---
title: "Micah 6:8"
description: "God 'has told' us what is required: do justice, love kindness, walk humbly. Abolitionists stress the third clause — 'walk humbly with your God' — as the refutation of incrementalist strategy: to prefer one's own clever, cautious plan over God's clear command to do justice is precisely the pride the…"
type: "scripture"
book: "Micah"
chapter: 6
verses: "8"
translation: "NASB"
refutes: "Pro-life incrementalism"
affirms_abolition: true
themes:
  - "do justice"
  - "love mercy"
  - "walk humbly"
  - "humility vs strategy"
  - "God's method"
source_url: "https://www.abhortion.org/scripture/micah-6-8.html"
---

# Micah 6:8

Book of Micah · Chapter 6

## The text

> He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
> — Micah 6:8, NASB

**The claim this verse counters:** "Prudence and strategy (our own 'better plan') can override the plain command to do justice now."

## The argument

God 'has told' us what is required: do justice, love kindness, walk humbly. Abolitionists stress the third clause — 'walk humbly with your God' — as the refutation of incrementalist strategy: to prefer one's own clever, cautious plan over God's clear command to do justice is precisely the pride the verse forbids.

## Context & notes

Read as a three-part command with 'do justice' as the imperative, mercy as its manner, and humility as submission to God's method over human strategy. The speaker returns to it as the hinge between abolition and incrementalism: humility means adopting what God says even when the world calls it foolish.

## Themes

- do justice
- love mercy
- walk humbly
- humility vs strategy
- God's method

## Discussion questions

1. 'Walk humbly with your God' — is preferring our own strategy over God's clear command an act of humility or pride?
2. The verse says God 'has told' us. Is our real problem not knowing what to do, or not wanting to do it?

## Source transcript

Drawn from Does the Pro-Life Movement Hate Justice? (T. Russell Hunter, 'Justice Alone') — Framed as the catechism answer ('what has the Lord told us to do?'); recurs in V2 as the humility-vs-cunning contrast..

## Related

**Related scriptures:**

- [Deuteronomy 16:20](deuteronomy-16-20.md)
- [Amos 5:14-15](amos-5-14-15.md)
- [1 Samuel 15:22-23](1-samuel-15-22-23.md)
- [2 Corinthians 4:2](2-corinthians-4-2.md)

**Related arguments:**

- [God commands 'justice, and only justice' — not partial or deferred justice](../arguments/arg-justice-only.md)
- [Obeying God is the most pragmatic path — disobedience 'to get results' does not work](../arguments/arg-obedience-pragmatic.md)
- [“Public opinion won't support total, immediate abolition (especially criminalization), so…”](../arguments/def-culture-not-ready.md)
- [“Reasonable Christians can disagree on strategy; calling pro-life incrementalism 'sin' is…”](../arguments/def-incrementalism-not-sin.md)

## Attribution

Verse text is quoted from the NASB. Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org