Scripture Devotion
Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly — the whole of it.
“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
Reflection
The verse answers a question people have always over-complicated: what does God actually require? The answer comes in three plain clauses, and their pairing is the wisdom of it. Do justly — act rightly, give what's owed. Love mercy — not merely practice it, but love it, delight in the kindness that goes beyond what's owed. Justice and mercy held together, neither swallowing the other. And then the posture underneath both: walk humbly with thy God. Not walk toward, as if at a distance, but with — a companionship, and a humble one. The doing of justice and the loving of mercy both flow from that walk; cut off from it, they harden into mere causes. Sunday is the day to return to the walk itself — humble, close, companionable — from which the justice and the mercy rightly come.