The other day I was reading my favorite
devotional, Morning and Evening by C.
H. Spurgeon and I came across an interesting devotional. In it Spurgeon says
"Yes,"
says the world, "be spiritually minded by all means, but do not deny
yourself a little gay society, an occasional ball, and a Christmas visit to a
theatre. What's the good of crying down a thing when it is so fashionable, and
everybody does it?" Multitudes of professors yield to this cunning advice,
to their own eternal ruin. If we would follow the Lord wholly, we must go right
away into the wilderness of separation…When the town is on fire, our house
cannot be too far from the flames. When the plague is abroad, a man cannot be
too far from its haunts. The further from a viper the better, and the further
from worldly conformity the better. To all true believers let the trumpet-call
be sounded, "Come ye out from among them, be ye separate.
I believe this to be good advice and yet
the question I ponder today is how far must a Christian be separate from the
world and its ways? Obviously you can take this to two extremes. You can argue
for Christian liberty and live the life of a lost person even though you are
saved which will render you useless for the kingdom or you can be so separate
from the world that you might end up something like the Amish and just like
them have little to no influence on the world.
The question then is how do we be in the
world and not of it? How do we know if our past times are right or wrong? While
I do not presume to understand this matter perfectly here is what I have
learned about it. Paul says, “All things are lawful for me, but all things are
not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.” And
another time he says the exact same thing but ends it saying “I will not be
brought under the power of any.”
The simple answer is that if anything
does not edify, or build you up spiritually it is something that you would be
better off not doing.
Come again next time and I will try to
make apply these verses a little more practically. In the meantime God bless
and have a great day!
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