“As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” I Peter 1:13-16
There’s a large body of water on the Eastern coastline of the United States that flows from the Artic to the Gulf of America whose waters are clearly defined and known as the Gulf Stream. Planes flying overhead note that ships can be sailing in the Gulf Stream as one point and in the ocean at another. The Gulf Stream does not MIX with COMMON sea water. Each body of water has its OWN PROPERTIES AND EFFECTS. Anyone who has ever taken a dip in the Atlantic can tell you that when the Gulf Stream comes close to the shoreline it’s warm enough to go in, but when it goes away from the shoreline the waters become cold again. It’s a river in an ocean. So too must the Church with its OWN PROPERTIES AND EFFECTS co-exist but not MIX with the patterns of this world. We are to be a river of living water in an ocean of lost souls.
When God delivered His people from slavery, He said, “You shall be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be Mine.” (Lev. 20:26) When He, through the death and resurrection of Christ, delivered us from slavery to sin and death, He called us into covenant as a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation – a people for His own possession who would proclaim His excellencies (I Peter 2:9). He called us not to conform to the patterns of this world but to be transformed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another (Rom. 12:2; II Cor. 3:18) He gave us precious and very great promises so that we might become partakers of the divine nature and escape from the corruption in the world caused by sinful desire. (II Peter 1:3-4)
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to tell the Church apart from the World, as the WATERS are MIXING together and becoming part of EACH OTHER. The divorce rate in the “Church” is almost as much as that of the “World.” What once was Holy and SEPARATE is becoming ASSIMILATED and COMMON. Those who call themselves Christian condone the very things that God calls abominations. Their bodies, temples of the Lord, are defiled by indulging the flesh and conforming to the patterns and morality of the world. They allow worldly thought to indoctrinate them through what they watch and listen to. The Internet and mobile phones woo them into high places of worship. Sickness and disease are prevalent in the Church, not healings and deliverance. The world used to be drawn to Christ for healing through the power of the Holy Spirit. Today, the Church looks to the world for her answers.
God’s call to be holy resounds both in the Old and New Testaments. Friendship with the world is enmity toward God. Those who want to be friends of the world make themselves His enemies. (James 4:4) If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him. All that is in the world – the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life are not from the Father but from the world (I John 2:15-16). The religion that God calls pure and undefiled keeps itself unstained from the world (James 1:27). Jesus warned His disciples that if they were of the world, the world would love them as their own, but because they were not of the world but called out of the world, it would hate them as it hated Him (John 15:18-19). Yes, there’s a high price to pay to follow Christ.
Jesus came into the world to save sinners and destroy the works of the devil, but He was IN the world, not OF it. (I Timothy 1:15; I John 3; John 17:16) He did only what He saw His Father doing and said only what His Father gave Him to say (John 5:19; 12:49). As He is holy, let us be holy in all of our conduct. Let’s cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. (2 Cor. 7:1) Through reverent submission, let’s give Him permission to make us vessels of noble purpose, set apart as holy and useful to Him, ready for every good work (2 Tim. 2:21).
“Lord, search my heart and root out any offensive way in me. Where have I compromised Your glory and excellence instead of proclaiming it? Where have I indulged my flesh and grieved Your Spirit? Where have I conformed to the patterns of this world instead of being set apart and holy in You? Refine me. Purify me. Make me a river in an ocean, LORD. I choose to be set apart from this world and walk in oneness with You.”
Rabbi Matt and Lisa Moore