The Separated Life

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

This photo is from the sermon "The Separated Life" delivered on 20 May, 1956 by the famous Evangelical preacher Dr. W. A. Criswell. It is based on the Scripture passage in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 (KJV) -

"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 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."

I'll let you read the whole sermon for yourself, but I'm pretty certain that most preachers today would mince their words and be more cautious than Dr. Criswell was 60 years ago. Too many churchmen today are either afraid of lawsuits or losing church members or forfeiting their tax-exempt status, or else they've totally caved into the spirit of the world in order to be "tolerant," "relevant" and "compassionate" toward the LGBTQ crowd.

On the other hand, too often conservative Christians have taken a hard line toward LGBTQ people, condemning them and banning them from polite society, much like the strict commands in the Old Testament on this topic. But that was when the Israelites had their own country and government: they could make and enforce the laws. The Church is to be a holy, separate community distinct from the surrounding society at large. What we are seeing today may be the backlash against O.T. practices by semi-Christianized cultures that have carried those O. T. ideas and practices into their belief system. But in the New Testament times, it was different - Christians were a despised minority sect in the surrounding pagan Greco-Roman culture, as we are in today's post-Christian age.

When Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well and asked her for water, He didn't beat around the bush regarding her morals, but neither did He condemn or scold her:

"Jesus answered her, 'Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.' The woman said to him, 'Sir, give me this water, so that I don't get thirsty, neither come all the way here to draw.' Jesus said to her, 'Go, call your husband, and come here.' The woman answered, 'I have no husband." Jesus said to her, 'You said well, "I have no husband," for you have had five husbands; and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly'" (John 4:13-18, World English Bible).

And when the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in the very act of adultery, look at how they demanded she be stoned to death, and how He handled the situation, recognizing her sin but not condemning her:

"'Now in our law, Moses commanded us to stone such. What then do You say about her?' They said this testing Him, that they might have something to accuse Him of. But Jesus stooped down, and wrote on the ground with His finger. But when they continued asking Him, He looked up and said to them, 'He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone at her.' Again He stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground. They, when they heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning from the oldest, even to the last. Jesus was left alone with the woman where she was, in the middle. Jesus, standing up, saw her and said, 'Woman, where are your accusers? Did no one condemn you?' She said, 'No one, Lord.' Jesus said, 'Neither do I condemn you. Go your way. From now on, sin no more'" (John 8:6-11, WEB).

Next, consider how Jesus interacted with the "sinful woman" who anointed His feet with precious perfume. (BTW, the story in John 12:1-8 is very similar in its details and names the woman as Mary, the sister of Lazarus.) Again, He didn't excoriate and reject her; instead, He forgave her and said "Your faith has saved you" - He recognized her faith in spite of her sins.

"One of the Pharisees invited Him to eat with Him. He entered into the Pharisee's house, and sat at the table. Behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that He was reclining in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of ointment. Standing behind at His feet weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears, and she wiped them with the hair of her head, kissed His feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw it, he said to himself, 'This man, if He were a prophet, would have perceived who and what kind of woman this is who touches him, that she is a sinner.'

Jesus answered him, 'Simon, I have something to tell you.' He said, 'Teacher, say on.' 'A certain lender had two debtors. The one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they couldn't pay, he forgave them both. Which of them therefore will love him most?' Simon answered, 'He, I suppose, to whom he forgave the most.' He said to him, 'You have judged correctly.' Turning to the woman, he said to Simon, 'Do you see this woman? I entered into your house, and you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has wet My feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave Me no kiss, but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss My feet. You didn't anoint My head with oil, but she has anointed My feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.' He said to her, 'Your sins are forgiven.' Those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, 'Who is this who even forgives sins?' He said to the woman, 'Your faith has saved you. Go in peace'" (Luke 7:36-50, WEB)

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When the Pharisees asked Christ about His doctrinal position on divorce, He gave a straightforward answer that it isn't allowed:

"Pharisees came to Him, testing Him, and saying, 'Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?' He answered, 'Haven't you read that He who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, "For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall join to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh?" So that they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, don't let man tear apart.' They asked him, 'Why then did Moses command us to give her a bill of divorce, and divorce her?' He said to them, 'Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it has not been so. I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries her when she is divorced commits adultery'" (Matthew 19:3-9, WEB).

As we can see from the previous Scripture texts, however, Christ treats the individual person differently than the way He defines doctrinal cases. An individual is not a doctrinal case, he or she is a person. We should have compassion and understanding for the social environment, family history, and personal history of each individual. And remember: first of all, Christ wants to forgive, not to condemn the sinner.

When the Apostle Paul learned that one of the believers in Corinth had committed incest, he wrote them to exclude that person from the Lord's Table until he repents: "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, are to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus" (1 Corinthians 5:4-5, WEB). Notice that Paul recognized that Satan's goal is to destroy that person physically, but hopes for his spiritual salvation. Then he gives the doctrinal position that we must keep the Christian community, the Church, pure from sexual immorality as well as many other serious sins, but we must not judge people who are outside the Church - leave that to God:

"I wrote to you in my letter to have no fellowship with sexual sinners; yet not at all meaning with the sexual sinners of this world, or with the covetous and extortioners, or with idolaters; for then you would have to leave the world. But as it is, I wrote to you not to have fellowship with anyone who is called a brother who is a sexual sinner, or covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner. Don't even eat with such a person. For what have I to do with also judging those who are outside? Don't you judge those who are within? But those who are outside, God judges. Put away the wicked man from among yourselves" (1 Corinthians 5:9-13, WEB).

(Later, as we read in 2 Corinthians 2:6-8, that person repented and was welcomed back into the church.) Again, those in the Christian Church must be separate, set apart from the world. What might be legal in society at large (divorce, gossip, adultery, homosexuality, drunkenness, greed, idolatry) must not be allowed in the Christian community. Also, our bodies are to be kept pure because sexual sin is so enticing and can keep people from repenting and turning to Christ. Our bodies are to become temples of the Holy Spirit:

"Or don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don't be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes [men who assume the female role in sex, transgenders and cross-dressers], nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortioners, will inherit the Kingdom of God. Such were some of you, but you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God. 'All things are lawful for me,' but not all things are helpful. 'All things are lawful for me,' but I will not be dominated by anything.

Flee sexual immorality! Every other sin that a person commits is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:9-12 & 18-20, WEB).

Finally, always keep in mind that the greatest sin is not homosexual behavior; instead, rejecting Christ is the worst sin: "Whoever doesn't receive you, nor hear your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake off the dust from your feet. Most assuredly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city" (Matthew 10:15, WEB). First and foremost, we must preach God's love and forgiveness and our need for repentance and new life in Christ!

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!

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