Week 6 Leviticus 19
The Lord says you must be holy because I the Lord your God, am holy.
I’m thinking a couple of things: a) this sounds like I’m supposed to imitate the Lord but b) I know that I can’t realistically be like God in being holy and c) what I’m likely aiming for is being as much like him as I can (so…Be-Like-Me means try to be kind of like me).
Anyway the key question is: how do I be like the Lord?
Fortunately the chapter explains what ‘being holy’ is in fairly concrete terms. For instance a couple of scalable actions are posted right away: a) give reverence to your parents and b) honour the Sabbath and c) don’t worship idols.
I realize that those are things I can actually do. And if I do them it looks like I’m on the way to being holy.
This puts a slightly different spin on why I’m following the law:
Law-Keeping Does Not Mean: I do what the Lord says because he said to.
Law-Keeping Does Mean: I do what the Lord says so I become more like him.
Which means that the key question isn’t: do I want to follow the law? It’s more like: do I want to be like the Lord?
If I do want to be more like him I do the things he says.
If I don’t then I can just disregard the law.
Note: quotes from Leviticus 19:2 and see 2-3 (NLT)