Session 11 · Micah 6:6-8
The Three Parts of Morality
Being good is bigger than being fair
Book reading: Book Three, Chapter 1 (The Three Parts of Morality)
Ask most people what it means to be good and you will get a quick answer: treat others fairly, don't cheat, keep your word. Lewis opens Book Three by saying that answer is true but too small. In his framing, morality has three concerns. One is fair play and harmony between people. Another is the inside of each person, the character that decides how we act when no one is watching. The third is the purpose of a human life and our accountability before God. He uses a fleet of ships to make the point. Try the picture yourself. A fleet needs ships that don't crash into each other. It needs ships in good repair. It needs a port to sail toward. If you ignore any of these, the fleet fails, even if the other two are handled well.
Micah 6 gives us a good place to test this. A worshiper asks what to bring to God. The offers get bigger and bigger: burnt offerings, year-old calves, thousands of rams, ten thousands of rivers of oil, and finally a firstborn child. It is the voice of someone who wants to settle things with one big gesture. Then the prophet answers plainly: "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?"
That verse is not Micah's outline of Lewis's three parts, but it makes a helpful lens. To do justice looks outward, at how we treat people. To love kindness reaches inward. The Hebrew word behind kindness is hesed, a loyal, faithful kind of love, and that is a matter of the heart and not only of actions. To walk humbly with your God is about direction. It asks where our whole life is headed and who we answer to.
Notice what the worshiper was doing. He was hunting for one impressive thing to hand over so the rest of life could stay as it was. Most of us do something similar. We find the part of morality we are already good at and let it speak for the whole. Someone who is scrupulously fair may be cold and bitter inside. Someone who feels warm and sincere may be careless about fairness. Someone busy with religious activity may rarely ask whether their life is actually going anywhere with God.
The point is not to feel crushed by a longer checklist. It is to see that God cares about the whole person and not just the visible slice. A fleet can be repaired and turned around. The Micah passage itself says God has already told us what is good, so we are not guessing.
As you read Book Three, chapter 1, keep asking: which of the three do I naturally watch, and which do I quietly ignore?
Key idea
Morality has three parts: how we treat others, who we are inside, and where our life is headed before God. Watching only the part we are good at leaves us off course.
Questions to consider
- Which of the three concerns, fair treatment of others, inner character, or direction before God, do you check most often? Which do you tend to skip, and why?
- The worshiper in Micah offered bigger and bigger gifts. What is a "bigger gift" you are tempted to offer God in place of changing something ordinary in your life?
Journal prompt
Draw three columns labeled Others, Inside, and Direction. Under each, write one honest sentence about how you are doing this month. Then circle the column you would least like someone to read.
Practice
1. Set a timer for 10 minutes this week. 2. Write one concrete example for each of the three columns (Others, Inside, Direction). 3. Pick the weakest column and write one small action you can take in the next 48 hours.