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LEVITICUS | 18:5 live — LEV221 Religion is not so much knowledge of God a...

LEV221 Religion is not so much knowledge of God as godly living. What distinguishes a religion from a system of science or philosophy is its concern with man's behavior. Theories of reality are vital to it only to the degree to which they help transform the lives of men and to affect their conduct. The inner response to the Divine, which forms the root of all religion, crystallizes itself into two concepts of the holy, into ideas of God and of the human soul and its destiny, and into convictions regarding personal and social duty. Emerging from the realm of vague feeling into definite thoughts and beliefs, it permeates the mind and the world. By serving as an extra dimension of their souls, inspiring, uplifting, and disciplining them, religion transforms the lives of men. The sacred, though as sharply distinguished from the secular as sunlight mountain air is distinguished from the air of the valley, does not remain isolated from it. The sacred strives to irradiate the secular, to purify and to ennoble it, and to endow it with its own transcendent values. In this regard the sacred resembles the beautiful, which while forming the special province of art, seeks to affect all experience. It translates itself into a quality of living and finds expression in thought and in action. Of the precepts of the Torah it was stated that man was to observe them in order that he may live by them [this verse, Ezek. 20:11, 13, 21).

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Source KeyCOHON
Verse18:5
Keyword(s)live
Source Page(s)7
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