“Having these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1) What are the promises that Paul is referring to? In the last few verses of chapter 6, Paul the apostle tells us to separate from those who worship idols and are non believers. When we do, God will be a Father to us and we shall be His children. This is not a call to live a solitary or a monastic life. However, it is a call to separate from the evil doings from others. This does not mean we remove all contact, we are to be a light to those who don’t know Jesus. We are to influence them, not the other way around.
Candidly, this separation will occur almost naturally as we cleanse ourselves “from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit.” We are to live holy lives. We are not perfect in this world but we do have Christian perfection. Christian perfection is loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. When we do that, those not interested in the gospel message yet (that is a big word, “yet”), will not want you around. Those that God is touching their hearts will respond in faith eventually as they respond to Him. Our job is to love with a Biblical love for others. That does not mean agreement with sin. We are to cleanse ourselves and that sometimes means removal from people, groups, and associations that are not godly.
We live in challenging times, however, the Word of God has the answers we need. We are to come out from among the ungodly and walk in holiness. That means loving people you disagree with. That means showing the compassion of Christ to the hurting, without embracing their sin. We can do this because we have the promises of God that belong to us. We can walk on the highway of holiness.
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