Following salvation, the natural (faithful) progress of the Christian hangs on what I call the First Principle of Christian Living. What is it? Biblical separatism. Many Christians are sitting by the wrong river, in a strange land. Many have given up, cry when they remember good times in their spiritual life, hang up the things that gave God the glory (their ministry, their Bible reading, their church attendance). They are captive in a strange land, being tempted by the world to walk with them, to sing songs of Zion. Or, they may have become used to living in a strange land. The American Church, regardless of denomination or label, surrendered to New Evangelicalism in the 1950s and created the climate we live in today, simply called Evangelicalism now. This is why the broader American church and its members are called Evangelicals. You can learn more about that history here.
Biblical Separation from the World
You may be in a strange land or time of your life, you may have given up, you may have put away those blessings you were given for your obedience, but I’m here to tell you, there is still a God in Heaven and the Son of Man is still on His throne. He is still able, and He is still faithful, and He can still pull you out of that valley and out of the world.
I am going to write some things people don’t want to read, but please remember God’s children should be willing to be reproved, rebuked, and exhorted. As I tell my own children, it’s OK to love sports, art, or whatever, if you do not love it more than our Emmanuel. We need to be stirred up; we need to be honest with ourselves. Just maybe we should keep worldly influences in our lives to a minimum.
Being captive, these Hebrews in Psalms 137 are asked to sing His song in harmony with the world (Babylon represents the world), to their own lament and sorrow, and for the mirth, humor, or enjoyment of their captors.
Before we get to the key verse, let’s remember, see 2 Samuel 22:50 and Psalms 149:9:
- 2 Samuel 22:50: “Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and I will sing praises unto thy name.”
- Psalms 144:9: “I will sing a new song unto thee, O God: upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee.”
Even in tribulation, God called the Hebrews to praise Him. Has God kept you even in times of tribulation? We should see His mercy even in our affliction.
What happened to our churches? What happened to our marriages? Our children? You? Do we come to church because we are expected to? Do you serve God because that is what you’re expected to do? Do you serve because of expectation or because of joy?
I am here to tell you that all have the same problem: Biblical separation.
If God’s people (like the Hebrews in Psalms 137) do not stay separate, we step from the narrow path of Jesus Christ to the broad path of the world. Separation is God’s commandment to us to remain unspotted from the world. How else can we serve him without obedience? To be obedient, you need to have faith. Is your faith what it used to be?
I tell my own children: your world view matters; it is made up of what you think, what you believe, how you talk, and how you treat other people. Is it wrong to say, your attitude about separation from the world matters just as much?
Do not confuse me, I’m not saying separation is more important than the Great Commission. I will not say that but here’s a question: How strong is your service to God, your obedience, your discernment, and your blessings, if your separation from the world is only a thin veneer? Can you be a worthy vessel God uses to win souls and be worldly?
As decorative as your veneer can be, I guarantee you that God knows your heart. I will say quite plainly that a serious, Bible believing, God-fearing Christian will live a separated life quite naturally if they love the Lord. I will also say quite plainly that separation is that wall that separates us from the world. Without it, you will not grow, keep your joy, or serve God the way He wants you to. To renounce separation, in any form, is to walk away from Biblical Christianity.
We need to understand Biblical separation.
Aim
Learn how to remain separate and what that means for us, our church and country because it is so easy to fall away.
Key Verse
Psalms 137:1-4: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a strange land?”
Background
Zion is the hill of Jerusalem on which the city of David was built. It is the citadel of ancient Jerusalem. In Christian thought, it’s the Heavenly City or Kingdom of Heaven.
The Book of Psalms is the third-longest Book of the Bible, with 150 different Psalms in the Word. Jesus Christ used quotes from the Book of Psalms more than from any other part of the Old Testament. In fact, the Book of Psalms is either quoted from or alluded to 103 times in the Book of Revelation alone (and 149 times in the four Gospel accounts).
The Book of Psalms may aptly be summarized by 5 key words and is a major statement on why we should read it:
- Praise: The Psalmist worships, extols, and with heart-felt gratitude, thanks the sovereign God of Israel for His Person, His Word, and His mighty works in regard to both creation and redemption.
- Prophecy: The Psalmist often writes of the coming Messiah, foretelling His zeal, suffering, death, resurrection, ascension, high priestly work, and coming millennial reign.
- Pain: The Psalmist describes in graphic fashion his personal doubts, fears, pain, and problems.
- Petition: The Psalmist offers up many requests, crying out for relief, forgiveness, reassurance, direction, protection, and strength.
- Poetry: The Psalmist pens his words in poetic fashion, meant to be sung.
Compromise
Do you remember life before salvation? Tell me what the world ever did for you, Christian, that was good?
What God does:
- Gives you good thoughts
- Gives you peace
- Gives you joy
- He gives you eternal life
- Gives you blessings
What the world does:
- Turns your mind into enmity against God
- Gives you fear
- Gives you sorrow
It sounds to me that if we return to the bad thing after we’ve received the good thing that the good thing might be tarnished. I don’t want any dross on me. I don’t want to be unclean. I want to please God with my daily walk.
We need a testing mindset to protect us from the present world. Our world is full of profane babbling. During the pandemic, we heard: “Follow science.” Prove all things with God’s Word – our sole source of authority, faith, and practice – the truth by which we live our lives – it never fails.
Use God’s Word – quit making ten-point plans – quit graphing it out – quit following gurus on LinkedIn – give it to the Lord and seek ye His word. I am convinced all our problems can be solved by faith in the Word of God.
Your Heart
The world says about the heart: follow your heart.
God’s Word says about the heart in Psalms 73:26 and Jeremiah 17:9:
- Psalms 73:26: “My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.”
- Jeremiah 17:9: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
The church age is now, and apostasy is increasing. The emerging church is here, along with its new age (feel-good sermons, no mention of sin, repentance, or the Blood of Jesus Christ, rock n’ roll, dressing down, men with women’s hair, etc.). This is confusion. This is what following your heart reaps.
Get to know The Book; it protects us and guides us. The devil wanders about devouring the carnal and the backslidden. If you are not wearing the armor of God every day, he will devour you, he will make you stray. Church has standards for a reason, I am here to tell you those standards are Biblical, those standards are what separate us from Benny Hinn and the non-denominational crowd whose services can’t be seen apart from a Ted Talk. They have no spiritual power because they are not of God.
The foundation of separation is supernatural salvation. It is also the fear of God. Do you have a daily Bible study habit? Do you fear the Lord?
He is meek and lowly, thrice holy, and he saved you. Your adversary walks about. Who’s your master? How are you walking today?
You give your time to bloggers, TV shows, model cars, fashion, social media, and sports. You suffer because you ask not, or because you ask amiss. You suffer because God knows your heart and whether it’s right with Him or not every moment of the day.
Separation in Some Context
See Galatians 5:9: “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.”
Where is your leaven from, Christian? There’s no such thing as a little heresy, apostasy, or sin. Separate, avoid. No compromise. Is the truth the truth? Is Jesus Lord or not? Where do we walk when separate? It’s not a wide road with gas stations and Chipotles, it’s a narrow path, brothers and sisters.
Brother David Cloud has stated that the rejection of separatism is ecumenicism. It’s rejection; by practice, by default, and by your heart.
Everyone wants to hear love and unity. Our God is a God of Division, Christian. He divided Abraham from the Chaldees. He divided Israel from the nations of the World. His People. And he divided you from the world, don’t go back.
How Do We Remain Separate?
Prayer: daily and earnest, dipped in confession and repentance. Regular Church attendance. Daily bible reading; KJV – stick to God’s Word. With God’s word, you can control your body, your thoughts, and guard your heart. Serve; that is, fill your time with people, hobbies, and habits that God would find pleasing. You can serve at church and you’re serving God’s cause by the way you dress, the way you act, your thoughts, etc.
Conclusion
In the Psalmist’s writing, we see sorrow, longing, and pain. Even in captivity, the world is calling them; sing us a song of your homeland, they tell the Hebrews.
Do not sing your song to the world, sing your song to El Shaddai.
See Psalms 98:1: “O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.”
Sing Him a new song. The world wants us to compromise and to sin. Worldly music makes worldly people feel better because they have no righteousness. Were you saved and separated to turn back?
You, Christian, have His righteousness. It was imputed to you by His Blood. Sing him a new song from that new heart he gave you.
Finally, God commands Biblical separatism.
See 2 Thessalonians 3:6 and 2 Corinthians 6:14-18:
- 2 Thessalonians 3:6: “Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.”
- 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 be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”
Not a suggestion, or an either/or statement, it is a command. Obedience is peace, joy, and comfort.
See next Exodus 19:3-5: “And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:”
Are you His? As old-time preacher L. Roloff once said, “Make the rock your final position and have his honey as your disposition.”
Biblical separation is the walls that protect us, while we do the Lord’s work of His Great Commission and baptize new believers.
Our God is a God of division and separation. He separated Abram from his heathen nation. He separated Israel from the nations of the World. Christian, He separated you by the Blood of the Lamb.
The Lord’s Churches and the lives of his people are not built on memories. It is not built on things we’ve done. It is not built on sentiment or memory. If it is, we have compromised our separation. The church and our lives are built on the Blood of Jesus, and it will only continue in the same way with our obedience to God’s Word and separation from the world. If your heart is not spiritually separate from the world, then what is in your heart? The world.
Brother David Cloud stated, and I agree wholeheartedly with the following:
“I am convinced that the “renunciation of separatism” is the renunciation of biblical Christianity. Separation is biblical. It is even an “essential” and a “fundamental” doctrine. Separation is not the gospel, but it is a divinely ordained wall of spiritual protection against apostasy and the world. To reject “separatism” is to tear down this wall so that God’s people are no longer kept from the “good words and fair speeches” whereby heretics deceive the hearts of the simple (Romans 16:17-18) and no longer protected from the siren call of the world.”
We leave you with Jeremiah 31-3: “At the same time, saith the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.”
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- Biblical Separation from the World: An Introduction for Christians - May 20, 2025
- Spiritual Maturity Definition: Bible Verses to Study & Know - May 2, 2025
- Time is Eternity Begun: Why What You Do Matters Forever - April 21, 2025
