Micah 6:8 (ESV) — He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

There is massive debate happening around the world about vaccine mandates. Should people be mandated for public health reasons to be vaccinated for COVID 19? This debate rages on news channels, social media, and in popular culture. People on both sides of the debate feel strongly in their positions. 

As Americans, we don’t like mandates. But even more so as humans, we don’t like mandates. It doesn’t matter what is being mandated. We have a streak of independence in us that dislikes anyone telling us what to do. 

But in our passage today, we see something tied to what is called the Divine Mandate. There are divine mandates throughout Scripture that God gives His people. We are called as humans to multiply, populate the earth, cultivate the land, and to rule with dominion over it. But the LORD requires more than simply that. 

The text tells us to do what the LORD requires of us, “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” This is the path we are to walk if our lives are going to please the LORD. We are to do justice. This means we seek the world to be ordered rightly. We want wrongs to be righted, and for justice to occur in the world. We are to love kindness. This hits on the disposition and life we live. To be marked by kindness to others is not weakness, but godliness. We are to walk humbly with our God. Fellowship and communion with God is at the root of our purpose for living. We are made to walk with God, and this requires humility.

Are you fulfilling the mandate the LORD requires of you? Live today with an eye for justice to prevail. Be marked by kindness in your character and demeanor. Walk humbly with your God, the One who made you and calls you His own.

Reflection & Journal: 

- Why do we hate mandates as people? 

- What does this divine mandate look like in our lives? Why would God mandate to us? 

- How are you doing with the divine mandate outlined in the text?

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