No. 1
In Genesis 12 we learn of the divine call of Abram, even as it is written, “Now the Lord had said to Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee” (verse 1). Obeying God’s call, Abram went forth to be a pilgrim and stranger in the land of promise. It must have been a painful experience for Abram to leave all that constituted his life in Ur of the Chaldees, but the promise of God, which faith made real to his soul, and God’s appearing to him, more than compensated for all that he had been separated from by the call of the living God.
Israel, as a nation, was called out of Egypt to be a separate and peculiar nation for Jehovah (Hosea 11:1), and God hedged them around with His law that they might be kept from the idolatry and corruption of the nations around.
Aaron and his sons were called to the priesthood by the Lord, and were consecrated to serve Him in the tabernacle, and later in the temple. For this service they were separated to God, as were also the Levites, to be a tribe apart from the other tribes of Israel. It was a great privilege that Israel enjoyed to be God’s peculiar people, having His word and His presence; and it was a remarkable privilege for the priests to serve so near to the presence of God, and for the Levites to serve God’s priests.
There were other things in Israel that spoke of separation; there was the veil of separation (Numbers 4:5) that divided the holy place from the holiest, and which covered the ark on its journeys; there was the vow of separation that was open to anyone among God’s people (Numbers 6); and there was the water of separation of, or the cleansing of, those who contacted defilement in their journey through the wilderness (Numbers 19); all of which are pregnant with spiritual teaching for the saints of God today.
“Let us go forth therefore unto Him”
The Lord Jesus had been rejected by the leaders and the nation of Israel, and this was about to bring upon them the judgment of which the Lord had foretold. In the cross of Christ God had set aside the religious system of Judaism which centred in the temple, and soon the temple would be destroyed (Matt. 24:2). On account of Christ’s intercession, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do,” God treated the nation as a manslayer, and offered them on condition of repentance and conversion the blotting out of their sins “so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and He may send Jesus Christ who was foreordained for you” (Acts 3:19-20). But Israel rejected God’s offer of mercy, the stoning of Stephen sealing their doom, so that the nation was no longer viewed as the manslayer, but as a murderer.
The time had come for true believers in the Lord Jesus to separate from the religious system that had its hands stained with the blood of their Lord, that God had judged in the cross, and that was about to pass away with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. Christ was outside of that evil system, having been put outside, for the Stone had been rejected by Israel’s builders; the place for those loyal to Him was therefore outside with Him, sharing His place of rejection and reproach.
Of old, on the day of atonement, the bodies of the beasts whose blood was taken into the holiest of all were burned outside the camp of Israel. God had made known in the shadow what would take place at Christ’s death: His precious blood would secure propitiation for God’s glory and His people’s blessing, but in doing so He would suffer at the hands of Israel, in being rejected of them, but also would suffer the fiery judgment of God to make atonement.
Moses too had taken his place outside the camp of Israel when evil had entered into it, and those that sought Jehovah went forth to Moses, outside the camp (Ex. 33:7). Had not the religious system of Judaism become incorrigibly evil by the rejection of Christ? This being so, it was becoming that those who were loyal to Christ should go forth to Him, to share His reproach, as separate from the evil system that God had judged for the crucifixion of His Son.
It should be observed that it is TO JESUS in the outside place that the Christian is exhorted to go. If the Person of Christ is not our object our separation may be legal like that of the Jew, or independent for self-gratification like that of the hermit, or in misguided zeal and confinement like that of a monk or nun.
How sad the Christians of Israel must have felt at leaving the system that God had given, but which had become so evil, and at the prospect of Jerusalem being again destroyed; but they were told by the writer of this Epistle, “For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.” Like their father, Abraham, they were to look for the city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
“Come out from among them, and be ye separate”
This divine call of which we read in 2 Corinthians 6:17 was not given to Jews who had been converted, but to Gentiles who had been brought to God from heathenism. If the believing Jew was to leave the religious associations in which he had been in Judaism, the believing Gentile was to separate from every association in heathenism that compromised the holy Name of the Lord. The Christian, whether Jew or Gentile, had been called into the fellowship of God’s Son, and together had been formed into one body by the Holy Spirit. The ministry of the apostle Paul, the minister of the assembly, clearly reveals what belongs to the assembly of God as regards its constitution, its ministry, its gatherings, its discipline, and everything that God has shown is needed for its guidance and function.
Alas! around us today we have great religious systems that have been formed after the pattern of the “Camp” which God rejected in the cross of Christ. They have their great ornate buildings, a priestly caste that comes between the laity and God, beautiful robes, charming instrumental music, white-robed choirs, altars, candlesticks, incense, and such like, all of which belong to the system of Judaism that God set aside before He called upon the Jewish believers to go forth from it. If the place of the true believer is outside the camp of Judaism that God once set up but set aside, it must be evident to every spiritual mind that the Christian’s place is outside all the imitation camps of Christendom, that, like Judaism, appeal to man in the flesh. Christianity is a spiritual system, where the worship to God is “in spirit and in truth,” where “we worship by the Spirit of God,” and where every believer is a priest with immediate access to God, whether to intercede at the throne of grace, or to commune with God and worship in the holiest of all.
The Christian, whether Jew or Gentile, is not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Animals of different kinds were not to be yoked together by an Israelite (Deut. 22:10), an instruction that was not for themselves alone, but for us also, as found in this Scripture. The righteous Christian, accounted righteous by faith in Christ, and constituted righteous as having the life of the One in whom he has been justified, has nothing in common with the unrighteous of this world but the flesh, which God has judged in the cross, and which the believer has crucified.
Not only is the Christian different in character from the man of this world, he is also different in nature, being light in the Lord. Unbelievers are in darkness as ignorant of God, but the Christian walks in the light of the revelation of God which came out in the Son of God. Christ is the object of the Christian, the One who claims his affections and service, having died for him; but the head of the idolatrous world was Beliar, the god of this world. The heathen worshipped dead idols, but behind the idols were demons, who sought the adoration of men; but Christians form the temple of God, where the light of God is, and where there is true worship for the living God.
Entire separation from every unclean association is incumbent on every one who names the holy Name of Christ; we are not even to touch them. An Israelite was not ever to touch a dead bone, and if he did so he was defiled, and required the application of the water of separation before he could be restored to communion with those who were clean.
To separate from their associations in heathendom at the command of the Lord would no doubt bring the Christian into serious difficulties. Some would suffer reproach and persecution, and some would be compelled to leave parents and home. How comforting for such would be the promise of the Lord, “I will receive you.” He was waiting in the outside place to receive all who in faithfulness to Him, left the associations in which their life formerly was found.
If father and mother refused to own them, they had a Father who loved them with an infinite love, and who would constantly care for them. As the Almighty He had cared for and blessed Abram when, at His command, he had left Ur of the Chaldees, the land of his birth, and his kindred and father’s house. As Jehovah, He had provided for His people Israel after they had left Egypt, bearing them on eagles’ wings, and meeting their every need till their wilderness journey was over.
Our lot is cast in a different day, for we are not living in heathen lands, though many of our brethren are, and the call for them is just the same as when given to the saints in Corinth. But in Christendom we are surrounded by the unrighteous as saints were at Corinth, and, like them, we are to come out from every association that compromises the holy Name that has been called upon us. There is much that bears the Name of Christ that is entirely inconsistent with it, and the true Christian, who desires to be faithful to the Lord, will refuse to be linked with anything that dishonours the Name of His Master.
It should not be necessary to say that a Christian should not be joined in marriage to an unbeliever. If however one becomes a Christian after having married, there is clear instruction for such in 1 Corinthians 7:10–16, and 1 Peter 3:1. This is not the character of association for which the divine call, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate” applies. The true believer ought not to be in any kind of voluntary association that is inconsistent with the call of God, and with the Name of Christ.
R. 21.10.65
No. 2
The Scriptural teaching of separation can be very painful for a true Christian who seeks the will of God, but on realising that it is God’s will for him he will prove, on presenting his body a living sacrifice to God, that His will is “good, and acceptable, and perfect” (Rom. 12:2). Separation from evil is a divine principle, and a divine command, but it is obnoxious to the flesh, and may also be to a Christian who is mixed up with the world and finding his life and pleasure in it. But the world, including the religious world, hates the truth of separation, for it condemns those from whom the believer is told to separate.
We have already seen that the converted Jew was exhorted to go forth from Judaism, and all connected with it, to share the reproach of Christ with Him in the outside place He had received from the guilty nation and its leaders. We have also seen from 2 Corinthians 6 that converted Gentiles were to separate from the associations in which they had been as heathen. Although these divine calls were for Christians at the beginning of Christianity, they still have a voice and direct application for saints today, not only for those who were connected with Judaism and heathenism, but for all Christians, even for those brought up in so-called Christian lands. The Christian who truly loves His Master will seek to be apart from all that is inconsistent with His holy Name, and that is contrary to His will, for we are to live now unto Him who died for us and rose again (2 Cor. 5:15).
“Let every one . . . depart from iniquity”
In 2nd Timothy 2, the apostle is not writing of Judaism or of heathenism, but of what was taking place in the Christian profession. The words of some were for “the subverting of the hearers;” and the word of Hymenaeus and Philetus, which said the resurrection was already past had overthrown the faith of some. Conditions were so bad that it was not always possible to know whether a person was a true Christian or not, but the Lord knew.
What was the faithful saint of God to do in such a state of things? The instruction of the Spirit of God is plain, “Let every one that names the Name of Christ depart from iniquity.” This was a call to the individual when the body corporate had failed to deal with the evil doctrine. When evil practice and evil doctrine were present at Corinth, the apostle wrote to the saints about it, and the assembly dealt with the evil. If a gathering tolerates known evil it has forfeited its right to be called an assembly of God. Should evil come into a gathering, whatever the kind, the godly should endeavour to rouse the conscience of the assembly to deal with the evil, according to the word of God. If, after sufficient time has been given, and the evil doctrine or evil practice has not been dealt with, there is nothing left for the individual but to “depart from iniquity.”
What the apostle wrote to Timothy in his Second Epistle very accurately describes the conditions that prevail in the professing church in these last days, the days of which the writer immediately speaks at the beginning of chapter 3. In the First Epistle, the church is viewed as “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15); but in this Second Epistle, the church is likened to “a great house” in which “there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour” (2 Tim. 2:20).
This is not the church in its pristine freshness and fidelity to Christ, but what marks it as having departed from its first love, and as having failed to maintain what is due to God in His house. Vessels of dishonour, such as Hymenaeus and Philetus, and those who support them in their evil work, should never have been tolerated among the saints of God. Having been tolerated, and remaining in the company that is called by the Name of Christ, the whole system is viewed as leavened with the evil. Under such conditions, what is the faithful Christian to do? Is he to go on with the evil? No: the command of the Lord is, “If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.”
Separation from the vessels of dishonour is God’s will for His own in these last days. Some may say, What of those who remain with the vessels of dishonour? We must leave such to the Lord. If we separate from those who dishonour the Lord’s Name, it must be evident that we cannot remain with those who support them in their evil course.
The faithful individual who, in love to the Lord, withdraws from iniquity and purges himself from vessels of dishonour, will not find himself alone. There are others like-minded, and with them he is to “follow righteousness, faith, love and peace.” In other words, he is to go on with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart, seeking to carry out God’s will as found in all the Scriptures. For their gatherings there is the truth of the assembly, which is as good for two or three as for two or three hundred or two or three thousand.
In following righteousness they do what is right in the sight of God, not only in their individual lives, but also in relation to the instructions given in Scriptures for the gatherings of the saints of God. They are not instructed to start anything new; they are not cast upon their own wisdom; but, as we find in chapter 3, they are cast upon Paul’s doctrine, upon the Old Testament Scriptures, and, indeed, upon all Scripture.
Christendom in the last days is portrayed in 2 Timothy 3:1–4, and the features are very similar to those that marked the heathen (See Rom. 1:29–32); and men who profess to be followers of Christ are “lovers of their own selves, lovers of money…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” Covering this ungodly state is a veneer of religion, “a form of godliness,” which denies the true power of piety. The power of godliness is a divine nature energised by the Holy Spirit who indwells every true believer, and who dwells in the house of God. The true believer is never told to be associated with mere professors; on the contrary, he is expressly exhorted, “from such turn away.”
The teaching of divine separation in this portion of God’s word is therefore, first, “Let every one who names the Name of the Lord depart from iniquity,” that is from such as teach error and overthrow the faith of some; secondly, the Christian is to purge himself “in separating himself” from the vessels of dishonour in the “great house”; thirdly, to “turn away” from those who only have the form of godliness, but deny its power. Nothing could be plainer for those who truly seek the path of God’s will in these last days.
“Come out of her, my people”
In Revelation 17 and 18 we are shown the last end of the professing church, viewed as “The Mother of Harlots,” and as a great city, “Babylon the Great.” Even now we can see the religious profession in Christendom fast heading towards the amalgamation of its different sects. All may not be completely united at the coming of the Lord, under the headship of Rome, but such as are not merged in Rome will be associated with her as her children (Rev. 2:23).
The church as a responsive witness for Christ is depicted in the seven churches of Asia, and the prophetic history of the Christian profession is faithfully portrayed by the Lord in them. Laodicea is the final phase, and of it the Lord says, “Because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:16). What is rejected by the Lord, the beast takes up (Rev. 17:3). It is a lifeless profession, a church that has been unfaithful to Christ, and the persecutor of His servants, and full of corruption and almost every form of wickedness.
God’s judgment will be carried out by the ten kings who serve the beast, and they will despoil and destroy the false church. Envious of the power and riches of Babylon the Great, the ten kings will take their vengeance on her whom in heart they hate, not knowing that they are but the instruments of God, carrying out His will.
The destruction of the false system is given in greater detail in chapter 18, where the kings of the earth, the merchants of the earth, the shipmasters, the sailors and the traders, all join in the lament over the city that has been judged of God. But there is no lamentation for her among the people of God, the call to them is, “Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets, for God has avenged you on her.” Verses 21–24 give the violent and detailed destruction of the final judgment on the false, professing church, and the reason for it.
All around us in Christendom today we see the vast religious profession that is passing on to the judgment shown to us by the Lord. Are we, the true saints of God, who have living faith in the Son of God, to have part in that which is to be destroyed? What does the Lord say? “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues” (Rev. 18:4). The Lord, in His goodness, has forewarned us of the end in judgment of the faithless, professing church, so that we might not be mixed up with what is going on to judgment.
Guilty Christendom has put Christ outside its door, as we read in Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.” If Christ is outside, we are not only to open to Him, so that we might known the joy of communion with Him; but we are to be content to share His place, the outside place, and especially as He has cried, and still cries, “Come out of her my people.”
We cannot leave the “great house,” for this is the whole religious profession; but we can be separate from all in it who are mere professors, and from the great human systems that are but initiations of Judaism, though professing to be the church of God.
Love to the Lord Jesus will produce the desire to do His will, even as the Lord said, “He that has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves me;” and love is manifested by obedience, as the Lord said to His disciples, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15, 21). Many plead their love to the saints of God in staying in associations inconsistent with the Name of the Lord, but to go on with saints of God in a wrong course is not love to them, for the Scripture says, “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments” (1 John 5:2).
Saints of God of a past generation, in obedience to the call of the Lord, came out from the human systems of Christendom that were heading towards “Great Babylon,” and sought to walk according to the word of the Lord, gathering to the Name of the Lord, and giving the Holy Spirit His true place in their gatherings. What are the children and grandchildren of that generation doing? Are they seeking to maintain the truth of God in the path of separation, where alone it can be kept, or are they forming links with the systems of Christendom, with the religious systems that man have formed, and which will meet their doom in the judgment of Babylon?
R. 26.10.65