Try a little kindness. Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: Try a little kindness. ---------------------------------- Date: 2/2/2003 Keyword: “kindness” Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. After five and a half chapters of recounting the sinful ways of the people of God in the land of Judah, the prophet Micah points out what God requires. It's really pretty simple. Passage: Micah 6:8* 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? Questions 1. What three things does God require, according to this verse?   2. Do you see parallels between this verse and Jesus' Great Commandment of Mark 12:30?   Practical help ...and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' [31] "The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these. — Mark 12:30-31* God's requirements haven't really changed all that much over the centuries. Jesus' commandment — to love God and to love others — was essentially a restatement of Micah's dictum to treat people with justice and kindness and to walk humbly with God. How might a man or a woman struggling with the temptation to view pornography find strength to resist in God's call from Micah? Try kindness. Every person who is ever pictured in a pornographic setting is a living, breathing, made-in-the-image-of-God human being. They are a person of incredible worth. For a complex set of reasons, this person has been photographed in an intimate, sexually compromising situation. Is it not fundamentally unkind for me or for you to take advantage of their vulnerability by looking, gawking, lusting? A commitment to kindness will inform the type of movies we rent, the books and magazines we read, the places we go for entertainment. Most importantly, it will impact the way we actually treat the flesh and blood people in our worlds. Looking for another tool for fighting porn? Look no farther than Micah 6:8, and the call to simple, human kindness. eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 2003 by eXXit *"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission." ---