Leviticus in Paul's Second Letter to Corinth

 

Read 2 Corinthians 6   

 Anyone remember the message of Leviticus?  Don’t do anything that will get you stoned. That’s one way to say it, but let’s go with: Be holy became I am holy.

Be holy. That’s our model.  Why is it our model? Because we model our lives after God and his standards.

Christ changed a lot, but he didn’t change that. We are still to be holy as God is holy.

We are set apart by God for God’s hands to do the work of the potter and for us to return to the lost world with good news. We are set apart.

Paul’s words should not surprise us. He took some of them from the prophet Isaiah.

For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said:

“I will live with them

    and walk among them,

and I will be their God,

    and they will be my people.”

Therefore,

“Come out from them

    and be separate,

says the Lord.

Touch no unclean thing,

    and I will receive you.”

And,

“I will be a Father to you,

    and you will be my sons and daughters,

says the Lord Almighty.”

 

The church—the ekklésia—is called out of the world by God, set apart by God for his work, and sent back into the world to do that work.

We don’t go to church. We are the church and the church is to be holy as God is holy.

In the midst of our searching for answers to what’s happening in our lives, we sometimes forget the mission. We are to bring the lost to Christ and to bring glory to God.

We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Our eternal life resides in a relationship with God through Christ.

We are on a mission from God.

Why does the preacher keep on preaching this?  We can’t say “Mission Accomplished” just yet.  There is still much to be done and we are the ones God chose to do it.

I will conclude both services this way. Please stand and receive you commission anew.

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

You have been set apart, made holy by God, and sent back into this world as the commissioned of the Lord.  We’ve got work to do.

Amen.