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What the Bible says about Come Out Of the World
(From Forerunner Commentary)

John 18:35-37

Christ gives two clear distinctions about Himself in these verses. First, He says that He was not really a part of the Jewish nation, and further, not really of this world. Second, He says that if His Kingdom were of this world, His servants would fight for Him. The implication is that because they are not of this world, they do not go to war because His Kingdom is not presently established on earth.

This presents us with a vivid example of "us and them." The basis of this is that a Christian's loyalty is elsewhere. A true Christian sides with the spirit, while the merely professing Christian sides with the world, claiming to know God and to worship God, but denying Him by his works.

God has given us a clear command to come out of this world (II Corinthians 6:17; Revelation 18:4), and He clarifies it with examples such as this. In Philippians 3:20, He says through the apostle Paul that our citizenship is in heaven, and anyone familiar with the Bible ought to understand the legal ramifications of that. Not only that, we understand that His Kingdom is here only in spirit; it is not fully established as part of the earthly systems. The suggestion in verse 37 is that when it is fully established, if it were challenged, Christ's servants, true Christians, would go to war on its behalf, because our loyalties, our orientation, that which the true Christian sides with, are always with God's Kingdom. We will always rally to the things of the spirit.

John W. Ritenbaugh
The Christian and the World (Part Two)

2 Corinthians 6:14-17

This series of verses is not an appeal for us to break all of our worldly associations. Recall that Paul urges the Christian partner in a divided marriage to strive to maintain the relationship as long as possible. This, instead, is an appeal to avoid too close associations. He says not to go into the world, but come out of it (see Revelation 18:4). We should not deliberately make close associations with the peoples of the world. It is all right to do business with them and to work with them, but avoid becoming harnessed together with them.

The statement, "I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters," seems to hinge on whether or not we are allowing ourselves to become yoked into these associations. God does not want us in these close associations with the world because it almost inevitably leads to compromise with His standards. It jeopardizes the consistency of the Christian's witness for God because there is a spiritual force in the world that undermines the Christian because the unbeliever does not share the Christian's standards, sympathies, or goals in life.

Is it unfair that God should ask this of us? Remember, He has bought us with a price (I Corinthians 6:20). The price was the life of His Son, which obligates us to a life of purity and holiness. Once we accept that sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin, we belong to Him. He is our Master, and He says, "Come out of the world and be separate." That is a demand that He puts on us.

Does God ever ask us for something that is not for our good? Of course not! And how is this for our good? Because He knows that it is likely that His people, though they have the Spirit of God, will have an extremely difficult time resisting the spiritual force that wants to lead them to compromise on the standards of His Kingdom. He thus obligates us to purity of life, to holiness, to separation from evil. We owe our allegiance to Him alone, and we cannot allow ourselves not to be a fit vessel for Him to live in.

There is no surer way to go backward in our spirituality, to blunt our feelings about sin, to dull our spiritual discernment until we can scarcely tell evil from good, and to dry up the source of our spiritual strength than by needless mingling with the world. We should stress the word "needless" because Paul writes in I Corinthians 5:9-10 that to avoid all contact with the immoral, one would have to go out of the world. There is nothing in the New Testament to indicate separating oneself by moving into a commune of believers or living alone like a hermit.

John W. Ritenbaugh
New Covenant Priesthood (Part Two)


 




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