Zechariah 7:9-10 (CSB)
“The LORD of Armies says this: ‘Make fair decisions. Show faithful love and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the resident alien or the poor, and do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.'”
God had asked whether their fasting was for Him. Now He tells them how He would know.
The word came a second time. Make fair decisions. Show faithful love and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the resident alien or the poor. True worship of the God of Israel protects the vulnerable.
Luther said it plainly. God does not need your good works. Your neighbor needs your good works. If you want to worship God, love the people He has put in front of you. John said the same thing from the other direction. A man who claims to love God and cannot stand his brother is a liar (1 John 4:20). The vertical is never separable from the horizontal.
And this was not a new demand. Aren’t these the words the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets, He asks (Zechariah 7:7). The generation that went into exile had heard it too.
Calvin pressed further. Refraining from harm is not enough for God’s covenant people, because Christian kindness actively assists the person in need. Doing no damage is not the standard. Moving toward need is.
Which is exactly what Christ did. He did not stand at a safe distance and decline to harm us. He came. He crossed the whole distance to the widow, the leper, the poor, the child, and finally to us at the cross. Mercy is not something He recommends from a height. It is what He is.
So name the person easily overlooked within your reach. Will you move toward them this week?
Reflect
Name one person, not a category. The one within your reach who is easy to overlook and costly to help. Before this week ends, move toward that person with a single concrete act of mercy. Do not wait until you feel compassionate first.