Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him."

Leviticus 19-20

Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." John 14:23

This morning, I continued my study of Leviticus using the Christ-Centered Exposition series commentary for this book - continuing chapter seventeen - Holiness and Love - covering Leviticus 19-20, looking specifically at the fifth and final theme for the chapter - Our Holiness Requires Living by Distinctions.  Here, the commentary looks at ways in which God seeks for us to be unique and set apart from the world. We are referred to the many passages in Leviticus that contrast acceptable versus unacceptable sacrifices, clean versus unclean food, and ways of life and behaviors that are designed to express our holiness - see also my post yesterday as an example of the latter.  The commentary highlights several scriptural examples in Leviticus 19-20 that reinforce how we are to be set apart (and holy).

First, the commentary looks at how we are to see the distinction between sacred and secular. Leviticus 19:19 is used to point out how God used "mixing of fabrics in the priestly garments and the mixing of spices in tabernacle incense" in the tabernacle, but did not allow similar mixing in secular life (see also Deuteronomy 22:9-11).  The commentary points out God allowed mixing in the tabernacle because it was special.  We must see how "[s]ome things are special and holy...so we treat [them] with respect", including God's Word and worship. Although the ceremonial laws do not apply with the New Covenant with Jesus, the sacred nature of of certain aspects of our journey with Christ still apply such as the Bible, and worship.

Second, the commentary points out a distinction between marriage and singleness, including "the sanctity of marriage." God paid special attention to this here in Leviticus 19-20 as the Israelites were about to enter the promised land that was surrounded by sexual behavior God did not want for the Israel.  He sought for the Israelites to be set apart, and He still has this desire today.  

Third, and finally, the commentary points out how our holiness "is defined by the distinction between falsehood and truth.  Looking at Leviticus 19:23-31 and v26-31, God sought for the Israelites to praise the One True God and to avoid the falsehood of "pagan religions" common at the time, particularly in Canaan and the neighboring lands.  

We are encouraged to explore a book entitled My Heart-Christ's Home, where Robert Munger provides a great analogy of a house to demonstrate how God seeks for believers to surrender all aspects of our lives over to Jesus.  See a short summary of this book here. This is how we are to become set apart as God sought for the Israelites (and all believers).

Comment and discuss this post here.

My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are an awesome God who loves me and who and who has come to live in the house of my heart and I am so thrilled that You have - thank You Jesus!  I am not deserving of how You have entered my life.  My sin continues...worry, etc. Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

Leviticus 19-20

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” Mark 12:28-33 (Matthew 22:34-40)

 

This morning, I continued my study of Leviticus using the Christ-Centered Exposition series commentary for this book - continuing chapter seventeen - Holiness and Love - covering Leviticus 19-20, looking specifically at the fourth theme for the chapter - We Demonstrate Holiness in Our Relationships with People.  Here, as the theme explicitly states, the commentary encourages us to see how God wants us to demonstrate and express holiness through our relationships with others.  We are pointed to various verses in Leviticus 19-20 that provide us with scriptural basis to see this application:

• generosity v19:9-10
• honesty v19:11-12, 35-36
• sympathy v19:13-14
• equity (including do not slander) v19:15-16
• mercy v19:33-34
  
• purity v20:9, 10, 11-12, 14, 17-21, 13, 15-16 

The commentary urges us to see how such commands remain just as important for believers now as they were for the Israelites as they entered the promised land. We are referred to Mark 12:28-31 as one example of many that underscores this important takeaway.   

Finally, we are encouraged to see how it is God alone, through the Holy Spirit, that is working and moving in our hearts to bring about obedience to the commands God gives us to love Him and others - see Romans 5:5 where Paul writes about how "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

Comment and discuss this post here.

My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are an amazing God who loves me and who gives me the Holy Spirit!  Thank You Jesus for this power!  This is the same power that raised You from the dead - and I have access to it - thank You Jesus!  Yet I am undeserving of such a blessing! My sin of harshness towards others, worry, etc. continue.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.["]

Leviticus 19-20

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.["] John 14:15

This afternoon, I continued my study of Leviticus using the Christ-Centered Exposition series commentary for this book - continuing chapter seventeen - Holiness and Love - covering Leviticus 19-20, looking specifically at the third theme for the chapter - Our Holiness Arises from a Relationship with God.  Here, the commentary examines how we achieve holiness over the course of our journey with Christ, and how we express that holiness - in other words, how can know and "measure" that we are indeed being holy.  In looking at how, or the process through which we become holy, the commentary starts by referring to us to the Old Testament and how God invited the Israelites into a special relationship with Him.  The commentary states that "[h]oliness arises from a relationship with God, and the closer we get to God the more holy we become.  The tabernacle in which the Israelites was divided into three sections, each one of which represented different degrees of holiness....Every Israelite was allowed in [the outer court]." The priests could only enter the holy place inside the tent, and only the high priest could enter the inner sanctum or the "most holy place" (see also Exodus 26:33-34).  This inner sanctum represented the presence of God.  The commentary continues in its description of the tabernacle by by saying: "[i]n the tabernacle, to move closer to [the inner sanctum] that represented the presence of God was to become more and more holy.  That physical reality illustrates a spiritual reality--the closer we get to God, the more holy we will become, the more separated from the ways of the world and the more consecrated to God we will grow....The key to holiness is staying close to God."

The commentary then moves to how we express our holiness, or how we know or "measure" our holiness.  Looking at Leviticus 19-20, the commentary refers us to v19:3-4, 37, and in v20:8, and 22 where God seeks our obedience to His commands. The commentary also points us to the New Testament, where Jesus, in John 14:15 says "[i]f you love me, you will keep my commandments." Beyond our obedience, the commentary indicates that we express our holiness through communion with God. We are pointed to Leviticus v19:5-8 and 20:2-6 where: (1) the fellowship offering is described - this offering is described as meaning "the worshiper was at peace with God"; (2) we are urged to see how "[o]ur fellowship with God is exclusive" and how God commands us not to create idols for other Gods - we are to worship Him alone.  

The commentary wraps by reminding believers that sin breaks our fellowship with God. Due to the fact that, for believers, sin remains until we meet Jesus face to face, we must continue to seek God, seek His forgiveness for sin that remains in our lives, and remain close to Him so that He "gives us pardon for sin in our past, and power over sin in our present[.]"

Comment and discuss this post here.

My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are an awesome God who loves me and who forgives me and gives me power over sin - thank You Jesus!  I am not deserving of such blessings.  I continue to sin, with arrogance, harshness towards others, and worry.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

Leviticus 19-20

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 1 Corinthians 15:10

This morning, I continued my study of Leviticus using the Christ-Centered Exposition series commentary for this book - continuing chapter seventeen - Holiness and Love - covering Leviticus 19-20, looking specifically at the second theme for the chapter - A Definition from God's Word.  Here, the commentary seeks for us to understand holiness as, quoting Jonathan Edwards, "sweet and ravishingly lovely...[not] a melancholy, morose, sour, and unpleasant thing."  The commentary than moves to explicitly define holiness as "a condition of our hearts created by God, and a way of behaving lived by us."  We must first understand that "our natural state [is for us to be] sinners, separated from God, and without hope in this life or the next."  We are then referred to the following verses in scripture:

• Ephesians 2:3, 8 - believers (and all of humanity) are born sinners, then by grace saved (not of our own doing) and given faith
  
• Romans 3:24 - we are justified by His grace (again not of our own doing)
  
• 1 Peter 5:10 - it was God who called us to faith and He restores, confirms, strengthens, and establishes us
• John 17:17 - God sanctifies us by His Truth (Word)

Over the course of a believer's life and journey with Christ, it is God alone who sanctifies us and makes us more like Him - more holy. He alone causes heart and life change/transformation. The commentary then encourages to look at Philippians 2:12-13 and 1 Corinthians 15:10.  In these verses, we see that as God moves in our hearts, we begin to behave and act in ways that are more like Him. 

Comment and discuss this post here.

My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are an awesome God who loves me and who sanctifies me and creates new life in me, over and over again as You do this in me over the course of my entire life as a believer. Thank You Jesus for giving me a heart of flesh and for the blessings that follow.  I am not deserving of such blessings.  I sin...every day....harshness towards others and worry, etc. Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

Leviticus 19-20

You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. Leviticus 11:44-45, 19:2, 20:26, and 1 Peter 1:16

This morning, I continued my study of Leviticus using the Christ-Centered Exposition series commentary for this book - starting chapter seventeen - Holiness and Love - covering Leviticus 19-20, looking specifically at the first theme for the chapter - An Exhortation from God.  In the introduction to the chapter, the commentary briefly examines how we as humans can easily move from peace with God in one moment to sin (of course of many flavors).  The commentary then states how Leviticus 19 is often regarded "as the thematic center of the book[,]" and how "the largest themes of Leviticus are the holiness of God and the holiness of God's people; those are the themes for Leviticus 19-20.  For today - An Exhortation from God - focuses on v19:2, "[y]ou shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy" and how these words also appear in the Old Testament in Leviticus 11:44-45 and 20:26, and in the New Testament in 1 Peter 1:16. Believers should know that we exist to glorify God; therefore, we can better understand the importance of being holy as God seeks for us to represent Him to the world.  The commentary describes God's holiness as "He is different, other than, and He is unique in that He is perfectly righteous....Holiness is an intrinsic attribute of God's nature, and God expresses His holiness through what He does." The question of course believers are left with is: what does holiness mean?  The commentary indicates it will address this in the next sub-heading, which I will tackle tomorrow.

Comment and discuss this post here.

My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are a great God and You are holy, righteous, and perfect in all that You are and all that You do.  You have blessed me in so many ways I cannot simply describe all these ways. I am not deserving of how You bless me.  My sin of harshness and anger towards others continues, as do other sins such as worry.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day. 

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."

Leviticus 18

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." Matthew 22:37-40

This morning, I continued my study of Leviticus using the Christ-Centered Exposition series commentary for this book - continuing chapter sixteen - Law, Grace, and Sexuality - covering Leviticus 18:1-30, looking specifically at the third theme for the chapter - Gods People Serve God in Humility.  Here, the commentary starts by urging us, as we attempt to understand Israel's sin, to not forget our own sin.  The commentary states that 700 years after God gave the Israelites the laws as described in Leviticus 18, "God's people did fall into the same sins, and they experienced the same punishment....[T]he land spewed Israel out when the Assyrians took the northern kingdom of Israel into exile, and 150 years after Israel's fall, the Babylonians took the southern kingdom of Judah into exile.  God knew His people were just as vulnerable to temptation and sin as the Canaanites.  God knows that we are vulnerable to temptation and sin too." In light of our own sin, the commentary then encourage us to: 

• confess our weaknesses and with more compassion relate to others in sin - Galatians 6:1 
• conform our service to scripture, including sharing the gospel of Christ, supporting laws that define morality Biblically, cultivating and maintaining friends that are different, helping others that are struggling with sexual identity, and supporting those hurt by sexual sin
  

Comment and discuss this post here.

My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are an awesome God who loves me and who is full of compassion and mercies for me - thank You Jesus!  I am not deserving of such compassion and mercies - my sin continues....worry, harshness towards others, etc.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Leviticus 18

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

This morning, I continued my study of Leviticus using the Christ-Centered Exposition series commentary for this book - continuing chapter sixteen - Law, Grace, and Sexuality - covering Leviticus 18:1-30, looking specifically at the second theme for the chapter - Gods People Separate from the World's Iniquity. Here, the commentary focuses on how, here in Leviticus 18, God's people were about to enter the promised land, but the Canaanites occupied this land, and God judged the sin of the Canaanites, specifically their sexual sin, including incest (v6-18), adultery (v20), child sacrifice (v21), homosexuality (v22), and bestiality (v23).  God sought for the Israelites to be set apart from such sin.  Many will argue that the Old Testament laws on homosexuality no longer apply, as part of how Jesus abolished ceremonial laws.  However, the commentary points out how New Testament scripture also defines homosexuality as sin in Romans 1:26-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9, and 1 Timothy 1:10.  The commentary then pivots to how God seeks believers to separate from sin:

1. Separation starts with salvation - 1 Corinthians 6:9-11
2. Separation progresses by God's Spirit (sanctification) - 1 Corinthians 6:11
3. Separation culminates in love - Matthew 22:34-40     
   

Comment and discuss this post here.

My Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are an awesome God who loves me and who save me, sanctifies me, and brings about obedience in me, including loving You, and loving others. Thank You Jesus!  Yet I know I am undeserving because of my sin, including how I often fall short in loving You and loving others, and other sins such as worry.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You. Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.