The Divinity-Humanity Interface

UV 1171/10,000 The Divinity-Humanity Interface

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?

Micah 6 v 8

Scripture is all about finding the balance in life. This uni-verse talks about the balance between belief and practice. It is not enough to say we believe in God. We need to demonstrate His goodness to our fellow beings by acting justly, loving mercy and walking in humility before God. It is more important to be truly humble at heart before God than to merely bow or prostrate before Him, to make a show of religion and piety, to offer sacrifices and go on pilgrimages. He has clearly shown us that our goodness is like dirty rags. We have a motive behind every act. Yet we should be zealous in doing good not because such acts will justify us or qualify us for salvation but to try to be like the Father, to reflect His goodness and glory, to bring praise and thanksgiving to Him from the recipients, beneficiaries and witnesses of our acts of goodness.

When we believe God and exercise our faith in practical ways, we grow into spiritual maturity. We will please God with our thoughts, emotions, words and ways. We need to act in accordance with our conscience as well as all that we have been taught and learnt from the scriptures about the way we should live. Loving the mercy of God implies that we realize how special and precious is the forgiveness God extends to us. We do not take it for granted and try to make amends in the areas we have gone wrong in the past. We are grateful to the Lord for staying related to us as Father and Redeemer despite all that we have done. We show the same degree of forgiveness to others around us, to members of our immediate family, to our kith and kin, to our friends and acquaintances, to strangers as well as foes, rivals, opponents and adversaries, to the weak and poor, to the disadvantaged. The litmus test is how do we act towards those who cannot reward or punish or react to our actions towards them.

Walking humbly before God implies acknowledging Him at every turn and every step of our lives, to be diligent in obedience to His commands contained in His Word. Walking humbly before God means cultivating an attitude of gratitude and constant worship of the Creator-Redeemer. It is knowing that we are not entitled to receive anything from God and to realize that it is sheer grace that He is involved in our lives. We know we have done nothing to deserve His love. God has demonstrated to us what is good and He expects us to manifest His goodness in practical ways in our daily walk. We need to retain our humanity and aspire for divinity. We need to know that due to our humanity and our inner hubris we can fall short of God’s standards at any time. We should therefore not exhibit a hypocritical, proud or self -righteous attitude. We should not judge or condemn others, giving them no chance to improve their lot but extend the same grace we have received freely to each of our fellow beings.

Prateep V Philip