2 Corinthians 6:17

[FJK]

  "Therefore, come out from among unbelievers, and separate yourselves from them, says the LORD. Don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you.".

Along with Revelations 18:4  "“Come away from her, my people.Do not take part in her sins, or you will be punished with her.",  Isa 52:11  "Depart, depart, go out from there; touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves, you who bear the vessels of the LORD", and numerous others.

 

Over and over we seem to be told to remove ourselves from the world around us and be separate ourselves from it.

So in our daily lives, how are we doing that?  In things like education of our children, handling our finances, even preaching from the pulpit for those so called, how are we practicing this in all that we do as we face the challenges and decisions we have to make while living in our secular, and increasingly anti-Christian, world? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Vine Abider]

On 3/23/2023 at 7:35 AM, FJK said:

  "Therefore, come out from among unbelievers, and separate yourselves from them, says the LORD. Don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you.".

Along with Revelations 18:4  "“Come away from her, my people.Do not take part in her sins, or you will be punished with her.",  Isa 52:11  "Depart, depart, go out from there; touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves, you who bear the vessels of the LORD", and numerous others.

 

Over and over we seem to be told to remove ourselves from the world around us and be separate ourselves from it.

So in our daily lives, how are we doing that?  In things like education of our children, handling our finances, even preaching from the pulpit for those so called, how are we practicing this in all that we do as we face the challenges and decisions we have to make while living in our secular, and increasingly anti-Christian, world? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Like in everything, we just need to look to the Lord, and let Him specifically speak to us about how to handle things.  There is the letter of the word and there's the inner Anointing for all believers.

As in John 17:15 He did not take us out of the world, yet says we are "not of it." (John 15:18-19)  So we must look to Him and be conscious of His speaking to us to discern how to best separate ourselves.

[Waggles]

On 3/24/2023 at 1:05 AM, FJK said:

Over and over we seem to be told to remove ourselves from the world around us and be separate ourselves from it.

The Spirit-filled elect are now to fulfill the role of the previous nation of Israel - to separate themselves from the surrounding peoples with their false gods.

The gospel and our discipleship are to be a light, a beacon to others wandering in the darkness.

1Peter 2:9  But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. 
2:10  Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 

Consecrated persons, objects and land - made holy - are set aside from "common" worldly use and are to serve the purposes of God. Thus the Spirit-filled Christian becomes holy and is separated from ordinary worldly life morally and spiritually. 

It is of extreme importance that Christians maintain their testimonies to the righteousness of God in opposition to the wickedness of the world. Integrity and consistency in all things is paramount. 

James 1:27  Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

Edited March 24, 2023 by Waggles

[AdHoc]

On 3/23/2023 at 3:35 PM, FJK said:

  "Therefore, come out from among unbelievers, and separate yourselves from them, says the LORD. Don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you.".

Along with Revelations 18:4  "“Come away from her, my people.Do not take part in her sins, or you will be punished with her.",  Isa 52:11  "Depart, depart, go out from there; touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves, you who bear the vessels of the LORD", and numerous others.

 

Over and over we seem to be told to remove ourselves from the world around us and be separate ourselves from it.

So in our daily lives, how are we doing that?  In things like education of our children, handling our finances, even preaching from the pulpit for those so called, how are we practicing this in all that we do as we face the challenges and decisions we have to make while living in our secular, and increasingly anti-Christian, world? 

 

 

1 hour ago, Vine Abider said:

Like in everything, we just need to look to the Lord, and let Him specifically speak to us about how to handle things.  There is the letter of the word and there's the inner Anointing for all believers.

As in John 17:15 He did not take us out of the world, yet says we are "not of it." (John 15:18-19)  So we must look to Him and be conscious of His speaking to us to discern how to best separate ourselves.

Although I agree with the sentiments expressed in the OP, we should be sensitive to the context. 2nd Corinthians 6 starts with the word "ministry". "Ministry" among God's people is for one thing - Building up our fellow Christians to maturity individually and corporately (Eph.4). The sense here is of Ezra and Nehemiah, set free from Babylon to build the Temple and God's City. Many and diverse where Israel's enemies who dwelt in the Land. Their first tactic was to offer to help build. But their aim was to hinder, destroy and cause the Temple not to be according to God's pattern. If we join the warning in Chapter 6 to "ministry" it is evident that letting local, well-meaning and non Christians be part of our building is what is warned against. You could probably make a case against marrying an unbeliever but history does not support this. The divorce rate among Christians is as high as the heathen. Added to this, many marry before they become born again. Good old "Eros" (Gk.) works for both believer and unbeliever.

@Vine Abider allows for this in his posting. To go out of this world is not God's will. If we examine the definition of the "The World", the world is not a place. It is the inward desire to be supplied by things other than God. Notice in 1st John 2:16 that "lust" is used twice and "pride" once. These are not outward things. Let's say I purchase a Mercedes Benz. It that the world? The answer is not found in the Mercedes Benz. It is found in the buyer's motive. If I bought the Mercedes because I am a taxi-driver and need a car that will do half a million miles before it needs heavy maintenance, I am clever. If I bought the Mercedes to display my success in life, I am accused of "the pride of life". The "world" is in man,

Again, if the Lord has blessed me and I can afford a house and nice car, but my "ministry" is in the local slums, a Mercedes might not help my ministry. @Vine Abider sets forth the solution. Ask the Lord. He knows - and He is rightful Master of us lowly slaves.

[Your closest friendnt]

On 3/23/2023 at 10:35 AM, FJK said:

  "Therefore, come out from among unbelievers, and separate yourselves from them, says the LORD. Don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you.".

I am not sure how to wellcome the above statement into the new Covenant Family...

The people to whom the above words were spoken were people of a close society...they were the people of God and God had promised to them that he will be only their God and not the God of anyone else....He was the one who separated them from the rest of the world...He actually had isolated them from the rest of the world....the rest of the world was the bdeligma by birth...the unclean people...they were dead to God and they were from the clean seed of Abraham....by birth...

God had to do that because he had promised to Abraham that he will never let his descendants be extinct...even by assimilated and mixing with the other people their neibours even the Egyptians...

He gave them their own Land he divided Canaan among their tribes and families...he forbidden to marry women of their neighbors who were born in Idolatric families and they were not converted to their culture like Ruth was who left her culture and her siblings to be with the people of God and taught her children the way of God...like the other woman from the walls of Jericho...who married an israelite and brought her children in the way of God...Both of those women were in the family line of Jesus Christ... Boaz was the son of Rahab the woman from Jericho who married an Israelite because she wanted to be with the people of God and Boaz with that background was very soft in his heart towards Ruth because the same thing had happened to his mother to be from another nation and wanting to marry an Israelite....that had hit very close home...Boaz must have a broken heart for Ruth...and he was not ashame to take her as his wife....he already had mix blood he did not have the burden of trying to keep his blood line pure to his descendants...

The point the prophet was making was that the Israelites had gone to the Idols and had forsaken the Lord God Almighty....

They had not taken into account that they were not free to make that choice...they had not taken into account that they belong to God by birth...being from the chosen seed of Abraham...

And God could punish them even with death because they had polluted them selves with the Idols and the festivals of their neibour and they went too far to offer the children of the Lord even the first born who belong to God to the God of their neibour. 

That was too much and they stopped reading their history as it was written in the Law of God...

So the prophet was giving them a warning to return to God because they were his children literally through Abraham from Issac their Patriarch and he was the one who had gives Life to Issac because he had to give Life to Sarah and Abraham so Sarah who was biologically dead as a fertile woman well pass the age of bearing children and Abraham I am not sure in what situation he was...but God restored Life to an old woman to have Issac...

All her life when Sarah was of the age to have children she could not have any.,.and it became known that the problem was her and not Abraham's when Abraham had a Son with Hagar...in this condition Sarah reproductive organs aged...but God did a miracle to revive her organs or he did something more than that when he healed her revived organs and she could conceive and give birth to Issac...the Lord return her youth to her reproductive organs without returning her youth to her altogether...

Then we have Issac and we could say that Issac was the hidden Son of God...getting into the meaning by the way he did it....and Had asked Abraham to offered Issac (his hidden son) ....

The prophet gave them the final warning because God was about to do something to them and he gave them the last chance to return to him and forsaken the Idols....before he would sent the Assyrians to totally destroy their Kingdom....

Our situation is different and the situation of the disciples changed and God changed in Jesus Christ because he went out to the Gentiles nations and in Jesus Christ asking them to come to him...

The Math change altogether he did not isolate them from the rest of the world but he asked them to live among the rest of the world and teach them the way of Jesus Christ and God's love for them...

Before they never were allowed to do that only to stay away from them and their beautiful and provocative luscious women who wake up the desires of the flesh having the power to give Life to a man so he can loose his mind over them...

So the same thing happened with the disciples they had the power to give Life to the men in their Spirit and they won over their hearts and they became thirsty for the things of God.   

We are not as Believers in Jesus Christ worshiping the Idols and dedicating our children to the Idols Gods...definitely not...

So the call to the elect will be not excessive sports...and that at the right time...in the time of the other family members of Mother and Father or wife... but also in the timing of the Holy Spirit when is asking to spent less time with sports take up sometime with what Jesus is asking from one of his own because the wife and the children need him to be more around them....

Not always because Jesus needs him for the Gospel and that also but there times when the family needs him to be around them...

On 3/23/2023 at 10:35 AM, FJK said:

Along with Revelations 18:4  "“Come away from her, my people.Do not take part in her sins, or you will be punished with her.",  Isa 52:11  "Depart, depart, go out from there; touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves, you who bear the vessels of the LORD", and numerous others.

 

Over and over we seem to be told to remove ourselves from the world around us and be separate ourselves from it.

So in our daily lives, how are we doing that?  In things like education of our children, handling our finances, even preaching from the pulpit for those so called, how are we practicing this in all that we do as we face the challenges and decisions we have to make while living in our secular, and increasingly anti-Christian, world? 
 

 

Edited March 26, 2023 by Your closest friendnt

[Markie51]

What these scriptures (2 Corinthians 6:17) are mostly referring to is avoiding the unclean temples/idols-religious building today-and false religion.  We need to spiritually separate ourselves from the false teachings and practices of Christendom-including its errant worshippers. (2 Corinthians 6:14-18)  This included the influences of the “flash” and “glitter” of our cultures and the ways and practices of the world.  Reference John 13:34, 35; 15:19; James 4:4; 1 John 3:10-12; 5:19.

[TheBlade]

Amen I like what your saying and agree but the verse starts out with "therefore" something came before it. A good start would be say at verse 14.  But then you just have to keep going you don't want to stop verse 18 "And I will be a Father to you, And you will be My sons and daughters,” Says the Lord Almighty." Ah praise GOD glory to Jesus.. as the song says "its not over". Well Chapter 7 starts off with? haha "therefore".

[com7fy8]

Separation mainly has to do with how we are. Be humble >

"be clothed with humility" (in 1 Peter 5:5).

Outward good example is good, but this is not how to be but how we behave.

Edited March 28, 2023 by com7fy8

[Waggles]

Rev 18:1  After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory. 
2  And he called out with a mighty voice, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. 
3  For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.” 
4  Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; 
5  for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.

Rev 18:24  And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on earth.” 

This warning is given to true worshippers - the Spiritfilled Pentecostal elect of the NT - to come out of Babylonian religion that will suffer the wrath of God in the last day. For if those who have received the Spirit of truth choose to return and worship within false religion (a lie) then they will also suffer condemnation.

Edited March 28, 2023 by Waggles

[Your closest friendnt]

7 hours ago, Markie51 said:

What these scriptures (2 Corinthians 6:17) are mostly referring to is avoiding the unclean temples/idols-religious building today-and false religion.  We need to spiritually separate ourselves from the false teachings and practices of Christendom-including its errant worshippers. (2 Corinthians 6:14-18)  This included the influences of the “flash” and “glitter” of our cultures and the ways and practices of the world.  Reference John 13:34, 35; 15:19; James 4:4; 1 John 3:10-12; 5:19.

For us It is about the principle and is not about the Jewish comandment in their cultural law....of what is clean and unclean...and believing they are clean and we are unclean...

It does have to do with the person's culture...and the rules he has been brought up with...

I had to go and visit someone who was living in  a Hare Krisna Temple...and they were hospitable people and their vegetarian cafeteria was available to visitors...

Of course they will aproch you and they will tell you things about them...and you do not say that you are their to evangelize them...because you do not want them to come to your church to do the same thing...you do not call them evil because of their religious beliefs and we should not see them as evil people on the basis of their religion....because the one in the emergency room may be someone with the same religion and he is dedicated to save your life...to do you good and not harm...the one who gave blood for your needed blood transfusion may be from their group as the one who donated his kidney or some other vital organ so we can live...and are not suppose to judge the goodness of the people by their atire and their ethic background....maybe the teacher of math in the school is one of them...maybe Jesus Christ wants to sent you to minister to them and as it has happened to some people and they married someone from them...because they understand that we are in the New Covenant and not in the Old Covenant....who do not allowed those things...and are asking not to do them...in that time and for the culture which continues in that culture...

That time they were not allowed to visit their house and have friends with them,   but not in the new Covenant if that what you want to do...event rent a place in their house....and they can be very good and hospitable people and they lead a very respectable life....in the old they were for bitten to do that but not in the new Covenant....which it leaves it upon to anyone to decide for them selves...

Maybe your job is to go to them and teach piano or violin lessons or english...to their children....they know you are not like them in religion but it is only about English...draw the line...in the old they would say that you are polluted and your family won't let you enter the house...till they clean you up...they will give you food to eat just they way in some cases as they feed their domestic animals...

We are in the New Covenant...Jesus says to go to them but do not partake in their religious festivities...but we invite them to our religious festivities...food for thought...to visit is not for anyone because they will not let you be part as a participant but as an outside visitors. ..

In the old testament they looked at the other people from different ethnic background and they were thinking not complementary things about them and complementary things about them selves...in the New Covenant we should not do that...because Jesus is for them also... but in the old God was not for them...no matter what even if they wanted him more than those who were eligible to have him as their God...God had done this at that time for that time and he told them to keep to them selves because he had separated from the other people and because he had also separated himself from the other people...

This time has pass away ...it was only for that time and for those people...who even today they separate themselves and they want talk to others....the leadership do not want to loose then to the power of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit....they keep them through culture and make them believe that this is what God wants from them according to their culture...and as it was in the Law...does not matter if we believe in Jesus Christ and the Law of Jesus Christ...and that the Law died on the Cross the time Jesus Christ died on the Cross...and Jesus continue to live but for them who are in the Old Covenant the law continues to live but not to God for us but according to God for them...because this is what they believe...

So we have to be very careful when we say that faith is....without specifying the context.... and Jesus Christ made it possible for Stephen to see what he believed before he died...so he can die because that he also show Jesus siting on the Throne of God on his right...that's the testimony he gave for the rest of the believers even Jewish believers that God had fulfilled his promise to Abraham give him his Heavenly Inheritance in Jesus Christ. .and Stephen knew that his Inheritance after his death it will be to be with Jesus Christ to where he is...in Heaven...Stephen understood and have his testimony that he has a Heavenly Inheritance in Jesus Christ.. .