Leviticus 18:1–3: “Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: “I am the LORD your God. According to the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do; and according to the doings of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, you shall not do; nor shall you walk in their ordinances.”’”

Moses was instructed to tell the people of God that they were to live their lives differently. They were not to live as they had seen the Egyptians live, while they were their slaves. Nor were they to begin living as the people in Canaan lived, the land God was taking them to possess. God said that they should not walk in the ordinances of either land, which were so different from the ordinances, or laws, of God.

God wants His people to recognize that their lives are a journey, a pathway, a course that they are walking. Exactly how His people walk is an important concept. In this chapter of Leviticus, God deals with sexual morality. His people’s sexual morality was to be something special that caused them to stand out as different from the heathen nations. He was trying to teach them about holiness.

Because God is holy, He wants those who come to Him to learn to be more like Him. Holiness affects even the most private places in our lives. Just like the people of God in the Old Testament, so too must New Testament believers live according to a different standard than the world in their sexual morality. It is sad but many inside the church today take their standard of sexual conduct from the world, and not from God and His Word. We must have a standard that does not slide down with the rest of what society is doing. We must follow the Biblical standard of sexual morality.

We are to be thermostats not thermometers. The thermometer simply reflects the current temperature of its surroundings. But the thermostat registers the temperature and then seeks to change it to a set standard. In the first few centuries of the church, believers could say, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” But today, heartbreakingly, the church typically has to say, “I’m sorry but don’t do as I do, do as I say.”

“LORD, help us to go against the flow of this world today and live according to Your standard. Help us to model what we know is true of You.”

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Leviticus 18 KJV

¹ And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, ² Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the LORD your God. ³ After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances. ⁴ Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God. ⁵ Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD. ⁶ None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the LORD.  ⁷ The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. ⁸ The nakedness of thy father’s wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father’s nakedness. ⁹ The nakedness of thy sister, the daughter of thy father, or daughter of thy mother, whether she be born at home, or born abroad, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover. ¹⁰ The nakedness of thy son’s daughter, or of thy daughter’s daughter, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover: for theirs is thine own nakedness. ¹¹ The nakedness of thy father’s wife’s daughter, begotten of thy father, she isthy sister, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. ¹² Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s sister: she is thy father’s near kinswoman. ¹³ Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother’s sister: for she is thy mother’s near kinswoman. ¹⁴ Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s brother, thou shalt not approach to his wife: she isthine aunt. ¹⁵ Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy daughter in law: she is thy son’s wife; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. ¹⁶ Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother’s wife: it is thy brother’s nakedness. ¹⁷ Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, neither shalt thou take her son’s daughter, or her daughter’s daughter, to uncover her nakedness; for they are her near kinswomen: it is wickedness. ¹⁸Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex her , to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her life time . ¹⁹ Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness. ²⁰ Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour’s wife, to defile thyself with her. ²¹ And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.  ²² Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. ²³ Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion. ²⁴ Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: ²⁵ And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. ²⁶ Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you: ²⁷(For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;) ²⁸ That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you. ²⁹ For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people. ³⁰ Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God.