(i) Do justice. No amount of frenzied temple activity could fill the vacuum of justice. While injustice ruled in Israel, every moment of temple worship was a mockery of Israel's faith. God was just and had always acted in justice with his people; in return he required them to act and live in justice. And, as Micah's earlier preaching had indicated, justice was notable by its absence in Israel. Yet justice is a paramount virtue, without which human beings cannot live together in the manner that god intended.
(ii) Love kindness. Kindness, or loving-kindness as the Hebrew word is frequently translated, is again one of the principal attributes of God in the Old Testament. As God always acted toward his people in loving-kindness, so too he required them to act thus toward one another. Loving-kindness, though intimately related to justice, goes beyond the first virtue; it gives, where no giving is required; it acts when no action is deserved, and it penetrates both attitudes and activities. It is a part of the virtue extolled by St Paul in his extraordinary hymn to love (1 Cor. 13:1-13).
(iii) Walk humbly with your God. It is the daily walk in relationship with God that lies at the heart of religion; the ritual of the temple could give expression to the vitality of that walk, but it could never replace it as the centre of Israel's faith. And the humble walk with God went hand in hand with the practice of justice and the love of kindness. The triad of virtues forms the foundations of the religious life; this was what God required of Israel.
Although we may learn deeply from each of the three parts of the prophet's message, it is the collective whole which is most vital. And when we sense ourselves, in moments of introspection, to be in God's court and wonder what he requires of us, it is to these three foundations that we must return. There is a human tendency within us, when faced as was Israel with the catalogue of our shortcomings, to turn to intense forms of religiosity. We should be in church more; we should spend hours in agonising prayers of repentance; we should give all that we have to God; and so it goes on, until the fanatic is produced within us, but still without the heart of true religion. "What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God." At first it does not sound like much, but it is more than enough for one lifetime.
(Peter C Craigie, Twelve Prophets Volume 2, Daily Study Bible)
