Thesis 07/36: Separation

DOCTRINES OF FAITH
Doctrine 7 / 36: Separation

When a man is redeemed, he is bought with a great price, the blood of Jesus Christ. The redeemed are no longer their own. "Ye are not your own. For ye are bought with a price: therefore Glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). God's people called a peculiar people; they are called to be peculiar. Peculiar means belonging exclusively to one person. A Christian belongs exclusively to God, and he is no longer his own. Jonathan Edwards wrote in his diary on January 12th, 1723:

“I have been before God, and have given myself, all that I am, and have, to God; so that I am not, in any respect, my own. I can challenge no right in this understanding, this will, these affections, which are in me. Neither have I any right to this body, or any of its members – no right to this tongue, these hands, these feet; no right to these senses, these eyes, these ears, this smell, or this taste. I have given myself clear away, and have not retained any thing, as my own… I have this morning told him, that I did take Him for my whole portion and felicity, looking on nothing else, as any part of my happiness, nor acting as if it were…”

The question then becomes, what does God want the Christian to do with his body and with his spirit? When a man is born again, he becomes a new creature; old things are passed away, and all things became new. It is important to understand this principle that the Christian is no longer his own. Only then will he be willing to follow God's command to be holy, peculiar, belonging and pertaining only unto Him, and not unto the world. There are many verses in which God tells His people that they ought to be different from the rest of the world.

Ephesians 4:17: "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind." The Christian is to change, and to walk differently than the rest of the lost Gentiles. Before salvation, all men walk the same. They walk according to the "course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience" (Ephesians 2:3). There is to be a change in a person's daily walk after salvation.

2 Corinthians 14-16: "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? (15) And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? (16) And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (17) Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you." The point of this passage is that the goals of the Christian, and the goals of the lost world should be drastically different. With goals that are ultimately different, it should not be possible for a saved and lost person to be "yoked together" without there being major problems in the relationship. The temple of God, the Christian's body, is to be kept pure and free from sin. God wants the Christian to be separated from it.

This separation which God demands from the Christian does not mean that he is to disconnect from all of the lost world and live and interact only with those that are believers. Jesus clarifies this when His request to the Father in John 17:15 is that He would not take them out of the world, even though they are not of the world. He requests the Father to keep them from evil. Christians are in the world, but they are not to be of it. That is, they are not to be conformed to the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of the mind. This renewing of the mind comes from walking in the Spirit and letting God's word dwell in the heart. The church it to take Jesus to the world, it is not to bring the things of the world into the church.

What then is meant by the world? From what is it that the Christian is to be separated? I John 2:15-16 gives the answer. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 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." The Bible teaches that those three areas define the things that are in the world: Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. The separation from the world simply has to do with living a holy and sinless life. The Christian is to avoid doing things that are for the lust of the flesh. He ought to avoid doing things simply to appeal to the eye's lust or for pride. The motives behind all the actions of the Christian needs to be examined. Is whatever action being done, being done for the glory of God, or for the glory of self? This self-examination must take place in every area of life, including food, drink, dress, speech, places to visit, people with whom to fellowship, etc. The Christian is no longer his own.

"Be ye holy; for I am holy."