Tuesday, August 28, 2007
The Separation Imperative
Jeremiah 10:2 "Do not learn the ways of the nations."
Exodus 23:13 "Do not invoke the names of other gods; do not let them be heard on your lips."
I think we are heading in the wrong direction. It's taken me awhile to figure this out, but God has been patiently relentless, pounding it into my heart as He allows me to work through it. He is getting me to a place of holy separation.
Our church culture is, in the name of evangelism, embracing and assimilating into the culture of the world. I have piggy-backed onto this movement for many years - hey, who doesn't want to save the lost - and I think I'm wrong. I can feel in my own walk that I'm wrong, as I struggle with the effects of this working through my own spiritual life. Simply put - I am not of this world anymore, and when I get into it, it gets into me, and I feel completely out of sorts as a Christian. No good to anyone, including myself. Jeremiah 10:2 states, we are not to be learning their 'ways.' Their way of life - their 'gods' - should not even be on our lips. Ephesians 5:12 says that it is 'shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret' - so why would we ever tolerate it, never mind enter into it?
When you learn their ways, you quickly enter into their means, their intentions - and ultimately into their true heart. This is an ugly place where we really should not be dwelling. We think separation causes us to lose our ability to testify in this world. Wrong. Assimilation causes us to lose our ability to testify.
I know that this is an unpopular thought in the new church movements. Believe me, I've bought into the impact by assimilation mindset in the past and the fruit has tasted awful. I've seen two negative consequences:
1. My mind, being saturated with these worldly things under the guise of more effective evangelism, has become a stagnant pool. I know, emerging proponents will say that this is my fault and they may be correct - but it is what it is.
2. The 'salvations' have been very shallow and program/people-dependent. As long as you're being like them, they'll listen - but they leave upon the first sign of anything that's intolerant or goes against their own feelings or core beliefs. This is because they haven't abandoned anything to reach for holiness, they've had their way of life catered to.
I do not say this lightly, because I am desperate for the lost to be saved. I say this after years of study and personal experience - but mostly I say this after feeling the pressure from God to allow Him to fully separate me from this world - so that I can be a better witness of the Truth. Please don't get me wrong - I'm not saying separate from the world and focus solely on your own personal holiness. I'm saying that if we strive for personal holiness, we will have a true picture of God to offer to the world - not simply a neutered version of Him.
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3 comments:
I call this the "Un-separation Separation". What I mean by this is that we need to separate ourselves from the worldly behaviors, but we can't separate ourself from the world. God's lost people are the worldly people. It's very hard - coming from my own personal job, I feel like since people know I am a Christian I am under a microscope. In reality, I'm probably not, but I pick my actions apart if I feel as though I am not representing God well. I know I don't get as deep as you do Tom, but I take a couple points away from this:
First, if you're living a "worldly" life you need to recognize that and want to change. I doesn't help to recognize the problem and continue along with it. It doesn't help to SAY you want to change but then NOT do anything about it. It has to come from the heart.
Second, if you've recognized the worldly life and deviated from it, you're probably being asked "why?" by many of your friends/co-workers/peers. Here's where the real pressure can come in. If you really want to make a change from the "world", you won't dive back into the worldly habit...you'll stay separate from it while not being separated from the people that need to hear God's Word.
I probably have this viewpoint since I work with more worldly people than Christians. While I don't feel as though I need to separate myself from my job, I do feel signifiant pressure to always represent myself as a Christian, and without saying that I am a Christian, expect people to see it through my actions.
I agree whole-heartedly, now the question becomes, can I put this into action? What does it look like to live a life that is Christ-filled. It must look truly different from someone that is a "good person" but does not believe in God. There has to be something about this seperation that looks entirely different than what the world considers to be good and appealing. Our actions cannot be a list of do's and dont's but a pure heart for God. A love relationship that goes beyond anything that this world can offer. This is how we change and this is how we seperate. Nicely put Tom.
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