"Because I Am" January 31 Readings: Leviticus 16-19

Today's Reading - Leviticus 16-19

Background

As you read through the laws of Israel, some are common sense and some are strange to our ears. But they have two primary purposes. First, God's people are to come apart from the world and not to live as the world does. Paul said, in Romans 12:2, that we were not to be conformed to the world but transformed by Christ. Instead, we are to live holy lives, separated from the world to the service of God.

Devotional - Because I Am

“Speak to the entire Israelite community and tell them: Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy." Leviticus 19:2

This statement, repeated several times throughout the book, is the theme of Leviticus. It's not just about rules, but about holiness. It's not just about standards of sexual morality or honesty or laws for treating strangers or foreigners. It is about the holiness of God and what that demands of us. Because God is holy, we must live our lives a certain way. 

And it is about something even fundamentally deeper than that. Americans have adopted a self-directed principle for life. I live as I please. I do what I want. I decide what is best for me. Right and wrong is what I believe it to be. I am the center of my own universe. 

But the Bible allows for no such way of life. We do not exist on our own but were given life by God. We exist in the light of who he is. God's nature and character demand a response. I cannot simply live for myself, but I must realize that there is a God who rules over me, whose right it is to guide and direct me, who has the right to set the standards by which I will live. 

God's nature governs what is right and wrong for us. Why do we submit to God? Because God is the sovereign Ruler of the universe. His sovereignty requires our submission. Why are we to love one another? Because God is love and he has demonstrated his love powerfully and clearly through Christ. His love for us requires love from us. 

And why must we live our lives in holiness? Why must we reject the ways of the world and walk in obedience to God's ways? Because our God is holy. He is perfect and sinless, pure and righteous. Because he is who he is, we must live by different standards than the world around us. 

Be holy, because I am holy!  Everything we are, everything we do, everything we will become is rooted in who God is and what he has done for us in Christ.

Because God is, we no longer get to live our lives as we wish but must live in the light of who he is and what he has done for us. 

Father, help me to understand who you are so that I know who I am supposed to be. You are love, make me a man of love. You are sovereign, may I submit. And you are a holy God. May I live in and walk in the holiness you demand, which you provided for me in Christ. 

Think and Pray

Is your life shaped by the values and ways of the world, or by the holiness and character of God?