Another example is from your employment. If you work for a company, radical separation does not mean that you refuse to do your job with or around those who are not Christians. But suppose you want to enter into a partnership with somebody. At that point the principle would enter in. Do you want to enter into a partnership in a business with somebody who is not a Christian? I am not saying that in every case such a partnership must be avoided, but the principle still holds that the more intimate the relationship is, the more radically the principle must be applied.
The fourth and final principle is that separation is a continuing and not merely a once-for-all need. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 7: “Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God” (v. 1). Can anything be clearer in that verse than the fact that separation is to characterize our lives? We are to purify ourselves. The Greek text has the sense of continuing to purify ourselves and to perfect in holiness. We must work on it throughout all the days of our lives. As long as we think of separation as involving a particular thing, especially a secondary thing, we get the idea that if we have blocked ourselves off from that item we have moved up to a higher level of Christianity.
But that is not the way the apostle Paul is thinking of separation. Rather he is viewing it as simple growth as we try increasingly to be God’s people. How do we do that? We do that by looking to Jesus, trying to be like Him and doing those things that please Him. And if in a particular situation we make a mistake and get into a relationship that we should not be in, if we really want to please the Lord and wanted to do that even at the time we made the mistake, God has a marvelous way of overriding our errors and working things out for the good. Now I am not speaking about willful errors. A person who enters into a marriage with an unbeliever knowing that they ought not to do it has no promise that God is going to bless them and redeem the situation.
I close with that great principle of separation that we find in the twelfth chapter of Hebrews:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart (vv. 1-3).
