Leviticus 20:7-8, “Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the Lord your God. And ye shall keep My statutes, and do them: I am the Lord which sanctifies you.”

Leviticus is loaded with long lists of ceremonial observances the Jews were required to follow. The book is replete with do’s and don’ts that make one clean or unclean. For example, bodily discharges, whether they were normal or abnormal, caused one to be defiled, as did contact with someone who was discharging (Leviticus 15). Therefore, women were considered unclean during their menstrual cycle and after childbirth. Anyone who touched a leper, a dead body, or had contact with someone who touched the dead was defiled. All of the above and much, much more made one ceremonially unfit.

Please understand that nowhere in the Old Testament do we read that being ceremonially unfit was always synonymous with being sinful. I have personally witnessed the birth of three children. It looked painful but it was not sinful. Bodily discharges are rarely attractive, but that does not make them sinful.

If any external defilement existed, as described by the Law, one could not worship God until one had followed the necessary cleansing ritual, as prescribed by the Law, which physically prepared the person to worship God. That naturally leads to another question: Why? Here is the reason. God was unfolding His redemptive plan; not making it up as He went but unfolding it according to His eternal design. 

Children’s books have more pictures than words. As the reading level increases so do the number of words, while the pictures become fewer. The entire ceremonial system detailed in the Old Testament is full of pictures. Just as physical, ceremonial uncleanness prevented worship, an impure heart prevents genuine, spiritual worship. The whole ceremonial system pictures that which God wants on the inside.

What God wanted on the inside then, and what He desires on the inside now, is holiness. Today’s devotional verse was quoted by the Apostle Peter: “but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your conduct; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:15-16).

The redeemed are to be distinct from this world system which opposes their Redeemer. Light is not darkness. Salt preserves and flavors what it touches; it is the influencer not the influenced. Children of obedience are not the children of disobedience. Believers are to be nonconformists, but that nonconformity is found in being imitators of God. Just as God is different from the world, so are His people to be. Pursue holiness. Not for the purpose of cleansing yourself from the pollution of this world, but because the Lord Jesus has cleansed you by grace alone through faith alone. Don’t allow yourself to be polluted by this world. Walk in purity according to His Word.