“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)
Why should we show kindness and mercy to anyone? Because it is what the Lord desires. The people of ancient Israel did not obey the Lord. This is why Micah had to remind them that they were using the religious system as an excuse to live as they pleased without seeing any need to obey consistently, repent, refrain from immorality, selfishness and idolatry or show mercy and kindness to the poor. They believed that they could do whatever they wanted as long as they periodically made the right offerings to appease Yahweh. Micah tore into this assumption by proclaiming that Yahweh was not pleased. He desired true repentance, changed hearts and compassion for the poor and oppressed.
Those who seek to appease God with acts of religious piety and mystic spirituality often think God is pleased with that even though many of them routinely commit acts of immorality without shame or remorse. This would include Christians of all types. Liberals and many in the mainline denominations favor social justice for the poor and oppressed, but exclude right theology, and refrain from preaching about the need for sexual purity or repentance from sin. Conservatives emphasize strong theology and moral purity but often neglect to show mercy to sinners. The true believer must maintain orthodox Biblical theology that does not compromise the word of God, deplores sin on corporate, national and personal levels, and a concern for the unsaved expressed by acts of mercy and lovingkindness to all.