Welcome to Day 158 of the “Manna for the Mind 2.0” devotional! This series is about finding nourishment in the Word of God to get us through the day. In each devotional, I take a variety of scripture passages (typically 1-3 verses each) and build our understanding of what they teach via their context and connecting scripture. My goal is to help you understand how to be the type of human God created you to be. Today’s passage is Amos 5:14-15.

Amos 5:14-15

NASB	NLT	VOICE
14 Seek good and not evil, so that you may live; And so may the Lord God of armies be with you, Just as you have said!	14 Do what is good and run from evil so that you may live! Then the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will be your helper, just as you have claimed.	14 Search for good and not for evil so that you may live; That way the Eternal God, the Command of heavenly armies, will be at your side, as you yourselves have even said.
15 Hate evil, love good, And establish justice in the gate! Perhaps the Lord God of armies Will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph	15 Hate evil and love what is good; turn your courts into true halls of justice. Perhaps even yet the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will have mercy on the remnant of his people.	15 Hate what is evil, and love all that is good; apply His laws justly in the courts at the city gates, And it may be that the Eternal God, the Commander of heavenly armies, will have mercy on those descendants of Joseph who survived.

Doing good goes hand-in-hand with seeking God. God wants his people to protect the marginalized, whether it would be the differently gendered, ethnic, wealth, sexually oriented, etc. God’s people need to have a change of heart compared to how the world treats those marginalized communities. We must remove the corrupt systems of racial bias and stereotyping. On the higher levels of governments, we must remove corruption, bribing, collusion, and manipulation and enforce a just system having all types of just decisions.

We can’t look over this passage of one of the minor prophets as just a historical situation that happened. It’s a command to the Jewish audience then, and the Christian audience now, to reform our own legal and societal system. It’s a way to ensure the proper treatment of all people, regardless of any descriptor. It’s a way to ensure that all of us can live a standard, quality life in the land that we’re in. It’s a way to own our history, acknowledge our wrongs, and create a system that can right them in a way that provides benefits to all. Unfortunately, some people will call this woke, unnecessary, attacking, and more. Christians are included in this. We must remember that at the end of the day, God called us to care for his own creation in the same way he cares for us.

Psalm 97:10

NASB	NLT	VOICE
10 Hate evil, you who love the Lord, Who watches over the souls of His godly ones; He saves them from the hand of the wicked.	10 You who love the Lord, hate evil! He protects the lives of his godly people and rescues them from the power of the wicked.	10 Hate evil, you lovers of the Eternal. He protects the souls of those who follow him; He rescues them from the devices of the wicked.

When your ultimate goal is to live a life that pleases God, your desires will align with his. You will learn to love what God loves and hate what God hates. If you excuse the actions of people who take advantage of others, if you elevate those who only look out for themselves, if you envy those who get ahead using any means, you’ve lost the idea for what it means to please God. Now, people will use this line of thinking to include those Christians who are accepting of those outside of the standard binary, heterosexual lifestyle. Those who are progressive are wrong to conservatives because the Bible said God created, “male and female.” Those who are progressive are wrong to conservatives because of the clobber passages that call homosexuality a sin. At the end of the day, we are called to love. Not necessarily accept, but love. We are not called to judge, but love. We are not called to condemn, but love. People will see someone nonbinary or a part of the LGBTQIA+ community and will not start in the area of love. This is where the reform needs to start.

Next meal: Manna for the Mind #159