Deuteronomy 23:9-14: in context

Among the laws for Israel's camp when they went to war are instructions about keeping the camp clean and free of defilement, even to the practical matter of burying waste outside the camp. And a reason is given that runs deeper than hygiene: for the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you; therefore your camp shall be holy, that he may see nothing unclean among you and turn away from you. The holiness of the camp was required because God himself was present in it.

The reason God gives for the camp's holiness is worth dwelling on: because the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp. It was not mere hygiene or ritual; it was the presence of God among them that required them to keep their camp holy. Because God himself dwelt in their midst, walking among them, they were to keep their dwelling clean and undefiled, fitting for the holy presence that was there. The motive for their purity was the nearness of God. This principle reaches to us with even greater force. For the New Testament tells us that God, by his Spirit, dwells in his people; we are the temple of the living God. God has said, Paul writes, I will dwell in them and walk in them; and, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? If the presence of God in Israel's camp required them to keep it holy, how much more does his presence in us, dwelling within us by his Spirit, call us to holiness. The motive for our purity is the same: God is present, dwelling in us, walking in our midst; therefore we are to keep ourselves holy, fitting for the holy presence that indwells us. This gives a compelling reason for holiness that mere rules cannot. We are not to keep ourselves pure merely because it is commanded, or to earn something, but because God himself dwells in us, and his presence calls for a life kept clean and undefiled, fitting for the One who indwells us. What we allow into our lives, what we do with our bodies, what we let defile us, matters because God is present, dwelling in us by his Spirit. The camp was to be holy because God walked in its midst; and our lives are to be holy because God dwells in us. The presence of God, in the camp then and in us now, is the deepest motive for a life kept clean; and to remember that God dwells within us, walking in our midst, is to have the strongest reason to keep ourselves holy, fitting for the holy presence that has made its home in us.

Do I keep myself holy merely because it is commanded, or forget the deepest reason for purity, and can I take hold of what moved Israel to keep their camp clean, that God walked in their midst, and even more that God now dwells in me by his Spirit, so that I keep my life clean and undefiled because of the holy presence that has made its home in me?