A Call To Separation

"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and the Devil? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?" 2 Corinthians 6:14-16

"The days in which we are living are marked by the spirit of compromise. On every side we behold unholy mixtures, ungodly alliances, unequal yokes. Many professing Christians appear to be trying how near to the world they may walk—and yet go to Heaven!

'Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.' We are fully persuaded, that it is disregard of this commandment, for a command it is, which is largely responsible for the low state which now prevails so generally among Christians, both individually and corporately. No wonder the spiritual pulse of many churches beats so feebly.

How many Christians are members of so-called "churches," where much is going on which they know is at direct variance with the Word of God—either the teaching from the pulpit, the worldly attractions used to draw the ungodly, and the worldly methods employed to finance it or the constant receiving into its membership of those who give no evidence of having been born again. Believers in Christ who remain in such "churches" (?) are dishonoring their Lord.

'For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and the Devil?' How explicit and emphatic are the terms used there! No excuse whatever is there, for failing to understand the terms of this exhortation, and the reason with which it is supported."

2Co 6:17 Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, 18 and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty."

"Says the Lord Almighty." This is the only time the divine title "Almighty" is found in all the twenty-one Epistles of the New Testament! It seems to be brought in here for the purpose of emphasizing the sufficiency of our Resource. As another has said, "Let any Christian act on the Command of separation given in 2 Corinthians 6:14-17, and he will find his path so beset with difficulties and so tending to arouse the hostility of all, that if his eyes are not kept fixed on the Almighty God who has thus called him out—he will surely have a breakdown." But let it be noted that these promises are conditional; conditional on obeying the preceding exhortations. Yet if the heart lays hold of this blessed inducement, then obedience to the command will be easy and pleasant!

~ Arthur Pink, "A Call to Separation"