“It’s not my actions, it’s my intentions that matter most. As long as my heart’s in the right place, you shouldn’t judge what I do or say.” Lots of people live according to these kinds of rules. For them, authenticity is the greatest virtue, and hypocrisy is the only real vice.

But Leviticus chapter 4 calls all of this into question. For whether a person is a priest (4:3), a leader (4:22), or just an ordinary person (4:27), breaking the Lord’s commandments even unintentionally requires a blood sacrifice. And chapter 5 makes this point without reservation: “If anyone sins, doing any of the things that by the Lord’s commandments ought not to be done, though he did not know it, then realizes his guilt, he shall bear his iniquity” (5:17).

Is God being harsh? No, just realistic. After all, you don’t sneeze or cough or run a fever because you want to – all those behaviors are just symptoms of the virus that has infected your whole body. In the same way, Jesus told us that, regardless of our intentions, all our thoughts, words, and deeds reveal the condition of our hearts (Luke 6:45).

And so, whenever we say or do anything that goes against God’s express intentions for our lives, we are revealing the fact that we continue to be separated from Him in one way or another. And just as a cell phone which is disconnected from an electrical outlet can’t run on battery power forever, our lives will eventually end, unless we are covered in the blood of Christ and He fills us with His life-giving Spirit.

So, sure, we should strive for pure motives. But we can’t let our intentions determine whether we are actually living in accordance with God’s will. Only comparing ourselves to God’s Word can do that, for it is the only infallible rule of our faith and practice.

Leviticus 5:14-19 (NASB)

14 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
15 “If a person acts unfaithfully and sins unintentionally against the LORD’s holy things, then he shall bring his guilt offering to the LORD: a ram without defect from the flock, according to your valuation in silver by shekels, in terms of the shekel of the sanctuary, for a guilt offering.
16 “And he shall make restitution for that which he has sinned against the holy thing, and shall add to it a fifth part of it, and give it to the priest. The priest shall then make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering, and it shall be forgiven him.
17 “Now if a person sins and does any of the things which the LORD has commanded not to be done, though he was unaware, still he is guilty, and shall bear his punishment.
18 “He is then to bring to the priest a ram without defect from the flock, according to your valuation, for a guilt offering. So the priest shall make atonement for him concerning his error in which he sinned unintentionally and did not know it, and it shall be forgiven him.
19 “It is a guilt offering; he was certainly guilty before the LORD.”