Separating ourselves
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"For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands. And in this faithlessness the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost.” As soon as I heard this, I tore my garment and my cloak and pulled hair from my head and beard and sat appalled. " Ezra 9:2-3
There are so many areas of the Bible that are deliberately misinterpreted by those who wish to do so and misunderstood by many within the church. And this is one of those sections. There is a corresponding section in Nehemiah. These sections have historically been used to say that Christians are exclusionists and bigots. True, we often appear that way but that is a problem with our hearts and our sins, not with the Word of God. In understanding sections of Scripture like this we need to be careful and interpret Scripture with Scripture. What is Ezra saying here and why did he react so violently? He knew that God had commanded a separation for spiritual reasons. In Exodus 32-34 God gave Moses the commands by which the Israelites were to live. One of those commands was not to intermarry with the pagans surrounding them. Not because they were any worse, for they were not. As Paul points out no one has ever been righteous except for one. Well 3 if you count Adam and Eve before the fall. The problem was that the Lord knows our hearts and if we marry unbelievers we will fall into worshipping their gods and turn from the worship of the true God. Witness Solomon. And so we need to be extremely vigilant about this. The command is not to associate with anyone non-Christian because we must in order to spread the Gospel. Many of my friends are non-Christians and I happen to like them very much. But I am also careful not to let their views influence my devotion to the Lord. Ezra saw what was going on and knew what was at stake. There is only one Lord and only one salvation in Christ Jesus and to water that down is the same as not believing at all. That is what this section of Scripture is talking about. It is a warning to all of us to show us how easy it is for us to chose anything else other than God. And yet He forgives us and knows how hard it is. That is why He has provided a Comforter. That is why He continually prays for us and walks with us. And praise be to His Name that He does!
posted by Frank @ 8:22 AM
5 Comments:
Frank, where's your wingman?
My deadline has finally passed. I will try to get online again asap. Soldier on, brother.
"I will not leave my wingman" - Maverick
But I have gone to the beach! It's nice to have a brother-in-law with his Powerbook and a house with cable modem!
Frank, nice post. There must be a proper balance between complete separation from non-Christians and becoming "unequally yoked" as we see in today's passage. Our closest relationships are reserved for true brother and sisters in Christ.
Mike, WCO?
To me this is one of the most difficult aspects of the Christian walk - to be in the world but not of it. It is really tough raising kids in such a godless culture. You can't shelter them from everything, nor should you, but they must be protected from bad influences and too often even Christians err on the side of allowing their kids to go along with the crowd and fit in. As in everything else, though, God's loving care is more than a match for our weaknesses and sins.
An equally troubling situation occurs when Christian parents, in an attempt to keep the world out of their children, isolate them from all but the most orthodox or at least,likeminded Christians.(Christian adults can do this to themselves too) These children then, never have to really own their beliefs, because they are not challenged, at least not until that crisis-of-soul stage in the teen years. They do not know how to relate to the world when they leave home for college or go into the work world and meet others who do not share their beliefs/values. I would much rather have our children see and hear things from other children or teachers that is not in line with our faith while they still live with us. That way we can discuss what the difference is in the world and in the Bible, and make Bible study have practical implications to their everyday dealings with friends. My hope is that by the time they leave home, they will have a faith that is their own, a faith with legs strong enough to stand firm on the Truth.
Doug: oh, the usual...
Frank, you make the right point about the purpose of this command, so that our worship of God would not be corrupted. Too often Christians think of this in terms of impacting their witness - as though the command to be separate is for the purpose of enhancing the differences between us and the world. But this is putting the cart before the horse. The purpose is so that we can worship God in purity and holiness; any witness to/differentiation from the world is just an outflow from that.
It's funny to consider how much the christian culture parallel's the world's culture. We have separated ourselves, but with only the thought of being separate, so we simply reinterpret the world's culture and christianize it (as though that were possible!). I imagine that if we started with the worship of God, then an actual culture of that worship might manifest itself.
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