MEDITATIONS
FROM PAUL’S EPISTLES
April 25,
2007
Reading
"Come out from among them and be separate says the LORD” 2
Corinthians
Herein, my soul, lies the root of all your problems. Examine yourself
and see how much of the world still plays a part in your everyday life. God has
always required that His people were separate from the rest of the world.
“Depart! Depart! Go
out from there, touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her, be clean”
Isaiah 52:11.
From the very beginning God
separated light from darkness – Genesis 1:4 – and that has remained a
Divine principle ever since. Jesus said that He is the Light of the world and,
as John reminds us, “God is Light and in Him is no darkness at all” 1 John
1:5. Light
cannot be mixed with darkness. Paul refers the Corinthians to five examples,
things in which some of their members were still participating: righteousness
with lawlessness; light with darkness; Christ with Belial; believer with
unbeliever;
If you belong to God, shun
and depart from all that is ungodly; one has nothing whatsoever to do with the
other. Separation is the law of God. Complete separation. There must be no
compromise in our walk with God. God demands it. We are to have no fellowship
with from that which God Himself is separate.
“For what fellowship has righteousness
with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?” 2 Corinthians 6:14.
Those Israelites who returned from captivity new this:
“Then the children of Israel who had
returned from the captivity ate together with all who had separated themselves
from the filth of the nations of the land in order to seek the LORD God of
Israel” Ezra
6:21-22.
Tragically, they
compromised the law of God and were punished for it. They did the only thing
they could do, they repented. Their compromise had separated them from
fellowship with God – Ezra 9:15.
Monasticism is not what is taught here for Jesus commanded His disciples
to Go into all the world and teach the nations
baptizing the people in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He also
told them they were the salt of the earth and to let men see the light that
shone in their heart as a result of their relationship with Him. Christ’s disciples are to be in the world but
not to participate in its sinful activities. How can we be like our Master if
we hide ourselves from the world He came to save?
“Blessed is the
man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of
sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of
the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted
by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf
also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper” Psalm 1:1-3.