones.
Some people have an immature concept of prayer as being like a child asking a divine Santa Claus for things. We are to ask Him to supply our every need, but prayer is more. We need to grow out of the stage of making prayer a matter of “Lord give me,” into a deeper level of “Lord, make me.”
Few people think instinctively about such mental moral concepts. You can be one, starting now. It is a mental matter that matters. It is a matter of the heart for, “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts…”(Matthew 15:19)
That can change and out of the heart come constructive and productive thoughts which result in such conduct. The rewarding result is a more content and joyous life. Begin that journey now.
Motivation for Doing What You Ought to Do: Part One
Romans 7: 22 – 25
JESUS CHRIST “…works in you both to will and to do His good pleasure” (Philippians 2: 13).
The energetic living Lord Jesus spiritually indwells the believer. Two of the many functions He performs are to motivate and enable a person to do what is right.
He is responsible for the INWORKING, we for the OUTWORKING. Somewhere between the inworking and the outworking there is often a breakdown. Embarrassingly Scripture speaks of most of us:
“For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.” (Romans 7: 19)
Is that a painful description of you? None can answer “yes,” with pride. If there is no false pride, let there be no contentment in continuing a herky-jerky, on-again-off-again lifestyle.
Christianity isn’t intended to be a series of ups and downs. It is to be a succession of ins and outs. Christ works in us that His will might be worked out by us.
Two full-time college students majoring in music were discussing their part time jobs. One said, “I work in the opera at night. The pay is good even for my bit role as a spear carrier.”
The second, knowing of his fellow student’s long day and heavy schedule said, “How do you stay awake so late at night?”
“Simple, the guy behind me carries a spear also.”
We need to develop the mind-set of a person with a motivating spear carrier behind him if we are to avoid doing what we should not and doing what we should. To do this a certain mind-set is essential.
We program our mind to think a certain way. We must preempt our mind of negative improper thoughts.
Before medical science had progressed to know better, it was believed that conscious thoughts came from the heart. Knowing the heart pumped blood it was thought of the point of origin for thoughts which were believed to be carried from the heart to the brain by the blood. Figuratively, this language was used by Christ who said, “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts…” (Matthew 15:19).
If we are going to do what we should and avoid what we should not do, we must preempt improper thoughts. Don’t program your mind with secret improper thoughts and expect your conduct to be correct.
What mental pre-set needs to be reset with pure and positive thoughts. If there are some, now is the ideal time to change your mind, that is, reset.