Be Like God

In Deuteronomy we find the following: "the LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways" (Deuteronomy 28:9). Just as God is merciful, gracious, forgiving, loving, kind and a whole host of righteous attributes, so too, we should seek to be all those things. God does not lie and never goes back on His word. God forgives us before we even ask for forgiveness. We must continually assess our lives and see how we can change to become more like God. As disciples of Yeshua, we can look to him for an example because he said: "I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. And He who sent Me is with me; He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him" (John 8:28-29). The Apostle Paul put it this way: "...be imitators of God, as beloved children" (Ephesians 5:1).
 

Be sure to check out the other pages in our Mitzvot section to learn how we can be imitators of God!

Represent God

In Leviticus it says: "you shall not profane My holy name, but I will be sanctified among the sons of Israel; I am the LORD who sanctifies you" (Leviticus 22:32). To sanctify the LORD refers to being a good representative of God in the world, so that God's reputation is upheld. As believers, we are the light of the world; we are to shine the light of God’s revelation in this world. What this means is that depending on the way we live, we will either be making God’s name common, as if He's just some common god, or we will be sanctifying it, making it obvious that our God is unique, the only true God. When we act like the rest of the world, we are showing that our God is not different than any of the other “gods.” When we are holy, different, we show that our God is the one, true and unique God. The traditional understanding extends this to point that one should die rather than intentionally sin. This is, perhaps, the utmost amount of devotion one could give to God. Our Master said: "let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16).


Keep God's Name Holy

In Scripture, God has a personal name and it consists of four Hebrew letters ("Yod," "Hey," "Vav" and "Hey"). No one is quite sure what the vowels should be, so therefore the actual pronunciation of God's name has been lost. In any event, in Jewish thought, a person’s name is not just referring to the various letters and sounds but refers more specifically to a person’s reputation, authority and character. Therefore not only should we never do anything that would result in God’s actual four-letter name to be desecrated, even more so should we never do anything that would cause God’s holy reputation, authority and character to be desecrated. The Sages say that we should die rather than commit idolatry, sexual immorality or bloodshed. On a more everyday level, this would refer to not doing things that would cause others to think wrongly of God or of God's people in general. The Israelites were commanded to erase the names of the false gods of the Land that they were entering. In Deuteronomy it says: "you shall not act like this toward the LORD your God" (Deuteronomy 12:4). The commandment of not acting like this towards God is a logical addition made by Moses. Traditionally, this only applies to the four-letter name of God. God's name should never be audibly pronounced, especially in casual speech. Hebrew books containing the Name of God should be treated with respect and should never be casually tossed around or thrown away. In modern observance, it is sometimes the practice to even treat the English circumlocutions with respect by adding a dash where the vowels would be, thus, if they were to be erased, they would not actually be erasing a name of God.

Modern Jewish practice is to refer to God as "HaShem," which literally means "the name." This is a great way for people to know that you are referring to God by His personal name but without actually attempting to pronounce it and thus make it common. Additionally, in prayer, it is appropriate to address God as "Adonai," or in English you can refer to God as "LORD."