Deuteronomy 7:26 — Today’s Verse for Friday, July 26, 2024

Do not bring a detestable thing into your house or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. Utterly abhor and detest it, for it is set apart for destruction.

— Deuteronomy 7:26

A little corruption, a little poison, and a little rotten are not all that bad, are they? Of course, they are! God has made us pure and perfect in Jesus (Colossians 1:21-23). What a glorious thought! Why would we want to stain his perfection with what is evil, putrid, rotten, and detestable? Our Father wants us to dedicate ourselves to him and to live as his holy people (Romans 12:1-2; 1 Pet. 1:13-16). God wanted Israel under Moses to know that they MUST stay away from wicked things that God had slated for destruction. In case we want to dismiss this kind of warning, God had Paul write the first-century Christians:

It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit. …reject every kind of evil (1 Thessalonians 4:3-8; 5:22).