Yet more on separation

OK - I'm still reading Ezra. Today it was chapter 6 and, again, the subject of separation came up. In the description of the first celebration of the Passover after completion of the Temple, it says that "the Israelites who had returned from the exile ate it, together with all who had separated themselves from the unclean practices of their Gentile neighbours in order to seek the LORD, the God of Israel" (vs 21, NIV). So the returning Israelites were not totally exclusive, but any others who wished to join them had to first of all separate themselves from certain things. We are not told exactly what the unclean practices were, but worship of idols would have been included and may have involved various forms of sexual immorality and possibly even child sacrifice. Exactly the sort of things which had got the Israelites expelled from the Holy Land in the first place, more than 70 years earlier.

This message - of the need for those who seek the Lord to separate themselves from the world and its ways - is largely absent in the church these days. Not much is said about how the world system in which we live is totally antithetical to living as a Christian and so has to be forsaken. Not much preaching is done on the need for repentance. It's all about God's love and grace and forgiveness to the extent that many in the church do not seem to realise that, if the world does not find them odd, something is wrong. They are going to get a shock when the real persecution starts! If you have put your faith in Christ and crossed over from death into life, you are in the world but not of the world. Sometimes that involves a physical separation but, more often, it is a mental separation from worldly ways of thinking. We still need to interact with the world around us but we do it from a different perspective and with the thought always that this is not our home. Our home is in heaven with Christ.

As Christians, we need to be careful of the company we keep, what we read, what we listen to, what we watch on TV or look at on the internet. Bad company corrupts good character. We need to measure everything against what the Bible teaches. We need to heed Philippians 4:8 and think on good things and, if possible, find godly people to associate with and emulate (Philippians 4:9). If the church we attend majors on love and forgiveness and does not preach the need for repentance and separation from the world, we need to find another church, because otherwise we will end up surrounded by people who have one foot in the church and one foot in the world and we will be corrupted by them.

"Therefore come out from them and be separate", says the Lord. (2 Cor 6:17a NIV)