Leviticus 19:1-37

God wants His people to be holy just as He is holy.  The laws of this chapter describe what that holiness looks like to the Lord.  It involves every aspect of our lives from our relationship with God to our relationships with the people around us.  It touches our business practices as well as our eating habits.  These laws are designed to help men be able to measure where they are in comparison with where God would have them to be.  These attitudes and actions help to reveal where our hearts truly are before the Lord.  Our hearts touch every single aspect of our lives so we must be very careful that we give over control of our hearts to the Lord.

WE MUST PREVENT IDOLATRY: God’s greatest concern for our lives is our worship.  He does not want us to worship any other gods or to make images that are supposed to represent Him.  He wants a relationship with us that is exclusive of all others.  We live in a world that is both physical and spiritual.  God is very much concerned with both the physical and the spiritual aspects of the world in which we live.  He requires that we relate with Him in the way that He has prescribed; that we seek Him in the way that He has instructed.  We are not free to “invent” gods or ways to relate with God that are more comfortable for us or with which we might identify more closely.  God calls us to worship Him alone in the way that He has reveled in His Word.  Anything that goes beyond that is idolatry.

WE MUST PROMOTE CHARITY: God wants us to care for those who are in need.  This includes the poor as well as the sick and elderly.  We are to be kind to those who are in need by providing ways that they can meet their own needs.  Farmers were required to allow the poor to glean in their fields to pick up left over grain from the harvest.  Those who had disabilities were to be treated with kindness and not ridiculed or made to be the brunt of jokes.  We demonstrate our thankfulness to God by being generous to others.  We must recognize that all we have whether it be wealth or health comes from God.  This should motivate us to use these gifts in a way that pleases God and help those who have needs in these areas.

WE MUST PRACTICE INTEGRITY: Honesty is vitally important for us to practice in every area of our lives.  Our words are to be trustworthy and our business dealings are to be truthful.  Money can easily become an idol in our lives and we are often tempted to be dishonest in order to make more of it.  We are to be much more concerned about how we make our money than we are to worry about how much of it we have.  No amount of money will be enough for those who allow themselves to be controlled by greed.  Any amount of money is enough for those who are honest and recognize that God is in control of our possessions.

WE MUST PROHIBIT IMMORALITY: Sexuality is another area that causes many to stumble.  These desires can also become idols in our hearts.  God has provided this gift for a man and wife to enjoy within the context of marriage.  Any use of this outside of this is sin and causes great pain to the people involved as well as to society as a whole.  The family is sacred to God and the building block on which our societies will rise and fall.  Sexual immorality is the eroding the structure of the family in today’s world.  Any culture that promotes sexual immorality has quickly fallen into shambles as their families collapse. 

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