We
have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right
to eat. For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into
the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the
camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with
His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go
forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach. (Hebrews
13:10-13, NKJV).
It
has been said, “there are only two kinds of people in this world,
those who divide people into two categories... and those who don't.”
A
pithy saying, but based on a false premise and a false corollary. In
reality, there are only three kinds of people, and in the order of
their advent these are: Gentiles, Jews, and the church.
Everyone
is from one blood, descended from the first human couple (even
secular geneticists recognize “mitochondrial Eve”). Until Abram
was called out of Ur of the Chaldees and renamed Abraham, all of
Eve's descendants for the next 2000 years comprised “the nations”,
or more accurately, “Gentiles”.
Then
Abraham became the Father of the Jews by physical lineage (and the
Father of the Faithful by example), followed some 2000 years later,
by the ekklesia
(church) of Christ, where
there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised,
barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
(Colossians 3:11, NKJV).
To
advance (for advancement it surely is – but not by our own efforts)
from either of the first two groups into the third, requires a
full-fledged “coming out”, a conscious, volitional transition
that leaves behind all that was valued before (position, privilege,
pride-of-membership, comfort, familiarity, conformity). It is no
small thing, and Jesus acknowledges this, and warns about the cost.
“For
which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and
count the cost,
whether he has enough to finish it-- “lest, after he has laid the
foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock
him, “saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to
finish.’ “Or what king, going to make war against another king,
does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten
thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? “Or
else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation
and asks conditions of peace. “So likewise, whoever
of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.
(Luke 14:28-33, NKJV).
“If
anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and
children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot
be My disciple. “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after
Me cannot be My disciple. “So likewise, whoever of you does not
forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple. (Luke 14:26, 27, 33,
NKJV).
Therefore
“Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not
touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.” (2 Corinthians
6:17, NKJV).
However,
the result far exceeds the price.
But
what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ.
Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things, and count them as
rubbish,
that I may gain Christ (Philippians 3:7, 8, NKJV).
Note
what the Apostle Paul writes in that last citation: everything and
everyone else in comparison to Christ, is rubbish.
The
word in the original Greek is dung.
Coming
out from the world is not only essential for being a disciple of
Christ, but it is the best decision and action that mortal man can
undertake, for the world is evil and hateful and filled with death.
“The
world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that
its works are evil. (John 7:7, NKJV).
“If
the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.
“If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet
because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world,
therefore the world hates you. (John 15:18, 19, NKJV).
Coming
out is also the only
course away from damnation into eternal life.
Now
this does not mean isolation, but separation. We are to be in
the world, doing the works that our Savior prepared beforehand that
we should walk in them, but not of
the
world, and the distinction is crucial, for
...[do]
you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?
Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an
enemy of God. (James 4:4, NKJV)
Popularity,
conformity, and comfort with and in the world is a deep and abiding
temptation. That, combined with human pride is a deadly spiritual
toxin that prevents many from being saved.
In
the end, it is death.
If
you are not being persecuted in some fashion because of your faith,
if you are not made to feel like a stranger in a strange land, if
your unbelieving friends and family are not holding you in varying
degrees of contempt and in some way letting you know that they
consider you the offscouring
of the world,
then examine yourself to see if
you are in the faith.
If
your witness as a follower of Jesus Christ, however imperfect it may
be, does not result in loss or heartache or discomfort, then your are
either uniquely blessed, or not being the salt
and light that
Christ has commanded His disciples to be.
We
are to be different, not because of outward piousness or false
spirituality, but because of inward transformation. We are to speak
the truth in love, despite Jesus guaranteeing that doing so would
make us hated.
Some
have said that the church needs to conform to the world, to become
seeker-friendly, to modify doctrine and practice so that it fits more
readily into modern culture. By this theory, we are to “cut all
that chatter about sin and death, salvation and sacrifice,
righteousness and truth, heaven and eternal punishment”, and
thereby soften the message and make it more palatable.
But
this is a strategy from the pit of Hell, and is exactly the opposite
of what the church should do. It is also the primary reason why the
visible church has so little influence on the actual daily living of
so many who profess belief in Christianity.
Anemic,
watered down doctrine has the same effect as any diluted cure; it
gives the impression of effectiveness while leading to death and
ultimate eternal despair. It is snake-oil and sugar water, good for
nothing.
To
dispense such a remedy, however lucrative it may be, is a monstrous
crime. To proclaim that God forgives everyone whose good deeds
outweigh their bad, or whose quiet and private religious belief does
not make those around them uncomfortable or feel the burden of
conviction, is to foster unconscionable evil.
The
proclamation of the gospel of Christ, and the living out of faith in
His death and resurrection should not be done in a closet. It should
be shouted from the rooftops. It is supposed
to
make people squirm, and to fill those with the hardest of hearts full
of contempt and hatred toward those who humbly live for Christ.
It
is the only coming out that has any meaning or eternal benefit.
