World's Apart

In my quest to live for God and walk with Him I have come across many teachings urging the children of God to live separately from the world or, in other words, to be in this world but not of it (Ac. 2:40, II Cor. 6:17). And so I came to God asking Him to make me holy, to free me from earthly cares that I may live in this world but not be of it. I asked at first without understanding why this needed to be done, but the more I ask to be cleansed and separated from the world the more God reveals to me the importance of separating myself from this world.

As you all know, our bodies are the temple of the Lord and our hearts His dwelling place (I Cor. 3:16, 6:19). The Lord stands at the door of our hearts and knocks waiting for us to hear His knock and invite Him in (Re. 3:20). Once we invite Him in He makes our hearts His dwelling place, He fills us with His spirit, and walks with us wherever we go (Eze. 36:27, Jn. 14:17, 1 Jn. 2:27). Seeing as how we are the temple of the Lord and it is in us that He longs to dwell, how then can we subject the Holy of Holy’s, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords to an unclean living environment?

The Lord our God is holy and everything about Him is holy (Ex. 15:11, Ps. 99;9, Is. 6:3, Re. 4:8, 15:4). By virtue of His holy nature, God cannot commune with the unholy, He cannot dwell with the unholy, He cannot live together with anything unholy because to do so would be to pollute His holy name (Ez. 39:7, Hab. 1:13). To dwell with ungodliness is against the Lord’s nature that is why His dwelling place, our hearts, must first be made clean before He can enter in. Our bodies, His temples, must be purified for the Holy of Holy’s to be able to enter in. Much like we prepare our houses when we’re expecting guests, so should we prepare our hearts when we’re expecting the Lord. You wouldn’t let you mom sleep in a filthy room if she came over to visit you, let alone live with you, how then can you let your creator, your Father, your provider, and the source of your life live in a filthy temple?

But how do we clean ourselves you ask? How do we prepare for the King of Kings? How do we make ourselves ready to receive the one who sees all, knows all, and created all? How in our limited power and wisdom can we ever make ourselves pure enough for the purest of pure, the one in whom there is no sin (I Jn. 3:5)? Simple, we can’t! We do not have the power to forgive ourselves of our sins; neither do we have the power to cleanse ourselves. Only one thing can wash us white as snow, only once thing can cleanse our hearts and our minds, only one thing can purify our bodies that we may present them to the Lord blameless, that being the precious blood of the lamb (Mt. 26:28, Ro. 5:9, Col. 1:20, 1 Pe. 1:18-19, Re. 7:14, 12:11).

We go to Him who can forgive all sins, to Him who died and rose again, to Him we go and asking for the forgiveness of our sins (Pr. 28:13, Lu. 13:3-5, Ac. 3:19, 26:18-20). If His people, who are called by His name shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways; then He will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin (II Chr. 7:14). If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (I Jn. 1:9). After God has washed us in His blood and has cleansed from our sins only then can we proceed to live holy lives untainted and unblemished by this sinful world (Mt. 7:6, Ac. 2:40, Ro. 12:1-2, II Cor. 6:17, 7:1, Ep. 4:22-24, I Th. 5:22).

Once we are cleansed and made whole we become new creatures in Christ: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (II Cor. 5:17). Once we have been cleansed we cannot then revert to our sinful ways like a dog that returns to its own vomit. We must remain holy because He who has called us and saved us from our sins is holy (I Pe. 1:15-16). We cannot as new clean creatures have fellowship with the evil of this world. We cannot after being washed return to filth and roll around in it; this defeats the purpose of salvation and makes the blood of Christ of no effect in our lives. We must separate ourselves from the evil that is in this world, separate ourselves from our old wicked ways, and look onto the Lord in whom lies our strength and our salvation. Just like God, being the Holy of Holy’s, cannot have fellowship with unholy things neither can the spirit of God which is in us have fellowship with the unholy things of this world.

To love the world is enmity to God because good and evil cannot dwell together (I Jn. 2:15-16, Ja. 4:4). We must be careful about the lives that we live, what we let into our lives, and what we let influence our lives. For as a man thinketh in his heart so is he and out of the abundance of his heart his mouth speaks (Pr. 23:7, Mt. 12:34, 15:19-20). Whatever we spend our time doing, whatever we talk most about, that which we think about daily, that is what consumes us and motivates us. As children of God our motivation should be the Lord and nothing else. We should be consumed by God’s very presence in our lives and His work. Therefore, we should think about God daily, talk about the Lord always, and spend our time working for and serving the Lord; only then can we live holy lives (Ps. 19:14, II Cor. 10:5, Ph. 4:8).

To be separate from the world is to draw close to God; to keep your eyes from taking pleasure in evil, to keep your conversation godly, to keep your heart undefiled, and to keep your thoughts pure (Ps. 101:2-3, Is. 33:15-16, Lu. 11:34-35, I Jn. 2:16). To be separate from the world is to keep your heart free from the thorns that chokes out the Word of God in our hearts and make us unfruitful (Mt. 13:22). We need not be distracted by the riches and cares of this world for this world will one day pass away (I Jn. 2:16). Let us instead keep our eyes fixed on the one whose kingdom is everlasting, the one in whom we have an everlasting inheritance (Ps. 37:18). A visiting pastor from Calcutta recently told this story at church to illustrate the danger of being distracted by the world.

There once was a crow that lived near some doves. He looked at the doves and saw how happy they were and how loving they were towards each other. Envious of their joy and love the crow tried to join the doves. He flew next to the doves and tried joining them in their daily activities but unfortunately his black feathers gave him away. The doves, sacred of the crow, flew away from their perch and went to another tree. So the crow flew back to his nest and thought hard. Flying around the city one day he noticed a painter painting a wall. A light bulb in his head flicked on and he flew straight into the paint covering himself with the white paint. Immediately he flew back to the doves and joined them on their perch. Though the doves noticed his odd beak and his odd size they accepted him as one of their own and let him perch with them. Noticing that the doves were no longer threatened by him the crow decided to ask the doves why they were so happy. The doves then told him about a journey they were getting ready to make. They explained to the crow how their destination was this magnificent place where food was always in plenty and the water that flowed through this land was like no water they’d ever tasted. The doves told the crow that they were preparing to make this long journey to a land where all their worries would be wiped away. The crow, eager for such a place, asked the doves if he could join them on their journey. The doves warned the crow that the journey was a very, very long and hard one but the crow insisted that he would make it. And so the next morning the doves and the crow woke up very early and got ready for their journey. They began flying high up above the earth. They flew for miles and miles and miles and miles with no rest. While flying over the ocean the crow began to get hungry. He looked down at the ocean and saw some dead animals floating to the ocean banks. The stench of the dead animals below made his stomach growl and his flying grew slower. The doves urged him to keep his eyes fixed on the destination and not to look down but the stench from below overwhelmed him. The doves warned the crow that if he stopped there and went below to feed on the carcasses in the ocean he would die there and never reach the promised land. The crow now so overwhelmed by the stench of decaying bodies below, and so blinded by the sight of the animals’ fat bodies waiting to be fed on, decided it was best he stopped. He looked at his dove friends and bid them goodbye saying he wouldn’t mind dying there in the ocean. And so the crow began his dissent down to the ocean. While feeding on the dead animals he had seen from above a creature from the ocean attacked the crow and he died there with the carcasses that had lured him in.

The moral of this story is, as we make our journey through this world we need to keep our eyes fixed on our destination (heaven) and on our tour guide (Jesus) lest we give the devil a chance to attack us. Only Jesus, our tour guide, knows the way to this joyous land because only He has been there. If we let ourselves get distracted by the flashy things of the world below we risk never reaching the Promised land and being devoured by our adversary, the devil, who like a roaring lion walks around seeking whom he may devour (I Pe. 5:8).