"Be holy, because I am holy."

I've been reading through the Old Testament of the Bible. More specifically, I just finished the book of Leviticus. For those of you who aren't familiar with this book, it's a book of a bunch of rules. Basically, it can be simplified down to God telling the Israelite people, "Do this, this, and this. Don't do this, this, and this."

Some of the rules seemed ridiculous to me. For example, when making a sacrifice, you need to sacrifice a clean animal. But it gets more specific. You need to skin the animal, sprinkle the blood here and there, boil certain body parts, etc. Then you have to make sure you burn the sacrifice completely, and then you have to do more stuff. 

FYI: I inaccurately described the process. But you get my point... It takes forever to do.

Then after describing all these rules, God says something along the lines of "Be holy, because I am holy." After reading all this, I get the impression that God is a jerk. Seriously, anyone would think that God made all these rules just to prove that He's God and can do these things. But let me finish. God is, in no way, a jerk.

"Be holy, because I am holy." 1 Peter 1:16 (Just so you know, 1 Peter is referring back to the Old Testament.)

If you read through Leviticus, God repeats this phrase a bunch of times. 
"Okay God, we get it. You're super awesome, holy, powerful, etc. Stop bragging......"
If you're thinking something along those lines, you've got it all wrong.

God repeats this phrase out of love. Now bare with me, let me explain my crazy statement.

We are children of God. He is our heavenly Father. Father's always know what's best for his child. This is exactly what God is doing here. God is telling us to do this and not to do that because He knows best. He wants to make sure you get the best things. The best thing for each and every one of us is God Himself.

So what do we need to do to have the best thing? What do we need to do to have God? We must be holy. We must be holy in order to have a relationship with God. A relationship with God is the best thing anyone can ever experience. The great thing about this relationship is that it's eternal.

Do you understand now? God tells us to "Be holy, because [He] is holy" out of love. Here's what I think God would say if this verse continued... "Be holy, because I am holy. I want to have a relationship with you because you are created in my image. I love you. So be holy because I cannot be with something that is not holy."

So throughout the Old Testament, God is telling the Israelite people to "Be holy, because I am holy." But guess what, they don't listen. We don't listen. We're always rebellious and against God. So what does he do to make us holy? He sends himself to cover us in His perfection.

We are made holy because it is no longer us who live. It is Christ who lives in us. We are made anew. We are a new creation. We are no longer sinful, defiled images of God. We are holy, perfect images of God through Christ.

The Bible is a narrative of love. It's not a rulebook with do's and dont's.