How should we live?

What the Bible says

When people ask how to live, they usually expect rules. The Bible gives commandments too. But its shortest and clearest answer is in Micah. Asked what to bring before God, the prophet does not say to bring more sacrifices.

He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

Mic 6:8

To act justly is to deal fairly with our neighbour, to love mercy is to love faithful kindness, and to walk humbly is to know that I am not God. The three cannot be pulled apart.

Jesus unfolded this way on a mountainside. The Sermon on the Mount, which runs from Matthew 5 to 7, begins like this:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Matt 5:3-5

Notice the beginning. The Sermon opens not with ‘do this’ but with "blessed," and the first blessing goes to those who know their poverty before God. A little later Jesus gathers the whole of life into one line.

In everything, then, do to others as you would have them do to you. For this is the essence of the Law and the Prophets.

Matt 7:12

At the end he asks not for hearing only but for doing: "everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock" (Matt 7:24). Paul gives the same summary.

Be indebted to no one, except to one another in love. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

Rom 13:8

The commandments against adultery, murder, theft and covetousness are, he says, "summed up in this one decree," to love your neighbour as yourself (Rom 13:9-10). Love does not replace the law. It fulfils it.

How is such a life possible? The Bible answers that grace comes before effort. Paul makes the order plain in Ephesians.

For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.

Eph 2:8-9

And immediately he goes on:

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.

Eph 2:10

A good life is not the price of salvation but the road prepared for the saved. Titus says the same: God's grace instructs us to live "sensible, upright, and godly lives in the present age" (Titus 2:11-12). Such change does not come from willpower alone. It is the fruit of the Spirit.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Gal 5:22-23

On work, money and neighbours the Bible is concrete. Whatever we do, we are to work at it "with your whole being, as for the Lord and not for men" (Col 3:23). "You cannot serve both God and money" (Matt 6:24). And if we tell a hungry brother, "Go in peace; stay warm and well fed," but give him nothing he needs, "what good is that?" (James 2:15-16).

The church's witness

The church has understood this life as love, not law. Pseudo-Chrysostom notes that Jesus said "love," not "fear," and explains:

to fear belongs to slaves, to love to sons; fear is in compulsion, love in freedom.

Pseudo-Chrysostom

God does not want to be served like a master by slaves, but loved as a father.

On Micah 6:8, Matthew Henry makes clear that the verse is not about buying salvation with good deeds.

The good which God requires of us is, not the paying a price for the pardon of sin and acceptance with God, but love to himself

Matthew Henry

On Romans 13 he writes, "Love is a living, active principle of obedience to the whole law" Matthew Henry. Love is more than a feeling. And on Ephesians 2: "All is the free gift of God, and the effect of being quickened by his power" Matthew Henry. Obedience is grace's fruit, not its rival.

On the Sermon's saying about the light of the world, Pseudo-Chrysostom observes: "to live well must go before to teach well" Pseudo-Chrysostom.

Over concrete applications, such as vocation, money and politics, earnest Christians differ in judgment. But the direction is shared: a life built on love, justice and grace.

In the original languages

Two words in Micah 6:8 matter. One is mishpat (מִשְׁפָּט), "justice." It means a right verdict in court, but in the Bible it extends to setting things right so that the weak and poor are treated properly. Following God includes not only personal piety but whether neighbours are fairly treated.

The other is chesed (חֶסֶד), "mercy" or "kindness." It means steadfast love and faithfulness to a covenant. We are to "love" chesed, which means not giving grudgingly but dealing with others gladly and faithfully. It shows our neighbour the chesed God has shown us.

Common objections

"Christians are hypocrites." This cannot be waved away. Many people have turned away after seeing churchgoers be dishonest, or proclaim love while wounding others. Christians can hardly deny responsibility here.

Yet the first to condemn hypocrisy was Jesus. Of the scribes and Pharisees he said, "they do not practice what they preach" (Matt 23:3). Matthew Henry, on James, says "True religion will not admit of contradictions: how many sins would be prevented, if men would always be consistent!" Matthew Henry. Also, Christianity begins not with a claim that we are good, but with a confession that we are not. The church is not a gathering of the perfect but of people who need grace. That is no excuse for hypocrisy, but in judging a faith we should look not only at its worst followers but at the one they claim to follow.

"You don't need God to be good." There is truth in this. Many who do not believe in God are honest and generous, and the Bible too holds that people have a conscience that knows good from evil. It does not say that only believers are good. But a question remains: why be good, and why stand with the weak even before the strong? Christians find the reason in the dignity of every person as God's image and in God's having loved us first. And to those who want to be good and cannot, the Bible offers forgiveness and new strength.

"The Sermon on the Mount is an impossible standard." This too is honest. Told to love enemies and not even to harbour hatred, no one can say he passes. Some read the Sermon as the ethic of a kingdom fully realised only when Christ returns; some, notably Lutherans, as a mirror that shows our need and drives us to grace; some, notably Anabaptists, as the way disciples renewed by the Spirit are to walk now. Churches emphasise these differently. But the Sermon begins with "blessed," and the order of Ephesians 2, that salvation is not by works, holds on every reading. We walk this road not as finished people but as people who are growing.

Going further

The Bible's answer is short: be humble before God, and just and faithful toward your neighbour. If that sounds like a burden, look again at the order: first love received, then a life lived in answer to it.

You might ask yourself some questions. Which of my words and deeds most need to be brought into line? Whom do my work and money serve? Who is my neighbour right now, and what is one small thing I can do for him?

To read on, see What is love?, What is grace? and How is forgiveness possible?. Reading Matthew 5 to 7 in one sitting is a good start.