Be separate

Therefore "Come out from among them and be separate…” - 2 Corinthians 6v17

Separation is one of those areas that I have been working through in my own life and ministry. Too much separation and you have grace robbing pharisaic galatianism. Too little separation and you have liberal worldly antinomianism.

How do we find the Bible balance on separation? How do we live in an unclean, sin cursed, and defiled world without being a part of it? How do we separate and “touch not” while we live in the middle of it? Do we do what some have done and go off into some kind of Christian compound so that we are not defiled? Do we refuse to have lost friends or refuse go to their functions? Do we crawl in a corner with other believers so that we don’t touch the “unclean thing?”

No, we can’t do that, because we are told to “go in to all the world and preach the gospel.” How can we be a witness if we are not amongst people? The answer is - we can’t.

Some things are clear here. We cannot be linked to the world’s ways and the world’s methods. One aspect is clear – a Christian is not to marry a non-believer. I can’t be dogmatic, but I think there are dangers is Christians being a business partnership with a non-believer. In the historical setting Christians were not to be taking part in pagan religious practices, and that of course is still true today.

Even with all of this, how do we know what to and what not to separate from? John partially answers the question when he says, “Love not the world, neither the things of the world…for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life – is not of the Father but is of the world.” We are to separate from that which stirs up these lusts.

We are to separate from false teachers and expose their teaching – that is clear in many passages.

All this is great, but how do we do it in day to day living. Part of it is being open to God’s direction when we are in situations where we don’t know what to do. Will God help us then? Well. Jesus prayed that He would – “I don’t pray that you would take them out of the world, but that you would keep them from the evil one.”

What do we do? We certainly don’t subscribe to some man-made separation list. We certainly don’t ignore separation. We compare our options with the word of God. We avoid that which stirs up the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life in us. And we depend on Jesus’ prayer for us.