Set Apart: Die to Self and the World

It's been a while since I’ve posted on here, almost a year and a half, mainly because of lack of inspiration and time. But I've been burdened deeply lately by the vast amount of "Christians" who have yet to die to themselves and allow Christ to rule their lives, yet proclaim their Christianity as some sort of badge. It's a sad day when so many are misled and misleading others with their unbiblical, cultural, world-view shaped opinions that are often blatantly ignorant and fueled by emotions (self) instead of the solid truth of Scripture. It's no surprise the bad connotations that have developed towards fence-straddling Christians and the sour taste many have toward God as a result of bad examples. My heart is heavy for them and I place hope in the day when the Holy Spirit opens their eyes to truth and unchains them from themselves. A spring cannot produce both fresh and salt water, and a tree cannot produce both good and bad fruit. A renewed mind must be manifested in the life of a believer and it is created in man by God; not a work of the flesh, not legalism, not pharisaic. If it does, I would question if the occupancy of the Holy Spirit has ever taken place. 

I believe the true problem is that there are a whole lot of professing Christians who claim belief in God; and they very well may hold that belief. But, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the second birth do not take place merely because you believe God to be real. Salvation occurs when you put your life in His hands by faith in Him, accepting His sacrifice for atonement of your sins and turning away from self and towards Christ. I think too often those professing faith and leading others astray are really only professing belief without surrendering themselves to the Lordship of Christ. So how can they be demonstrating a life of Christ if the Spirit is not in them; they cannot. They profess truth but the truth is not in them. Even the Devil believes God is real and trembles at His name. The Devil does not trust in God for his salvation but rather depends on himself. Sadly, so is the case of many professing Christians who are on their way to hell in their current state and leading multitudes down with them.

Jesus teaches that we are to be different.  The world says seek revenge, Jesus says to be peacemakers. The world says always strive to be number one, Jesus says be humble and serve one another. I believe being set apart as a Christian means first of all that we are totally devoted to Christ in all areas of our lives.  We allow God to prune areas that don’t bare fruit and we strive to make Him Lord over all.  I think that this necessarily means that we are to abandon, avoid, despise, hate, and completely reject anything that is deemed worldly (in today’s culture), whether by our Christian friends or by the world itself.  We are a witness to both whether we like it or not; we are either a good witness or a bad witness.

James 4:4-5, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us. But he gives us more grace.  That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.  Submit yourselves, then to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Come near to God and he will come near to you.  Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  Grieve, mourn, and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.”

I love how it says submit completely and humbly to Him and instead of you having to lift yourself up, HE WILL LIFT YOU UP.

James 2:18-22, 26 “But some will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder.  You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was MADE COMPLETE by what he did.”  Verse 26 “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”

John 10:27 “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”

1 Peter 5:8-9, “Be alert and of sober mind.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”

Romans 14:12-23 “So then, each of us will give an account to God.  Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another.  Instead, make up our mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself.  But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean.  If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died.  Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil.  For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.  Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food.  All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble.  It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall. So whatever you believe about these things, keep between yourself and God.  Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever has doubt is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.”

So if the world views certain things as worldly and it hurts our witness to engage in them, I don’t see this as an excuse to continue to indulge in our own pleasures because we claim to be free in Christ (this desire has it's root in SELF and it must die), but really I see it as the opposite.  We tend to focus on the first half of each verse that states all food is clean, it's not what a man puts in his mouth that defiles him, etc, but what about the second half of those verses?  The part where we quit considering ourselves but consider those around us first? We are to abandon all things that may cause someone to stumble in their faith.  If we have to justify something to a Christian brother, chances are we are already violating God’s command of love.  As stated, Heaven is not a place of eating and drinking but of righteousness, peace, and joy.  If our journey as a Christian is to be sanctified, set apart, and better prepared for heaven then how can we continue to justify the worldly things we still participate in?  Does it not boil down to just a selfish desire; one remnant of the world that we aren’t willing to crucify?

So what kind of things do we do that we probably should not do for the sake of our witness, for the sake of being set apart, and most importantly for the sake of the Gospel? I believe these things include cursing, drinking, smoking, sleeping around, bad attitude, flipping the bird, getting angry, telling crude jokes, gossiping…etc.

How do we do this? We simply submit to Christ 100 percent.  When we do this for real and we’re all in, Jesus will transform our hearts from within instead of us transforming ourselves from without.

It's typical in a debate or discussion where a Christian is laying out the calling of scripture for one who is unstudied to assume he is preaching moralism and get defensive of his folly. Although Jesus himself preaches that if you love Him, you'll keep his commandments. (John 14:15 “If you love me, keep my commands.”) The commandments don't lead to a changed heart or salvation but a changed heart and salvation will lead to obeying commandments and the bearing of fruit. True, it is all about the heart, but when the heart is right, it's shown by unbridled obedience to God's word.  I look at it as obedience is the measuring stick of the hearts level of sanctification. I've seen in my years of Christian experiences that when a Christian points out a sin, however loving or non loving (and perfectly able to separate the son from the sinner), the person who is offended is the one who is guilty of such a sin (this is called conviction and is a work of the Holy Spirit).  They also seem to be the person that will cry “don’t judge me!” all the while being the one who seems to be not able to separate themselves or a person from the actions that defile them. They want to be treated as though the sin is OK, and when someone says, "The sin is wrong but Jesus and me love you anyway, let me show you a better way"...they inevitably have defined themselves by the action that defiles them instead of finding their worth and purpose is Jesus; and offense is taken. All other beliefs outside of the knowledge of Jesus as Savior lead to hell. 

I've heard it said that the worst sinners are the ones that talk about the sins of others. I think this can be true if someone is pointing out others sins continuously without first examining themselves or as a means to set themselves above another or to mask their own personal sin. The motive for calling a particular sin to attention must always be love. Not judgement. Too often love is mistaken for judgment by the offended party. Such a sad occurrence, but it is prophesied in the wisdom of Proverbs the way a fool responds to reproach, so no surprise really. (Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Prov. 18:2. A rebuke impresses a discerning person more than a hundred lashes a fool. Prov. 17:10.) Fools respond to truth with defensiveness while a wise person takes head and gains wisdom from reproof.  If this cliche statement were true, then Jesus was the worst of sinners and I don't believe that to be the case. You can point out sins if and only if it is done in love and you offer the gospel of redemption (a way out). Otherwise it's not good news, it's condemnation and Jesus did not come to condemn the world but came so the world might be saved (John 3:17). The gospel isn't the problem (it doesn't condemn us), its the solution. We condemn ourselves by not accepting it. 

CS Lewis puts it this way in the last paragraph of Mere Christianity, “Give up yourself, and you will find your real self.  Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fiber of your being, and you find eternal life.  Keep back nothing.  Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours.  Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead.  Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”