Be Ye Separate

At the homeschool convention we recently attended, we were handed literature by a number of organizations as we wandered through the exhibit hall; and at the time, I didn't even glance at some of what we were given. Yesterday, however, I was sorting through a tote bag full of papers and so forth and discovered a small publication called Reaching Out, apparently published by the Pilgrim Mennonite Conference (about whom I know nothing, but am guessing it to be a fairly conservative group). One of the articles was written by a Lester Troyer and is entitled "The Case for Separation." It begins...

Biblical separation is possibly the most neglected teaching in Christianity today, especially in the West. Through sheer neglect (or unbelief), the life of the Christian is reinvented as being a mere statement of belief apart from any change of life, or relationship to a world of ungodliness. The Gospel is reduced to this: "One accepts Jesus into his heart. God forgives. Heaven is sure. That's it." But nothing has changed. The new Christianity does not usher in the divine grace of transformation that breaks the old sin patterns and brings forth a life ordered by God. Instead, it has invented a divine blindfold, where God no longer sees the sin of the Christian.

But God is not mocked. Heaven is reserved not for those who merely profess Jesus as Lord, but for those who do the will of the Father in Heaven. Salvation results in single-minded devotion to God, producing a separation from the world and the powers of darkness. Separation is the principle whereby Christians live "in the world without being of the world."

Later in the article, he quotes from a message Billy Graham preached in 1987 at a missions conference in Urbana, Illinois. Graham said:

We have moved in with the world and allowed the world to penetrate the way we live. So things we used to call sin are no longer sin. Things that we would have abhorred a few years ago, we accept as matter of fact today, not realizing that they offend a holy God....We act as if it doesn't really matter how we live or what we think or say because God will forgive us anyway.

He concludes with these verses:

Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

~ 2 Corinthians 6:17-18

This article hit home because of the ache in my heart for holiness. Where is the individual, where is the congregation, that realizes without a doubt that it is only through God's grace that we are being saved, but that also desires and practices holiness in response to God's great love and mercy? Where is the shepherd who is willing and bold enough to call his flock to repentance without instituting legalistic rules that supposedly safeguard the sheep but in reality lead to bondage? Practically, how can I come out from among the world and be separate, while still making an impact on those who so desperately need to see a flesh-and-blood "little Christ"?