Posted on 07/17/2021 11:02:07 PM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom” (Proverbs 18:1).
Separation must be looked at as much as a positive as a negative. When a man marries, he separates himself unto his wife. As a believer, we can choose to separate from the world and unto the Lord. So, we are considering somewhat of the depth of the commitment that a person is willing to make in their faith in Christ. Romans 12:1, 2 deal with this exact principle: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” When we conformed to this world, we are not allowing the Spirit of God to transform us into the image of Christ. Based upon what He has done for us, our love to Him should motivate us to deny our own lusts and desires to serve and love Him completely. Further proof of this aspect of separation can be found in Colossians 3. In the first two verses we are told that we are to seek those things that are above and to set our affection on those things. All of this is positive. Then Paul begins to give us some negatives, mortify your members, put off some things, and lie not one to another.
A proper definition of Separation is essential to an effective lesson plan. Separation is that practical doctrine based upon what the Bible teaches about cleaving unto the Lord and leaving or ignoring anything that would hinder our personal walk with Him. The text in Hebrews 12 gives emphasis to “us.” The word for “lay aside” means to cast away or to put off. This is what Christ expects from us. Consider this text, “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord . . . ”Psalm 1:1,2a, or this text; “Be not thou envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them…meddle not with them that are given to change.” Proverbs 24:1,21b. Separation will include a hatred of that which is evil and a delight in that which is good in the eyes of the Lord. Properly exercised, it will enable us to choose between good and best.
Proverbs 18:1 is a verse that we return to pretty often as we go through this Book of Proverbs in our devotional studies. Now, we have to be careful about our desires, don't we? “If a man desires the office of a Bishop, he desires a good thing,” That's a sanctified desire; however, there are a lot of desires that are not sanctified. Here in this passage we have a man that is desiring to separate himself. We talk a lot about separation, especially in Bible-believing churches. We think about separation as being solely a Christian issue. That is not true at all. Separation is not just a Christian issue. Saved Christian should be separated from the world. Right? Surely, we all understand that; but Christians are not the only folks that are separated. Consider, for instance, these folks in Jude:
“How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit” (Jude 1:18-19).
Jude is commenting here on how these folks were told beforehand of a couple things and notice verse 18 how that they told of sensual, lustful people who separate themselves from the truth. Have you ever thought about this? There's a lot of separation that goes in this world. Did you know that if you decide to become a Buddhist monk they are going to cart you off somewhere and you're going to wind up joining a Buddhist monastery and you're going to be segregated and separated off to learn their dogmas and so on and so forth. If you decided to become a Catholic priest, you are going to be segregated off into a monastery where you would be trained in their brand of theology.
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