Administer Justice: Act Justly (11/15/24)

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[a] with your God.

-Micah 6:8 (NIV)

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So how do we administer justice? From God’s perspective, righteousness and justice is meant to be relational. It is one's daily attitude and behavior in one's interactions with others. Micah 6:8 and Zechariah 7:9 are what I consider to be God's guidance to administer justice. As I see it, to administer God's justice, Christians must do the following: (i) to act justly; (ii) to love mercy; and (iii) to walk humbly with God. In this post, let's focus on "to act justly".

To act justly, followers of God must obey God's absolute laws in their interactions with others. We can find in Deuteronomy and Leviticus the enumerated national laws for Israel set forth by God and spoken through Moses. These criminal, civil, and religious laws were, specifically, for the "nation" of the people of Israel under the rule of God. Therefore, I consider these criminal, civil and religious laws to be the national laws of the people of Israel, which grew from God's absolute laws, the Greatest and the Ten Commandments.

You may wonder why I am making such a distinction with regard to God's absolute laws and the "national" laws detailed in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Simply, God's absolute laws are from God/absolute truth, while the "national" laws are derived from the flesh (relative truth). It helps me to understand how Mark 12:17, Matthew 5: 17-20 and Galatians 5:13-25 are applied to act justly and live in freedom as well as to why there appear to be conflicting explanations of God's views on issues such as murder, adultery, and divorce. For me, to act justly means to act in obedience to God's laws from the right heart posture and to apply this to all my daily interactions with others.

Questions Administer Justice: To Act Justly

1. What's your view of the commandments and the laws laid out in Deuteronomy and Leviticus? Does Mark 12:17, Matthew 5:17-20 or Galatians 5:13-25 aid in your understanding?

2. How do you understand God's instruction to administer justice?

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, help us to understand your instruction to administer justice by acting justly. Reveal to each of us how this looks. In Jesus' name. Amen.