What Is Good

He has told you, human one, what is good and what the Lord requires from you: to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God.

 That's as good a definition as any, although I might argue that the first follows from the second and the second from the third. The passage is Micah 6:8, so we're talking Old Testament rather than New, and maybe Jesus might not have felt the need to split it into three. Or maybe it's worth splitting, to accentuate the fact that justice, love, and a humble faith may all be part of the same thing but are distinctly important.  Or it's possible that a trio works better artistically ("What is good?" tends to inspire trio responses: "Faith, Hope, and Love;" "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women;" etc/).

In context, Micah is telling people that it's not the sacrifices that matter, but justice, love, and faith. Those are what is good. He was a prophet, so Christians have seen this as prophetic of Jesus; sacrifices would be unnecessary and love would be what was important.  But one can also see a prophecy of the rabbinical Judaism arising after the destruction of the Second Temple; sacrifice became less important in Judaism as well.

It's an interesting passage and an interesting definition of what is good. I also find it interesting that Micah also feels the need to state that God has told us both what is good and what God requires of us. As if perhaps simply saying, "This is what is good," is insufficient (clearly Micah had met ancestors of some people I can think of). Micah is saying that God has told his listeners what is good before as well: Jesus boils all God's commandments down to two ("You shall love God and love your neighbor likewise.") but Micah makes them into three: justice, love, and faith.

"Basically, God was chiding them, in the way that God typically does in the OT," Micah said to me recently. "So you knew some smiting was brewing. I was saying, 'Hey, God told you this already.' But here's the thing; even if the Israelites knew what was good - and I believe they did - they weren't doing it. It's like if your mother says, 'Kids, follow me,' and then heads off into the store. You're not going to follow her, even though you know that it's a good idea. You're going to go look at the dolls or feel the rugs or talk to the sheep, and all of a sudden your mother is gone and you get sold by a Lebanese camel dealer. Okay, maybe not that last bit, but you lose your mother.

"Well, what does your mother do? She grabs you by the hand and makes you walk with her, because it's not just a good idea, it's what she requires of you. So not only is this good, but it's also what God requires."

What is good? You could come up with a much worse definition than justice, love, and faith. Of course, what good is and how to be good are different things, but that deserves a post of its own.