Levitical Purity Through Loving Christ

Leviticus gives statutes on physical purity; washing to be clean, staying away from promiscuous actions, and the how's and why's to sacrifice. The Old Testament displays a rulebook that reflects what is supposed to come from the heart whereas the New Testament explains it a little more clearly or I suppose you could say broadcasts bolder. Now I'm going to read to you Matthew 22:37-40, “And he said to him, “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.”” You can spot several key points in this passage but first I'd like to point out that it claims that these laws were dependent upon the Old Testament law. This means these statutes of the heart, mind, and body were the same in the Old Testament. God's will is the same today and through all times. The second is that Being clean before God means much more than the purity of actions, it means purity of both the heart and mind. We are to love Christ with all our hearts, souls, and minds. And how do we do this? By making Christ the forefront of our thoughts. What are the things we are dwelling on and thinking about? Are they things of above? Colossians 3:2 gives us the requirement and the why of keeping our minds pure, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry”. Thirdly this is not some self-centered “I'll give if I get something in return” kind of love. This love is the same love that is explained in 1 Corinthians 13:4. I'll read a little before the main passage because it gives a little context, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but l rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things”. This is the Christ centered love we are supposed to carry out. A love so selfless and relentless it's scale is perfection. We can only achieve this through Christ's power and His filling. Upon the last thought I'd like to end worth this quote: “You cannot be filled to over flowing without first being pouring out”

Extra passages to ponder:

Galatians 5:22-23 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. 

1 Peter 1:22-25a

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. For “All Flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.”

Rachael