I have seen the argument brought up when someone calls out things that have pagan origins that Christians are doing that “well, you can’t drive a car if you are so concerned about pagan things”. This comes from a misunderstanding of what is pagan. The Bible has three different common categories: things the pagans do, things that are common, and things that are holy.

Things that the pagans do are the things that they are doing to worship their gods. They are detestable things. God says He hates what they do. Things like making idols, like the Israelites did after the Exodus. These things we are NOT supposed to do. There is no “taking it back for Jesus”. We don’t do them.

There are things that are holy. God explains these things. The Sabbath is the first thing He says is holy. It is set-apart, special. It is to be different than every other day.

Then the big area: things that are common. This is where the cars would fall in. There is no background of someone making a vehicle as a representation or in worship of some god somewhere. We see vehicles used in Numbers 7, carts lead by oxen. Transporting things or people is a common thing. It is something that happens all the time.

Why is any of this important? Because God says in His Word we are to distinguish between them. In the sense of what is pagan, we should know what we are doing in worship or reverence or in His Name. If it isn’t something that He commands us to do for Him, we should really reconsider or do some major research before continuing with that practice. The common is just that, it is common. We don’t need to think of anything special for it, it is just there. In the sense of the holy, we need to know what He considers holy so we can treat it as holy as well. We make those things special and set-apart. Peter even talks about this in 1 Peter when he quotes several other places (mainly in Leviticus) that “be holy, for I am holy”. Are the actions you do for God holy, in the sense of what He considers holy?