Holiness to the Lord

A theme for the book of Leviticus could be: Be thou holy for I the Lord am holy.

To be holy is a reference to a person’s moral character. A person who is set apart for a sacred purpose is considered holy. Jehovah commands His followers to be holy because He Himself is holy. The attempt of the Jews to become holy failed because they got caught up in the letter of the law instead of the spirit of the law. In order to avoid the same downfall we should be careful to remember why we are doing things. All of the commandments that we have been given have a purpose. We need to remember these purposes as we keep the commandments.

According to Leviticus 18:4-5 if we keep the commandments of the Lord and remember the spirit in which they were given then we will have the privilege of having the Lord live by us, meaning that we will have His spirit with us.

Many commandments are given to us in Leviticus 19-20 including:

Ø  Keep the Sabbath day holy (19:3,30)

Ø  Do not worship idols (19:4)

Ø  Do not steal (19:11,13)

Ø  Do not lie (19:11,12)

Ø  Do not take the name of the Lord in vain (19:12)

Ø  Do not defraud others (19:13)

Ø  Have compassion for others (19:14)

Ø  Do not make other’s life harder than needs be (19:14)

Ø  Judge righteously (19:15)

Ø  Do not gossip (19:16)

Ø  Love thy neighbor as thyself (19:17,18)

Ø  Do not hold a grudge (19:18)

Ø  Do not defile your body (19:28)

Ø  Do not commit whoredoms (19:29)

Ø  Do not commit adultery (20:10)

Ø  Do not partake in homosexual activities (20:13)

I think the commandment that our world struggles with the most is loving others as thyself. In our world we are all busy and very focused on what we need to get done that we often do not think about those around us. We often make the lives of others harder than we need to because we don’t always take the time to help others. This is something that I often struggle with. I get so caught up in what I need to get done that I don’t take the time to help those around me. In an effort to keep this commandment more valiantly I am going to look for something that I can do each day to lighten the load of those around me.