Apr 13
27
“Do not be conformed to this world.” Romans 12:2
Reader, would you wish to leave this world in the darkness of a desponding death bed, and enter eternity as a shipwrecked mariner? Then be worldly! Join up with Mammonites, and refuse to go outside the camp bearing Christ’s reproach.
But would you have a heaven below—as well as a heaven above? Would you comprehend with all saints, what are the heights and depths, and know the love of Christ which passes knowledge? Would you receive an abundant entrance into the joy of your Lord? Then come out from among them, and be separate, and touch not the unclean thing!
Would you attain the full assurance of faith? You cannot gain it while you commune with sinners. Would you flame with vehement love? Your love will be damped, by the drenchings of godless society. You cannot become a great Christian—you may be a babe in grace—but you never can be a perfect man in Christ Jesus—while you yield yourself to the worldly maxims and lifestyles of the world. It is bad for an heir of heaven—to be a great friend with the heirs of hell. It has a bad look when a courtier is too intimate with his king’s enemies.
Even small inconsistencies are dangerous. Little thorns make great blisters. Little moths destroy fine garments. Little little frivolities and little rogueries will rob a Christian of a thousand joys. O professor, too little separated from sinners—you know not what you lose by your conformity to the world. It cuts the tendons of your strength, and makes you creep—where you ought to run. Then, for your own comfort’s sake, and for the sake of your growth in grace, if you are a Christian—be a Christian—and be a marked and distinct one! Charles Spurgeon.