Come Out. Be Separate
In last Monday evening’s small group Bible study our discussion veered off into a spirited dialog regarding the sad state of the church today, specifically, how we flirt with sin. This, of course, involved an equally spirited discussion of what even is the church today with so many having gathered for themselves teachers who will say what their itching ears want to hear.1
As the discussion was rolling with respectable momentum, one brother read the following excerpt from Paul’s letter to Timothy.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
– 2 Timothy 3:16-17, ESV
The reader was speculating that the current-generation church has devolved into a milk-toast social club largely because of how infrequently we hear from modern-day, Western pulpits, anything that has to do with “teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness.”
What is far more common is preaching that makes us feel good right where we are, treating everyone with kidskin gloves, so all feel wonderful and none take offense. Pulpit messages have devolved into therapy sessions crafted to make everyone feel at ease and validated.
Come Out – Be Separate
Scripture is replete with strong mandates calling Israel to a life of holiness, of separation from the pagan nations and cultures surrounding them. Israel’s identity was to be found, not within themselves, their power, or their righteousness, but rather in the fact that they were selected by God as his treasured possession. Their identity was to be aligned with God’s identity.
Pagan Influence
Following 430 years of multi-generational enslavement, God rescued his people, calling them out of Egyptian bondage. But it wasn’t just physical bondage that had enslaved the people of God. For 430 years, they had been immersed in an environment of intense paganism, one drenched with idolatry.
The Egyptians worshipped countless deities, and Israel held loosely to their own God. Generation after generation had been steeped in ritualistic, idolatrous devotion. It is important to realize that the Israelites were not monotheistic. They just believed (most of the time) that their God was tougher than everyone else’s gods, but they were quick to worship those other gods when doing so suited their purposes.2
God’s Identity
Therefore, when God’s people camped at the foot of Mount Sinai, ready to hear from God for the first time since their release from slavery, God had to establish for them both his position and his identity. Note the recurring phrase in this brief excerpt from Leviticus.
And the LORD [יְהוָֽה׃ – Yahweh] spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the LORD your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan, to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them. I am the LORD your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.
– Leviticus 18:1-5, ESV – bracketed mine
Repeatedly, God anchored his call for holiness in the Israelites to his own identity as יְהוָֽה׃ [Yahweh]. If you are not aware of it, many translations represent יְהוָֽה׃ as all uppercase LORD. Thus when you see that, you know it is “Yahweh” rather than “Elohim” which is generally translated Lord.
In the Old Testament, we find the expression “I am the LORD” 193 times, a strong reminder of the time God said to Moses, “I AM that I AM.” God would call on Israel to do something, to exhibit some behavior, and close that command with, “I am the LORD!” It is as true today as it was when Israel was standing at the foot of Mount Sinai, and we lose sight of that reality to our own peril.
The Church Today: Come Out – Be Separate
The call of God for spiritual separation, the call to be entirely distinct, remains today. We are to be holy because God is holy. We are to be markedly different from secular society. We are to be pure, single-minded in our allegiance to God, and God alone.
In precisely the same way God told the Israelites above, “You cannot, and shall not, be like the Egyptians you just left, and you shall not be like the Canaanites you are about to meet,” the people of God today must embrace that same mandate. “You cannot, and shall not, be like the secular society in which you dwell.”
You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?
– James 4:4-5, ESV
This is not legalism. This is the call of a holy God to us who have been called out of that world to be his holy people.
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
– 1 Peter 1:14-16, ESV
I recognize that this is my own subjective observation, but my perception of the larger church today is not one of a people who are separate, called out, distinguished from the world, but rather a people who are striving with diligence to be as much like the current culture as possible, imitating contemporary trends in a desperate struggle to remain relevant.
I don’t want to be relevant! I want to be holy, distinct, called out of that mess into something real, something pure, something life-giving!
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
– Romans 12:1-2, ESV
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
– Colossians 3:1-2, ESV
Coming Full-Circle
We began with a statement from Paul’s letter to Timothy, and now I want to come back to that verse, because that is the prescription for the church today.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
– 2 Timothy 3:16-17, ESV
The apostle Paul is winding down his letter to Timothy, signing off, if you will.
If you have a Bible handy, pull it out and look at 2 Timothy, chapter three. It is a mere seventeen verses long, but packed with powerful warnings and teachings. Paul has cautioned Timothy about the coming treachery and difficulty for him personally and for the church. Evil men and seducers [literally, “wizards”] will multiply and increase in debauchery, deceiving and being deceived.
What is the believer’s response to a world like that? A world like ours? A world that celebrates sin, and is drowning in sin, and that is inviting that sin to seep into the church of God? What’s our safety net?
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
– 2 Timothy 3:14-15, ESV
The contrast between what Paul says in verses fourteen through seventeen and what the world is today, particularly the Western world, is staggering!! While danger and trouble is in the world, and in worldly thinking, safety and equipping for survival in that world are found in scripture, the foundational sacred writings that are able to make us wise!3
When the world bewilders you, fall back on what you know, what you are sure of, what you have learned. Stand on what you know to be true. You have been instructed by godly men and women. You have been grounded…immersed in scripture. Anchor yourself in grounded realilty, the writings that are “able to make you wise.” Scripture, like nothing else, is able to equip our minds to choose judiciously.
Like Timothy, with his mother and grandmother who saturated him with scripture since he was a child, you know who taught you. You know the character of the people around you. You know who is grounded and who is less than stable, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine.4
The apostle Peter says we have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.5 Continue in that! Jesus spoke of the word of God as seed that fell upon hearts of well-prepared soil, and how that seed brought forth fruit.
Just prior to his final, personal greetings to specific individuals, Paul issued one final charge and warning. While it may seem like Paul is neck deep in vain repetition, let that be a sign of the importance of his warning rather than an annoyance at hearing “the same thing again.” Note how Paul returns to the same solution with the same warnings.
[The charge] I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. [The Warning] For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
– 2 Timothy 4:1-4, ESV – bracketed mine
Stay in the word. Teach the word. Preach the word. Be prepared with and in the word.
1. 2 Timothy 4:3
2. Exodus 32:1-4
3. 2 Timothy 3:15
4. Ephesians 4:14
5. 1 Peter 1:23
