The Micah Mandate: Balancing the Christian Life

by George Grant

For centuries Christians have puzzled over what role to take in world affairs. Grant claims that this role should be based on the insight of Micah 6:8 -- to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. This guidance provides the balance and foundation for applying the principles of faith and the acts of mercy and compassion.

Genres: Theology, Nonfiction, Christian, Cultural, Personal Development, Religion

274 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1995

About the author

Dr. George Grant is an evangelical educator recognized by a Tennessee newspaper “Review Appeal” as the one who “lives and breathes” education.

Grant is known as a reformed scholar and evangelical activist who hopes to promote sound Christian doctrine, seeking honest answers to honest questions, developing true spirituality and experiencing the beauty of human relationships.

He founded Franklin Classical School, located in Franklin, Tennessee and the King’s Meadow Study Center, which seeks to help the modern church to develop a practical cultural expression of a Christian worldview in art, music, literature, politics, social research, community development and education.

Grant has also produced numerous writings of more than 60 works on the topics relating to theology, school curriculum, arts, fiction and politics.

Reviews

[Suzannah Rowntree · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a good book! Dr Grant unpacks the Micah Mandate as a guide to balance in the Christian life. Dr Grant is always visionary and inspiring to read, his writing style bursting with flare and bombast, his insights deeply informed by long meditation on Scripture and a deep familiarity with church history. The Micah Mandate is a book-long exposition of Micah 6:8 and the meaning of justice, mercy, and humility, but several things set it leagues ahead of many similar Christian works:

- Its insistence on putting what you believe into action: to pay justice, mercy, and humility more than lip service, by actively seeking opportunities to plead the cause of the defenceless, work for the poor and lonely, and live a humble life of prayer and fasting. This book is about something much deeper than inward-focused pietism, social media slacktivism or feel-good religious tourism; it's about putting your hands to work, making ministry an organic aspect of daily Chrisitan life.

- Its reliance for examples upon Christian heroes from across the broad span of Church history. Dr Grant is concerned to show us that we would be doing nothing different than what the church has always done at her most effective. We also begin to see that our own age is desperately lacking in a fearless hands-on commitment to justice, mercy, and humility. The concrete examples of dozens of men and woman in church history demonstrate powerfully how anyone in any walk of life or period of history can put their faith to work.

- Its insistence that it's not great leaders, politicians, or speakers that truly make a difference for cultural renewal, but ordinary people living out what they believe in humble anonymity. The Christian life is truly something that can and must be lived by ordinary people in their ordinary lives. Sometimes, just one vote, just one voice proclaiming the truth, just one life witnessing against the regnant follies, really does make all the difference in the world.

Do read this book. It is one of the best things I have ever read on the Christian life.

[Gregory · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book!

[Gabriela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uplifting, convicting, colorful, memorable. Formative in my teen years.

[Carlyn Cole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Practical, a bit excessive in its wordiness

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

"When we emphasize justice without mercy, we develop hard heads and even harder hearts. When we emphasize mercy without justice, we develop soft heads and even softer hearts. When we emphasize either one without humility, we develop a kind of spiritual megalomania-thinking that our project, or our focus, or our methodology is the best and only way".

The mandate found in Micah 6 is to "Act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God" and is the focus of the book, teaching what the bible has to say about these acts of true spirituality. Justice, Mercy and Humility are woven in and out of the whole Bible many many times and every time someone is judged in the scripture its because they fail in these areas.

Dr. Grant is great at drawing a picture using the saints and hero's of the faith to show us their works in these areas of Justice, Mercy and Humility. He calls for serious devotion to Prayer, fasting, scripture reading and works of mercy. Sounds like a victorious diet designed for denial of ones self. What can the world say when they watch obedient Christians who live out the Micah Mandate?

The book is broken up into five parts:

1 - The Biblical Balancing act. (excellent)
2 - Justice
3 - Mercy
4 - Humility
5 - Action

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent reminder of the need to live lives of Godly balance, with a Biblical worldview all the while. As always, Grant is thorough and captivating. He quotes Chesterton frequently, one of my favorites being: "if the world grows too worldly, it can be rebuked the church; but if the church grows too worldly, it cannot be adequately rebuked for worldliness by the world. "

[Shawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, excellent, and again I say excellent!

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Book!