Apart from the World

God loves us but His love requires us to be set apart from the world. It is not the kind of love that gives in to our wishes to make us happy just because He loves us. To say that anything is all right with God as long as it makes us happy is not a godly principle or thought. God does not teach that. On the contrary, God tells us in His Word that once we decide to follow God, we have to live a new life that follows His will for our life.

We might be deceived by our own human ways and thinking that God does not mind our actions and lifestyle because God wants us to be happy and seeing us happy is His way of showing His love. That is not the nature of God. If we believe in this idea, we are trying to make God act like man. God is not a man that he should think like a man. Yes, God is love and He loves us with an everlasting love. But God’s love is perfect and man’s love is faulty. His ways are perfect and man’s ways are imperfect. His plans for us are good because He wants us to prosper, not to be harmed, to give us hope, and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). But all these does not imply that God will allow and will give us anything that we think would make us happy. He is our Lord, our master. We are the followers. As followers, we should live in obedience to the commands of the Master. He is the One who gives the commands and His commands are not flexible or adjustable to our liking and needs. They are to be followed and when we obey Him, He blesses us with a good life.

“Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.”

– Romans 12:1-2 (WEB)

God calls us to sanctification. To be sanctified is to be “set apart” for God and apart from the world. Obedience to God’s Word takes us through the process of sanctification. The moment we quit obeying God, we cannot be sanctified because when we disobey God, we walk and live as the world does.

When Israel went to battle against Ai, God did not go with them and they had no defense. Israel was then defeated and Joshua asked God in agony and pain why He allowed Israel to be defeated. God pointed out that one of them had sinned against Him by not destroying the devoted things of war and had stolen them.

“Yahweh said to Joshua, ‘Get up! Why have you fallen on your face like that? Israel has sinned. Yes, they have even transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. Yes, they have even taken some of the devoted things, and have also stolen, and also deceived. They have even put it among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel can’t stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies, because they have become devoted for destruction. I will not be with you any more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you. Get up! Sanctify the people, and say, ‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, for Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘There is a devoted thing among you, Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted thing from among you.’ ”

– Joshua 7:10-13 (WEB)

Upon investigation, Joshua found out that Achan stole the devoted things from war. As a consequence, He and his whole household were put to death by stoning them and burning them (Joshua 7:20-26).

Obedience to God is center in the Christian life. Like with Israel, they were defeated in battle because God could not tolerate sin. When we disobey God, we reap the consequences. God isn’t pleased with disobedience. His blessing departs from us the moment we choose to disobey. Disobedience also does not set us apart from the world but makes us one with it. As it was during the time of Israel, God calls us today to be sanctified. Repent from sins and choose to obey God. Be careful in obeying what God requires of us. He is the God who sees all things. Even things done in secret does not escape His notice.

“Unless we take away the things that are displeasing to God, we cannot stand before our enemies”.

“If anyone therefore purges himself from these, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, and suitable for the master’s use, prepared for every good work.”

– 2 Timothy 2:21 (WEB)

“Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. Also, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”

– Romans 6:11-13 (WEB)