It is a Life of Devoted Separateness

1 Thessalonians 4:3

“For this is the will of God, even your sanctification.”

Hebrews 7:26

“For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.”

John 14:17

“Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”

The spiritual man apprehends the will of the Father, the Son’s walk, and the Spirit’s work, in relation to his sanctification. The Father willed that he should be set apart and separated wholly unto Himself. The spiritual man acquiesces in the Father’s purpose and wills to separate himself from everything he knows would keep him from becoming a vessel fit for the Master’s use.

The spiritual man takes Christ as his Example and determines to walk as He walked. Christ lived a life that was “holy, undefiled, separate from sinners.” He was in the world but not of it. He had the closest contact with the world, but without conformity to it or contagion from it. He lived in an evil, corrupt, and polluted world, yet He remained unspotted, unstained, and unsullied. The spiritual man aspires to a similar separateness of walk in this evil world.

The spiritual man lives habitually under the dominating control of the Holy Spirit who indwells him. The Holy Spirit and the world have nothing in common. The world cannot see or know the Holy Spirit, for He is unseen and invisible, and the world comprehends only the seen and the tangible. The Holy Spirit working within the believer enables the risen Lord to continue from the throne the work of sanctification begun in the believer at the cross. The spiritual man yields unconditionally to the Spirit’s power as He works out God’s full purpose in him.

God, the Father, works through His Son, by the Holy Spirit, to carry out His will of complete sanctification.

1 Peter 1:2

“Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.”

1 Thessalonians 5:23

“And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The Holy Trinity works within the believer to separate him wholly unto the Lord and set him apart as a vessel fit for the Master’s use. God is ever working to bring the believer into full conformity to the image of His Son.

When there is complete separateness, the Christian will bear the same relationship to the world as Christ bore to it, and the world will bear the same relationship to him as it bore to Christ. The Christian will regard the world’s pleasures, pursuits, principles, and plans exactly as Jesus Christ did. He is not of the world, so the world hated, persecuted, and crucified Him. The spiritual Christian will likewise have such an experience.

John 17:16

“They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”

John 15:19-20

“If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.”

There can be no successful attempt at a compromising admixture of the world and the heavenlies, of the flesh and the Spirit in the life of the one who truly aspires to life on the highest plane. God has separated these two unmixables by the cross of Christ. Any believer who submits to the perfect work of that cross both for and in him must choose to leave the world and the flesh behind and be wholly separated unto the pleasures and pursuits of life in Christ in the heavenlies.

God calls the believer to a life of spiritual “isolation” and “insulation” so that he may be conformed to the “image of his Son and filled by His Spirit.” The spiritual Christian responds to the call and obeys God’s command to come out and live a life of devoted separateness.

2 Corinthians 6:14-18

“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall he my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”

But it is not merely the apprehension of and acquiescence in the will of God that loosen the grip of the world and the flesh upon the believer. The deeper appreciation of the Father’s gracious love and the Son’s sacrificial love woos and wins him into a life of devoted separateness. We consent to be truly separated when, once we spiritually discern, how for our sakes He sanctified Himself that we might be sanctified. It is the one who beholds the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world, says, “He loved me and gave Himself for me,” who gladly consents to be crucified unto the world and to have the world crucified unto him.

May the writer bear testimony that it was so in her experience. Life in the flesh and the world kept her from victory and peace in her inner life and power in service for some years after her conversion and entrance into church fellowship. Hour upon hour had been spent in argument with a dear friend and a separated Christian upon the harmlessness and rightfulness of her worldly walk. But one day, face to face with God, the decision of the will was made, and the front door of her life was opened, and the King of kings and Lord of lords was invited to enter and to take absolute control. Thereupon, the vagabonds and hirelings that had robbed her of her possessions and privileges in Christ sneaked out the back door, and desire for and delight in their companionship were gone forever. It was with her in deed and truth “the expulsive power of a new affection” that kept her so occupied with her adorable Lord and so happy in His service that there was no sense of loss but instead of incalculable gain.

Source: “Life on the Highest Plane” by Ruth Paxson

Lord Jesus, we praise You for setting the example of living a life separated from the world. This same living is being required of us. Hallelujah for the Holy Spirit, who makes it possible.