Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy. (Leviticus 19:2)I used to dread this verse as an impossible command, a requirement with which I could not comply. In his book Rebuilding the Real You, Pastor Jack Hayford invites us to receive this verse as a promise, rather than a threat.
It is no secret that a child may inherit a receding hairline, big feet, or a cleft in his/her chin, from a parent. God is our parent, and God is holy. God's DNA is holiness (another time we'll talk about how this holiness - or wholeness - is summed up in Galatians 5:22-23 and called fruit of the Spirit), and as his children, that DNA is our inheritance. We don't have to scuffle and scheme to be holy; we simply have to receive what God already wants to give us.
I like your thoughts on that, as I agree it can look like an impossibly high bar to cross otherwise - I suppose we need to see it as something to strive for, rather than a reminder of imperfection/guilt.
ReplyDeleteLots more rules in here... some of them I really admit I don't get, like the two kinds of seeds in a field (so much for corn and pumpkins)... Are there plants they had that would've been damaged by cross-pollination? I haven't a clue. *shrugs*
- Amy