The third way we demonstrate our love for Jehovah is that we strive to remain clean in his eyes. Parents usually work hard to make sure that their children are clean. Why? For one thing, being clean is essential to the child’s health and well-being. Furthermore, a clean child reflects well on the family, revealing the love and attention of the parents. For similar reasons, Jehovah wants us to be clean. He knows that cleanliness is essential to our well-being.
He also knows that our cleanliness reflects on him, our heavenly Father. That is of great importance, for people may be drawn to the God we serve because they notice how we stand out as different from the crowd in this defiled world.
In what ways do we need to remain clean? Really, in all respects. In ancient Israel, Jehovah made it clear to his people that physical cleanliness was essential. (Lev. 15:31) The Mosaic Law touched on such matters as the disposal of waste, the cleansing of vessels, and the washing of hands, feet, and clothing. (Ex. 30:17-21; Lev. 11:32; Num. 19:17-20; Deut. 23:13, 14) The Israelites were reminded that their God, Jehovah, is holy—which means “clean,” “pure,” and “sacred.” Servants of the holy God need to be holy as well.—Read Leviticus 11:44, 45.
0 We need, then, to be clean on the inside as well as on the outside. We strive to keep our thoughts clean. We adhere faithfully to Jehovah’s standards of moral cleanness, regardless of the sexual degradation of the world around us. Most important, we insist on keeping our worship clean, avoiding any contamination from false religion.
We keep ever in mind the inspired warning recorded at Isaiah 52:11: “Turn away, turn away, get out of there, touch nothing unclean; get out from the midst of her, keep yourselves clean.” Today, we stay spiritually clean by refraining from even touching what our heavenly Father views as unclean in a religious sense.
That is why, for example, we carefully avoid the false religious celebrations and holidays so popular in today’s world. True, it is a challenge to remain clean. But Jehovah’s people strive to do so because this helps them remain in God’s love.
Jehovah wants us to remain in his love forever. But all of us individually need to make sure that we do our very best to remain in God’s love. This we can do by following Jesus’ example and proving our love for Jehovah by obeying His commands. If we do so, we can be certain that nothing “will be able to separate us from God’s love that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”—Rom. 8:38, 39.
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