Separation


Separation means separation from certain things and separation to
certain things. The meaning of the word in scripture simply means
that the Christian is to withdraw himself from evil forces. evil
influences, and evil company, and is to live a life that is not
in line with the world. In short, separation implies conformity
to the word of God and non-conformity to your neighborhood, your
relatives, your family, and your church where they are lined up
with the world. John said, "Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world" (1 John 2:15), yet Christians must
face them daily. Some extremists, trying to obey the Lord, go
into seclusion and live in monasteries, putting up double barbed
wire fences around dormitories and trying to pretend that since
they are not supporting people who support Modernists that they
are not worldly. But, worldliness can cross a barbed wire fence
and invade a monastery.

You are told, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in
the world.... For all that is in the world, the lust of the
flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of
the Father, but is of the world" (1 John 2:15-16). This is why
Paul said, "be not conformed to this world" (Rom. 12:2). John
said, "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not
in him" (1 John 2:15). God may have "so loved [past tense] the
world, that he gave [past tense] his only begotten Son" to save
it (John 3:16), but having once done that, the Lord is against
the world, and the world is against Him. John says, "They are of
the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world
heareth them" (1 John 4:5). Christ said, "I have chosen you out
of the world, therefore the world hateth you" (John 15:19). Jesus
said, in spite of what some ecumenical people think, "I pray not
for the world" (John 17:9). If you are praying for the world, you
are praying for the wrong thing. If you are praying for Jesus
Christ to come back and straighten this world out, you are
praying for the right thing, but if you are praying for world
peace, you are a self-deceived fool. I am giving you the opinion
of the Lord Jesus Christ in the matter instead of my own. This is
the Lord Jesus Christ speaking: "I have given them thy word; and
the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world,
even as I am not of the world" (John 17:14). "They are not of the
world, even as I am not of the world" (John 17:16). "Neither pray
I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me
through their word" (John 17:20). Not one time does He ever say
that He is praying for the world. "And now, Oh Father, glorify
thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee
before the world was" (John 17:5). "I pray for them: I pray not
for the world" (John 17:9). Is that clear? Jesus Christ speaking:
"I pray not for the world." If you do, you are out of the will of
God. Your Saviour didn't waste five minutes on it. These are hard
sayings, but they are hard sayings because the flesh of the
Christian still loves the world. The old, unregenerate nature in
the Christian (and every child of God has two natures) still
loves the world.

The "world" refers sometimes to people (John 3:16), and refers
sometimes to the inhabited earth, the world system. God loved the
world of sinners and laid down His life for them, so you ought to
love sinners as individuals and try to get them saved. But the
Apostle John explained the meaning of the word "world" in 1 John
2:16, and he says the world means the lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, and the pride of life. The word "world" means this
world system, which is controlled by Satan. If you want a
beautiful explanation of the world system, read the "Kosmos
Summary" in the Old Scofeld Reference Bible, which is found under
Revelation 13:8.

"This world-system is imposing and powerful with armies and
fleets; is often outwardly religious, scientific, cultured, and
elegant; but, seething with national and commercial rivalries and
ambitions, is upheld in any real crisis only by armed force, and
is dominated by Satanic principles."

War is God's judgment on sin here, and hell is God's judgment on
sin hereafter, and the world system is set up so that in time of
real crisis it is held together only by killing. This is the
world system which Satan offered to Jesus Christ and that Jesus
turned down (Luke 4:6-8).

The blessings that God has given in life are said to be things we
can enjoy (1 Tim. 6:17). We are given all things richly to enjoy.
This would include innocent laughter, our children, a clean
social life, healthy recreation, the beauty of nature, and the
love of flowers. These things are not unscriptural, worldly, or
sinful. Jesus enjoyed nature. He spoke of plants, seeds, and
trees. His social contacts were broad: with a family at Bethany,
eating in the Pharisee's home, the marriage in Cana. In fact, the
Saviour was accused of being a worldly person in Matthew 11:19 by
the doubly separated, ultra-separationists who put tradition
above the word of God. These self-righteous, whitewashed
Pharisees, who nowadays use more than one version to corrupt the
word of God, called the Son of Man gluttonous and a winebibber.

Where exactly to draw the rules on what is wrong and what is
right is a very, very difficult problem. Worldliness many times
consists of loving money, for "the love of money is the root of
all evil" (1 Tim. 6:10). Worldliness often consists of wanting to
put up beautiful buildings to attract carnal people. Worldliness
often consists of spending millions of dollars of God's money on
trash, allowing a university to attract millionaires, when the
money should have gone overseas for missionaries.

Worldliness can crop up in a variety of forms. The world has its
bibles because the world has never liked the King James 1611
Authorized Bible. Worldly people will prefer any version but it,
even if they use it because they have to. One of the quickest
ways to spot a worldly Christian is by the fact that he "uses the
King James and prefers it" because he makes a living off it,
while he doesn't believe it. This is known as two-faced hypocrisy
and is characteristic of worldly opportunists who are out to make
a buck.

There are some matters of separation on which we can be very
definite because the Bible is very definite about them.

First of all, marriage between a believer and an unbeliever is
forbidden. The commandment here is clear. "Be ye not unequally
yoked together with unbelievers" (2 Cor. 6:14-17). Amos 3:3 says,
"Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" This is a
definite scriptural principle that does not change with the
passing ages. Two cannot walk together except where they are
agreed. There is no way for a Bible believer to have fellowship
with a person who has no absolute authority but his own
preference. There is no way that a saved person and an unsaved
person can share the same marriage bed together and serve God,
when they are on two different tracks going two different ways,
heading into two different eternities.

You can be sure about some other matters. Separate from all
unrighteousness: "what fellowship hath righteousness with
unrighteousness?" (2 Cor. 6:14). Some would say business
partnerships between believers and unbelievers are forbidden by
this verse, but that is the ultra-separationist position of the
Pharisee. It is never a compromise to go as far as you can along
the right road with anybody. It is not a sin to conduct business
with any unsaved person, as long as you don't have to do wrong to
conduct your business. The ultra-separated Pharisee, what we call
the double-separationist, the ultra-fundamentalist, thinks it is
wrong to have any contact with anybody who has any contact with
anybody who has any contact with anybody who has any contact with
anybody. The ultra-Pharisee separationist position is nonsense.

The Christian is to separate himself from works of darkness.
Above all, he is to separate himself from belly worshippers
(Phil. 3:19). These are the modern Conservatives and
Fundamentalists who spend their lives correcting and altering the
word of God to suit their fancy and make their income from doing
this. Because they get their income from doing this, they feed
their stomach, and you are told, "they that are such serve not
our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and
fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple" (Rom. 16:18). You
were told absolutely to separate yourself from this bunch: "Now I
beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and
offences contrary to the doctrine [not the feeling or the
experience] which ye have learned [What doctrine? The book of
Romans]; and avoid them" (Rom. 16:17). You are told to "avoid
them." You are to separate yourself from that crowd.

You are to separate yourself from any professing Christian who is
a fornicator: "I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with
fornicators" (1 Cor. 5:9). "But now I have written unto you not
to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a
fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a
drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat" (1
Cor. 5:11). You are told to separate yourself from those kinds of
Christians. Don't have fellowship with them.

Separate yourself from the devil: "And what concord hath Christ
with Belial?" (2 Cor. 6:15).

Separate yourself from infidels: "What part hath he that
believeth with an infldel?" (2 Cor. 6:15).

Separate yourself from idols: "And what agreement hath the temple
of God with idols?" (2 Cor. 6:16). When you make an idol out of
your ministry or your church or your school, you are an idolater.

Separate from false teachers who dispute about the primary
doctrines: "from such withdraw thyself"' (1 Tim. 6:5). When you
find a teacher recommending a New ASV that denies the virgin
birth in Luke 2:33, the deity of Christ in 1 Timothy 3:16, and
teaches two created gods in John 1:18, you are to separate
yourself from those false teachers because those are primary
doctrines. (Notice especially 1 Tim. 1:4, 1 Tim. 4:7, Gal. 3:2,
and 1 Tim. 6:5.) Any teacher who denies that the blood of Christ
is necessary for redemption by taking "through his blood" out of
Colossians 1:14, is a heretic or a false teacher, and from such
you are to withdraw yourself (1 Tim. 6:5).

Separate yourself from heretics (2 John 9-11), people who teach
two created gods and come around to your house with a Watchtower
and try to tell you that one is a big God and one is a little
God. You are not to allow such people in your home.

Separate yourself from all forms of sin and immorality: "this is
the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain
from fornication: That every one of you should know how to
possess his vessel in sanctification and honour" (1 Thess. 4:34).

There may be some matters that are not too easy to define, but
these matters are easy to define. There are some rules that you
can go by that will really tie things down. When we talk about
separation we can ask ourselves these questions:

1. What I am getting ready to do, is it for God's glory? But
don't stop there. They used to kill Christians for God's glory.

2. Can I ask God's blessing upon it? Don't stop there. The
inquisition used to ask God to bless the instruments of torture
before they tortured Christians.

3. Would I like for Christ to find me doing it if He came back?

4. Is it a good example? Now you are getting down to the nitty
gritty. "For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to
himself" (Rom. 14:7).

5. Is my motive for doing this to help myself, or is my motive
for doing this because God in His word told me to do it, and I
know His word told me? Never mind this stuff about "I feel the
Holy Ghost" and "I feel the Lord leading." These demon-possessed
Christians feel "led" every time they turn around to do
everything in the world, except obey God. We are not talking
about that. We are talking about obeying God according to what
God said.

Now some matters are not too definite.

Time: how much time you should give to worship, business, study,
family, pleasure, soul-winning, and prayer. To give excessive
time to any one field would be entirely wrong in relation to the
entire day and the life for which we are responsible. Bob Jones
Sr. used to say something very wise: "Duties never conflict." God
never put a man in a place where he had to do five different
things that conflicted. Something always takes a priority, and
these matters have to be prayed about.

Pleasure, generally pleasant and innocent and enjoyable, is all
right, but some types are harmful. For example, such things as
cards and games of chance that throw dice, tamper with divine
providence and forget the fact that nothing is chance or
accidental in the life of a Christian. Games of skill such as
golf, tennis, and baseball are beneficial for you physically and
mentally. Most sports are beneficial and helpful, but one must
keep balanced here. Never get to be like that preacher who walked
in the church door one day and one of his deacons said, "I think
you are playing too much golf, preacher. You are holding your
Bible in an over-locking grip."

Worldly amusements like dancing, cards, theater, magazines,
smoking, painting, modern style of dress and hairdo, television,
clubs, and dating, all those are questionable. The questions
about them can be solved by three simple rules.

1. You must separate yourself from anything that is designed to
overthrow your faith in the Bible; such as infidel or atheistic
clubs, or Christian schools that change the verses in the Bible,
or Christian schools that put a doubt in your mind about the
verses in the Bible, or Christian schools that attack the verses
in the Bible, or Christian schools that recommend the Alexandrian
text of the Jesuit Rheims Version of 1582. You had better stay
away from anything that is designed to overthrow your faith in
the word of God.

2. You must stay away from anything that would destroy your
testimony. Your testimony is one of the most priceless things you
possess here on the earth. You should have things fixed so you
would always be able to stand up and tell people what you believe
and why you believe it, under any condition. Any condition where
you can't is a wrong condition.

3. You must separate yourself from anything that would debase
your morals and lead you to sin. If playing cards would
eventually lead you to gambling, you had better quit it. If
dancing causes you to have impure and unholy desires, then you
have got to quit it.

These are the things that Christians fight about. That is, they
want to do what they want to do when they want to do it. The
consideration that they should be submissive to God and yielded
to the Holy Spirit and bearing a cross does not enter the average
Christian's mind. What the average Christian in America wants to
do is to find out how much he can get away with that's not sin.
The first consideration of the average church member in America
has nothing to do with "What can I give up for Christ? What can I
do for Christ? What can I deny myself for Christ?" The average
Christian in America is occupied with only one thing: how much of
the things that I like to do can I keep doing without crossing
the line? Strangely enough, this is the negative approach, and
these are the people who whine about negative preaching. The
biggest bunch of gripers about negative, critical preaching
think, "What's wrong with cards? What's wrong with dancing?
What's wrong with contemporary so-called 'Christian' rock music
that pawns itself over as 'gospel' music? What's wrong with the
new translations? What's wrong...." They are negative. That is
why when you begin to preach the negative passages of the Bible,
these childish, spoiled brats nearly have a heart attack because
you step on their toes.

Here are some Biblical rules we can follow:

1. If your actions cause a brother to stumble, then avoid it. 
"Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no
flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend"
(1 Cor. 8:13). Paul was willing to deny himself harmless
pleasures of any kind if they hindered his testimony.

2. Seek guidance from God by prayer and Bible study regarding a
particular issue. Strive always to have "a conscience void of
offence toward God, and toward men" (Acts 24:16). Nearly every
problem you've got could be solved by simply going back in the
bedroom, shutting the door, getting down on your knees, and
saying, "Lord, I want you to show me if such a thing is right or
such a thing is wrong. If it is right I want to do it, and if it
is wrong I want to quit it," and you will be amazed how much
light you will get there that you can't get in a Christian
school.

3. Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Paul said, "And
whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord
Jesus, giving thanks to God" (Col. 3:17). Can you do a certain
thing to God's glory? If the answer after prayer is "No," then
the thing becomes sin because James 4:17 says, "Therefore to him
that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." In
all things, use sanctified common sense. God is a reasonable
being and desires to reason with you: "Come now, and let us
reason together" (Isa. 1:18). If you think God is being
unreasonable demanding certain things of you, why don't you get
alone with Him and talk it over?

4. You must separate yourself from anything that harms your body:
physically, mentally, or emotionally. Paul said, "What? know ye
not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in
you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are
bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in
your spirit, which are God's" (1 Cor. 6:19-20).

Is what you are doing pleasing to Christ? Would Jesus do it? If
He wouldn't do it, then you shouldn't do it. Do you think if
Jesus Christ were on earth today that He would smoke? I didn't
say He wouldn't. I asked you what you thought about it. Do you
think if Jesus Christ were on earth today He would spend His time
sitting around listening to sex music and think it was gospel
music just because it had the words "God" and "Jesus" in it once
in a while? If Jesus Christ were on earth today, do you think He
would waste two and a half hours shuffling cards and trying to
get a good hand? I didn't say He wouldn't. I ask you, do you
think He would?

Will doubtful things strengthen your testimony, or will they
weaken your testimony? There are some very helpful scriptures for
the child of God to decide these things, at least to decide them
in such a way as to please God. "I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your
reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye
transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Rom. 12:1-2). That is
the plain command of scripture. Conformity to the world system in
which you live is a sin and displeasing to God. James says, "Ye
adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of
the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a
friend of the world is the enemy of God" (James 4:4). Do you want
to be God's enemy? Then be friendly with the world. Do you want
to be God's friend? Then cut the world off. You say, "Oh, but
brother Harris...." I know. You are so worldly you don't
understand what I am talking about, do you?

Christ said, "That which is highly esteemed among men is
abomination in the sight of God" (Luke 16:15). You say, "Well, I
wouldn't be showing love." Then you're such a milksop already you
don't have the backbone to stand up like a man. That's your
problem. You say, "Well, if I cut them off, then I wouldn't be
showing the love that a Christian ought to show."

God never told you to try to be a Christian like the world
thought a Christian ought to be. God told you to be the kind of
Christian the world wouldn't think was a Christian. He told you
to not be conformed to the world. The world has its own idea of
what a Christian should be, and that is the kind you should never
be. When the world thinks about a Christian it always thinks
about a nice, sweet, soft, charitable, loving person who will put
up with anything. That's what the world thinks a Christian is.
Many men of the world think the Christian is a sweet, quiet,
philosophical, passive resistance, civil disobedience
revolutionary who came to overthrow the establishment. That is
what a Christian is not. That is the world's idea of a Christian,
and that is the kind of Christian you are not to be.

The Christians in the New Testament are strangers and pilgrims on
this earth (Heb. 11:13), and the ones who conformed to the world
were given the bum's rush. Paul said, "For Demas hath forsaken
me, having loved this present world, and is departed" (2 Tim.
4:10). "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 Cor. 6:17-18).
Every child of God should choose "rather to suffer affliction
with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a
season" (Heb. 11:25).

Let us not separate with an air of superiority or arrogance--but
let us separate. Let us not separate as proud, whitewashed
Pharisees who are better than anybody else, but let us separate
knowing that God has set us apart not to be like other people;
that our goodness is of Him, not of us; our righteousness is of
Him, not of us; our victory is of Him, not of us; and we are to
have nothing to do with this world or this world system, because
this world is not our home. Our affections are to be set on
"things above, not on things on the earth" (Col. 3:2). Or as
Christ said, "lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven . . . For
where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matt.
6:20-21). Or as Paul says, and says it clearly, "And they that
are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and
lusts" (Gal. 5:24).

Every problem you have along the line of separation and
conformity is a heart problem. If you love God and love the
Bible, you will not love the world and the things in it. If you
love the world and the things in it, you will not love God and
love the Bible. No man can serve two masters (Matt. 6:24), in
spite of the contemporary propaganda put out to the effect that
some Christians have been successful in doing it. Wherever they
became successful in the world, they became unsuccessful in God's
sight. In God's sight, "that which is highly esteemed among men
is abomination in the sight of God" (Luke 16:15). May God help
you to live the separated life.