Do not pour it on anyone else's body and do not make any other oil using the same formula. It is sacred, and you are to consider it sacred. The double prohibition — no application to unauthorized persons, no replication of the formula — protects the anointing oil's exclusive sacred status. The prohibition on applying the oil to unauthorized persons prevents the casual appropriation of priestly consecration. The prohibition on replicating the formula prevents the commercialization of the sacred compound. Jude 4 warns against those who use the grace of our God as a license for licentiousness — the prohibition on misusing the anointing oil is the Old Testament form of the warning against treating what is holy as if it were ordinary.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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