I Need You…

Many a church sings the words from Hezekiah Walker’s “I Need You To Survive,” but do we really believe them?

I need you, you need me.
We’re all a part of God’s body.

In a society that values and teaches fierce independence, do we really need one another? Most churches in which I’ve sung this, it’s been done so more for the sake of the part, “I won’t harm you with words from my mouth,” stressing the importance of supporting one’s brothers and sisters. While this is certainly important, I want to focus more deeply on the idea of truly needing one another. My ability to refrain from tearing you down does not necessarily mean I need you.

What would it look like if we truly needed one another? If we lived in true community? If we let our brothers and sisters get close enough to know the ways in which they could be God’s instruments in fulfilling “His will that every need be supplied”? What would the church look like if we truly were “important” to one another — if we saw one another through God’s eyes — if we truly needed one another “to survive”?

Loving Mercy and Doing Justice

As we look at our own commission as disciples of Christ, let’s start by looking at Isaiah’s commission, as found in chapter 6 of his writings. You’re familiar with this text, but let’s look a little deeper:

¹In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

Notice when Isaiah remembers seeing the Lord – in the year that King Uzziah died. Except for the end there, it was said of King Uzziah that he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. He had reigned in Israel for 52 years – since the age of 16. And now we see at the time of his death the Lord appears to Isaiah.  Sometimes we can only see God clearly when that which we have set our focus upon is removed. Even the most worthwhile things upon which we set our focus can distract us from God.

So now that God has Isaiah’s attention, what is the response? It is at once intensely personal:

⁵Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.

But never private:

⁸Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

As we see with Isaiah, our calling as Christians is at once intensely personal, but never private – let’s revisit that text in Micah that tells us so clearly “what the Lord requires”:

He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
                                             —Micah 6:8

A previous post covered the personal nature of discipleship in what it means to “walk humbly with your God.” Now we turn to the public ministry, as we look at what it means to “act justly” and to “love mercy.” 

Walking Humbly

He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
                                                —Micah 6:8

 It amazes me how little attention this verse gets…here it is, written out, the answer to all our questions: what does the Lord require?

To act justly
To love mercy
To walk humbly with your God

To best understand this text, I suggest working in reverse. Whereas our minds – trained in the Western scientific method – tend to work from cause to effect, the prophets often “[depicted] a scene in such a way that their listeners were led to inquire, ‘Why did this happen?’ This question led them back to the cause.”[1]

So let us start with the cause of all things – that which we find at the end of this text: GOD.

What does it mean to walk with God? It seems a simple and insignificant thing, but things happen when people walk with God…