How can I keep holiness?
What is the meaning of separation?
Separation means
- The action or state of moving or being moved apart.
- The state in which a husband and wife remain married but live apart: "she and her husband have agreed to a trial separation."
As the basic meaning of the word indicates, the doctrine of separation means all born-again believers need to keep a line of separation in their lives from sinful and ungodly things in this world in order to keep themselves holy to God, who is holy.
The foundation of the teaching of separation believers is God’s holiness
Leviticus 11:44-45:
44 I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves about on the ground.
45 I am the LORD who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy because I am holy.
Leviticus 19:2:
2 "Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: 'Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.'"
1 Peter 1:14-16:
14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.
15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;
16 for it is written: "Be holy because I am holy."
From these verses, we can clearly understand two important things:
- God is holy.
- Since God is holy, his people should also be holy.
The Bible clearly says that God is holy. “God’s holiness means that he is separated from sin and devoted to seeking his own honor.” This understanding of God’s holiness implies both a relational quality (separation from) and a moral quality of God. The idea of holiness in the Bible has two sides, such as separation from evil and complete devotion to God’s own glory. The best example of this idea is the Sabbath, which is a day separated from the ordinary daily activities of the world and completely dedicated to the devotion and service to God.
1 Peter 2:5-10 says, “You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ……..But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
Here in this passage, it is clear that God called us as holy priests, holy people, and a nation of God. This is our spiritual position. The phrase “holy priests,” “holy nation,” and “people of God” implies what Hebrews 12:10-14 says, that is, we are called to share the holiness of God himself.
Hebrews 12:10-14 says:
“Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness………. Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.”
Thus, the standard of our holiness is the standard of God’s own holiness. Paul also encourages us in 2 Corinthians 7:1, saying, “Let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.” Thus, as born-again believers, we are God’s own HOLY priests, nation, and people who should share the holiness of God in our lives. We should be holy as God is holy.
As we understand, God’s holiness basically indicates separation from evil or sin and complete devotion to his own glory. So also, all New Testament believers should separate themselves from evil or sin in the world in complete devotion to God.
2 Corinthians 6:14-18:
14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?
15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?
16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."
17 "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you."
18 "I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."
In this passage, verse 17 clearly says all believers need to be separated from ungodly things. The Bible talks about the areas where we need to keep separation. Let us look at this.
Areas of Separation
As children of God, we need to separate ourselves from sin.
1 John 3:8-9: “8 He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. 9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.”
What is sin?
The word for sin is hamartia, which means “to miss the mark or standards.” 1 John 3:4 says, “Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.” Romans 7:8-10 says, “But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.” From these verses, sin can be understood in the following way:
a) It is missing the mark or failure to keep God’s standards.
b) Sin is breaking the commandments of God/Law of God or disobeying the word of God (1 John 3:4; Romans 7). It is lawlessness. It is overstepping the commandments of God or standards of the word of God.
c) It is an act that is forbidden by God.
We need to separate from unbelievers and their practices.
Keeping separation in relationship with unbelievers
2 Corinthians 6:14-15:
14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?
15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?
These verses clearly indicate that we need a clear separation from our relationship with unbelievers. It does not mean that we need to break our relationship with them or run away from them. The ideas that are reflected in these verses are as follows:
- Do not yoke together with unbelievers: A yoke is a wooden crosspiece that is fastened over the necks of two animals and attached to the plow or cart that they are to pull. Thus, the idea is that a believer should not be controlled by an unbeliever in all walks of his or her life.
- For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? We need to be careful when we make commonality with unbelievers. A believer needs to understand what can be shared with an unbeliever and what should not. We need to discern, according to the word of God, the commonality that we develop with an unbeliever.
- Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? A believer should know what kind of fellowship or harmony can be made with unbelievers. Our fellowship with unbelievers needs to be checked according to the word of God.
Keeping separation from idols and idolatry
2 Corinthians 6:16:
What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? This verse clearly indicates that we need to keep ourselves away from any form of idolatry.
Exodus 20:3-6:
3 "You shall have no other gods before me.
4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
This is a commandment from the famous Ten Commandments of God. God hates idols and idol worship. 1 Corinthians 10:18-22 clearly says that believers should not participate in any form of ceremony based on idolatry or faith in idols or false gods.
Cultural practices with religious implications:
At this stage, we need to be aware of the common cultural practices that are based on traditional religious faith. For example, entering a house with the right leg first or believing that certain times and days are not good, and so on.
We need to separate ourselves from false doctrines.
2 John 1:7-11
Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. 9 Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him. 11 Anyone who welcomes him shares in his wicked work.
One of the problems of the early church was that they were really challenged by wrong doctrines. In the Corinthian church, somebody denied the resurrection (1 Cor 15); somebody falsely claimed that the day of the Lord had come in the Thessalonian church (2 Thess 2); and somebody denied Christ in churches that John the apostle was in charge of (2 John 1). The devil has always tried to attack the church and its believers with false doctrines. However, John the apostle clearly instructs that we should not welcome such persons who are teaching false doctrines into our homes. We need to clearly keep such people away from us. We need to maintain doctrinal purity in our lives.
Some of the common wrong teachings and denominations promoting false doctrines are discussed below:
- Traditional Christian churches that use liturgy for worship rather than Bible-based, Spirit-filled, and truthful worship. The term "liturgy" refers to a set of written formulas accompanied by rituals, commonly used in churches like CSI, RC, Jacobites, and Marthoma under the leadership of a priest.
- Praying to mediators such as Mary and other saints is wrong. 1 Timothy 2:5 states, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” We do not find any prayer to Mary or other mediators in the Bible. God clearly instructs us not to make any idols or worship or pray to them.
- There is no Christian priesthood as in the Roman Catholic Church in the Bible. Hebrews teaches that the priestly system in the Old Testament came to an end with Jesus.
- Imbalanced teachings: A current trend in global Christianity is that preachers are popularizing teachings that focus only on certain aspects of the Bible. It is important that we check all teachings and not be carried away by only certain aspects of the Bible.
- Widely condemned false doctrines: Denying the Trinity, denying the second coming, denying the sonship of Jesus, denying the work of the Holy Spirit, denying speaking in tongues, denying the authenticity of the Bible, and so on. Some denominations teaching wrong doctrines include Jehovah's Witnesses and Salvation Army.
We need to separate ourselves from a disobedient brother or sister.
Matthew 18:15-17
15 "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. 16 But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
The basic idea is that if anyone in the church sins, then, first, the disobedient or sinful brother or sister should be counseled by one or two brothers or sisters from the church. Secondly, after the first counseling, if the person does not turn to God, then an appointed body of the church itself should counsel the person in disobedience, and if the person continues in disobedience, we need to separate ourselves from the disobedient brother or sister.
1 Corinthians 5:11-13
11 But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.
12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?
13 God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you."
Here in 1 Corinthians, Paul talks about unrepentant immoral members of the church. Believers should not associate with immoral believers who, after having come to know God and holiness, later depart from holiness.
We need to separate ourselves from the world.
1 John 2:15-17
15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.
17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
We need to compare this passage with Genesis 3:6 to understand it deeply:
Genesis 3:6 | 1 John 2:16
- Good for FOOD | - “Lust of the flesh”
- Pleasing TO THE EYE | - “Lust of the eyes”
- Desirable for GAINING WISDOM | - “Pride of life”
It was in the areas of the world and the flesh that Satan won his original victory in the temptation of the first man and woman, and these are still his tactics today.
- The LUST OF THE FLESH means craving for sensual gratification.
- The LUST OF THE EYES means greedy longings of the mind and visual gratifications.
- The PRIDE OF LIFE means assurance in one’s own resources or in the stability of earthly things; or taking honor and pride for oneself through worldly resources for identity and status formation in society.
A believer should be separated from all these things. We are called out from the world and should not love the world.