PASTOR DENNIS KONTOH (0247100539)
TITLE: SEPARATION NOT SEGREGATION
2 Corinthians 6:14-16: Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial ? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 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.”
It is so unpleasant that some Christians have turned separation into segregation and Isolation. Some Christians have isolated themselves so much that even among themselves, they can't get along. Other Christians too have turned into an unprogrammed robot, they will fellowship with anybody, regardless of what their believes are or their way of life is. Inasmuch as Christians are to fellowship in love without being hindered by any Christian wall, we must carefully discern to be sure the kind of spirit backing a particular denomination before fellowshipping with them.
Separation is not segregation. We are told to separate from unbelievers not to segregate as we see so many believers doing. The moment they come across an unbeliever, they completely ignore them. By completely ignoring an unbeliever, how do we intend winning them to Christ? There's no wisdom in this.
I believe this instruction has a direct link to (Psalm 1), where we are advised not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful.....
You see, the reason why this instruction is so significant and must be adhered to is because, the believer and the unbeliever have two different natures. The nature determines the association. The pig only associates with other pigs in the mud hole because of it's nature. A pig and a sheep cannot associate with each other. Their natures doesn't match. Similarly, the Christian possesses the nature of God and so can't associate with an unbeliever whose nature is sinful.
The believer is righteous, the unbeliever is unrighteous. The believer is light, the unbeliever is darkness. The believer's body is the temple of God, the unbeliever's body is the temple of demons. It is impossible to merge the two that's why the believer is advised to separate. The two can't marry. It is an act God detests.
In (Deuteronomy 22:10), God instructed the Israelites not to plow with an ox and ass together. This is because the ox was clean to the Jews but the ass was not. To God, it would be wrong to yoke them together.
Today, He gives us this same instruction, that the believer and the unbeliever should not be "unequally yoked" together.
Let's understand the concept of "Unequally yoked" as Paul used it. Everything Paul said in direct link to the "unequally yoked" together, has to do with fellowship, agreement, communion. In a nutshell, what we are told to do is that, the believer fellowships, agree and commune with fellow believers not unbelievers.
You can't walk with the world and Christ at the same time. God instructs us to separate not to segregate.
Bless You
PRAYER POINT: FATHER, TEACH ME THY WAYS SO THAT I MAY NOT VEER OFF COURSE IN MY WALK WITH YOU IN JESUS' NAME, AMEN
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