“You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.” – Leviticus 20:26
This is the essential principle at the root of most Old Testament Law. God is profoundly, perfectly holy. He is apart from ordinary things and separated from sinful creation. There is no hint or shadow of sin in Him. He chose Israel to be His people and because He is holy, they must be holy. They must avoid sin, both public and private. And they must do things that make them distinctly different from their pagan neighbors. Some of the stranger-seeming laws of the Old Covenant are rooted in helping a newly formed people keep themselves distinctly different from their neighbors. Why? So they won’t imitate the sinful actions or worship the false gods revered by their neighbors.
Why does any of that matter today? If you’re a Christian, you aren’t under the Old Covenant, you’re under God’s New Covenant of grace. Praise Jesus for that! But guess what? We’re also commanded to be holy. The New Testament repeatedly commands us to reject sin, crucify temptation in our hearts, and imitate Jesus. We’re commanded to be part of the world and yet fundamentally set apart from its sinful elements and practices. We are supposed to be different because God’s Spirit lives within us.
If Jesus is your Lord, then you must be holy. Why? Because your Lord is holy and you are His temple! Jesus has made you His own, buying your freedom from sin and death at the cost of His own life. You are to be distinctly different from unbelieving neighbors, relatives, and coworkers. You are to desire the things of God, love the people of God, obey the Word of God, and think, speak, and act like Jesus. That’s what it is to be holy in the New Covenant. Be holy because your Lord and Savior is holy! #FollowJesus