“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,” (2Corinthians 6:17).
This is not the first time the Lord implores the righteous to separate themselves from the sinner on whom judgement is coming. The first recorded incident happened when Korah and two hundred and fifty men rose up in rebellion against Moses and Aaron. Moses tells the congregation to separate from Korah, Dathan, and Abiram and anything that belonged to them or be destroyed along with them because of their sin. (Numbers 16:1-33) “And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation.” (Numbers 16:32-33) And as for the two hundred and fifty men who took it upon themselves to burn incense, fire came out from the presence of God in the tabernacle and destroyed them. But this didn’t convince the Israelites and blamed Moses for the death of Korah, Dathan and Abiram and their families. The Lord again tells Moses to depart from the congregation. “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Get you up from among this congregation, that I may consume them as in a moment. And they fell upon their faces.” (Numbers 16:44-45) Moses and Aaron interceded for the people because the wrath of God for their sin was beginning, and a plague was destroying the people. “And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from the LORD; the plague is begun. And Aaron took as Moses commanded and ran into the midst of the congregation; and behold, the plague was begun among the people: and he put on incense and made an atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed.” (Numbers 16:46-48) There were other incidents in which the people were to separate themselves from the wicked. Ezra tells the people to separate themselves so they can partake of the Passover. (Ezra 6:21) Ezra also tells those who took heathen wives to separate themselves from the land and their heathen wives. (Ezra 10: 11) The Lord tells the people to flee out of Babylon because of her sin. “Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD'S vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence.” (Jeremiah 51:6) And at Pentecost, Peter pleaded with those who were coming to Christ to separate themselves from the wicked. “And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.” (Acts 2:40)
And the Lord tells us also to separate ourselves from anything sinful in our Scripture of study. It seems a small thing for us to go along to get along, but God hasn’t called us to go along, but to reprove the works of wickedness. “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.” (Ephesians 5:11) Here the Lord tells us to reprove the work of darkness. Reprove in the original Greek means to admonish: - convict, convince, tell a fault and rebuke. This is a commandment. I know that many times just our nonparticipation will get the message across, but the Lord doesn’t pull any punches. He says reprove sin when we come across it. This is the most difficult thing to do in the workplace where any rhetoric against sin is considered hate speech and will earn one a discipline or ejection from work for being hateful. In this world where sin is applauded when one reproves sin it earns a costly reprisal.
I am not a confrontational person. But we don’t have to be confrontational. We can just state what God says and let the chips fall where they fall. We cannot be like Balaam (Numbers 22,23) and skirt the issue of sin in a roundabout way. This is God’s commandment. Would you rather be ostracized by the wicked or take the side of sin? Would you let God be your provision instead of a lucrative job and the sufferings that come with the consequences of the sin of others? That is a hard decision when we have a family that depends on us. We have to be obedient. What will likely happen is that others will avoid you or call you judgmental. That is a small thing to suffer to be on God’s side. That is a small thing to avoid being included in their sin. We must reprove sin so that they have no excuse.
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