Exodus 28 is a detailed description of the garments God wanted prepared for Aaron and his sons.  The priests were going to carry the responsibility of the spiritual condition of the entire nation of Israel.  God clearly describes how the priests must be clean and holy themselves so that they can perform the duties  required to make the sacrifices for atonement.  It was such a sacred duty and required such purity of the priests' own hearts that God instructed bells to be sewn around the hem of the garments so that as Aaron moved around in the Tabernacle his garments would make noise.  The flip side of that is that if his garments didn't make noise, it was an indication that God had found him to be unworthy and had stricken him dead.  That's pretty heavy responsibility! 

I'm pretty sure that I can perform certain duties in my day-to-day life without the purest heart.  And before you gasp in mock judgement, just think about it for a minute.  Every human being "can" perform tasks without their hearts being into it.  When I am in the middle of washing dishes or cooking supper and the Preacher asks me to bring him a certain screwdriver, I am not always happy about the interruption.  Oh, I probably take him the screwdriver and smile, but I'm not all butterflies and fairy dust on the inside.  And I can usually pull it off well enough that no one around me can tell what's up.  But God can.

God looks on our hearts and not at our actions.  The Bible says that God can even tell the difference between a thought and an intention.  Was that a little sigh I let out because I "had a thought" or was it because my intention was to mark how displeased I was that MY plan was disturbed?  Even if I can fool myself into justifying some sinful action, God can see the intentions of my heart for what they really are.

So.  Since God is already seeing us and our motives for what we truly are, even in day-to-day duties, shouldn't we all maybe put a little more effort into being genuine with our actions?  Otherwise God considers them empty, vain, and sinful.  I'm glad I don't get struck down by lightening when my heart isn't pure, but maybe if I had to wear bells on my clothes because of the possibility it would help me think about it differently.  My clothes would be telling on my heart!