“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 are fundamentally separated from Him.  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.

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 (ESV)

¹⁴ The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ¹⁵ “If anyone commits a breach of faith and sins unintentionally in any of the holy things of the LORD, he shall bring to the LORD as his compensation, a ram without blemish out of the flock, valued in silver shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, for a guilt offering. ¹⁶ He shall also make restitution for what he has done amiss in the holy thing and shall add a fifth to it and give it to the priest. And the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering, and he shall be forgiven. ¹⁷ “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. ¹⁸ He shall bring to the priest a ram without blemish out of the flock, or its equivalent for a guilt offering, and the priest shall make atonement for him for the mistake that he made unintentionally, and he shall be forgiven. ¹⁹ It is a guilt offering; he has indeed incurred guilt before the LORD.”