Come out from among them

2 Corinthians 6:17 tells us to come out from among them and be separate. First of all, who is them? Them refer to people that are not Godly people. People who do evil and do not follow after God’s command; come out from among them. This signifies that we are among them to start with, but Paul tells the CHURCH at Corinth to stop being like everyone else; Stop drinking unto drunkenness, stop fornicating, stop commit theft, adultery, stop lying, stop backbiting, stop being like the world. Did you hear me…Paul tells the church to not be like the world! Sad that this even has to be told to the Church, but I also think that this needs to be preached in more of our churches today. Sidebar: when I was working fast food growing up, the day I hated to work the most was Sundays. The after church crowd was so impatient, so rude, so “give me give me” that it made me not want to attend church, and I was an active youth participant!! At the very least, I didn’t want to attend their church. Anyway, We are to be separate from these people, not similar to these people.

We are not to touch the unclean thing. If it is dirty, if it does not pass the clean smell test, then why in everything holy, does this unclean thing even draw our gaze in its remote direction!? As Christians, I think sometimes we try to get so close to the edge, to get a smell of the rotten dirtiness, just to be a part of the drama, or reminisce about the “good old days”…careful that we do not slip and fall into a temptation that we may be too weak to stand!

What happens when we come out from among the world, separate ourselves, and don’t touch dirty things? The word here tells us that God will receive us. So, in good ole’ Arkansas logic, the inverse stands the same as well. If we do not separate, and touch unclean things…God will reject us! This flys in the face of anyone that will tell me, “God sends people to hell.”. Uh, nope! He sets boundaries, guardrails, and those that do not follow them, make that choice themselves. Sorry, try again.

Now, for those that say, “this is Paul’s writing” and may not agree with the whole “bible is the breathed word of God” theology, let me point you to an Old Testament prophet named Isaiah. In 52:11 of his book, he states the same thing: depart you and be clean. Touch no unclean thing, be clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. Is this not the same? The prophets in the OT spoke what God had given them, so maybe if we don’t want to take Paul’s written word for it, we will take the word of the one that most closely prophesied the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ (in chapter 53), and was spoke as God directed.

Be clean. Come out from among the ways of the world. God’s word is immutable and without error; it will not be mocked either. If we want more of Him, perhaps we should give Him more of us. Please turn your life to Christ. This world has NOTHING more important that knowing Jesus as your personal Savior. Just watching the current events, I see the time is coming close to an and. Maybe it will be this week, maybe it will be in 10 years, but we are to BE READY! Jesus loves you, so do I. If i can pray with you, for you, or over you; please let me know.