Dear church,

Did you know that your life is a reflection of God and his character? As a Christian, you have a solemn duty to reflect your Creator and Redeemer. God told the Israelites, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.”

Our holiness may look a little differently than that of the ancient Israelites, with their partially harvested fields and unmixed cloth and untrimmed beards. But, if we pay attention, we learn the principles behind their holy ways are no different than ours. 

We are to uphold justice. We are to worship well and obediently. We take care of the poor – so they too can worship well and obediently. We speak truth. We forgive. We don’t mix the holy with the unholy. We recognize God’s proper created order. We know how to discern the difference between good and evil. And we stay far from anything that looks like idolatry or false worship. 

We’re a different kind of people. The world ought to see how we live and notice the difference. 

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus found this to be the most important aspect of our holy living, right after loving God with everything that we have (Mark 12:28-34).

The principles laid out in Leviticus 19 – even if the cultural specifics have faded from view – form the basis for how a Christian ought to live. We still are to be holy (1 Peter 1:16).

“And you shall observe all my statutes and all my rules, and do them: I am the Lord.”

This command has not changed, and neither has humanity. Holy living remains a foreign practice for us. We still find ourselves drawn to sin.

And so we rely on the Holy Spirit. And we read. We remember. We strive to be the people God has called us to be. We live out our redemption as God’s people with every bit of seriousness we can muster. 

And we count on God’s grace as we do. 

Chris