Set Apart

Monday, April 7, 2008

Romans 12:17-21
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary:
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Welcome, may this time of study and reflection be a blessing unto you, I pray that God will open my heart as I write and your heart as you read that together we might both glean a new understanding of His Word, In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

Tonight I want to take a look at what it means when the Bible talks about Christians being set apart. This is a term that is often thrown around in the church, but I'd like to take our time this evening to really dissect what this means literally and what are the implications of such a statement.

If we look to the Old Testament we find that the Lord often refers to the Israelites, or Hebrew people, as being set apart.

Leviticus 20:26
You are to be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.

Numbers 3:13
for all the firstborn are mine. When I struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, I set apart for myself every firstborn in Israel, whether man or animal. They are to be mine. I am the LORD.

Numbers 8:14
In this way you are to set the Levites apart from the other Israelites, and the Levites will be mine.

In these verses, the Lord sets the president that when he sets a group of people apart he is calling them to obedience, he is setting a standard, he is branding these as belonging to him. Those that were set apart in the Old Testament fell under the old covenant, or agreement, with God. The Israelites agreed to follow God's rules, to be obedient in return for receiving His favor. Did this mean that God did not love the other people that populated the earth? Not at all.

God loved all of creation, it was the willingness of Abraham and his descendants to obey, and repent when they failed to obey, that brought favor in the eyes of the Lord. During the entire history of the Hebrew people you can see what happens when God's people choose to act as though they are set apart and what happens when they choose to conform to the ways of the world.

When the Israelites obeyed and were true to their part of the covenant, generally they thrived. When Israel began to conform to the societies that surrounded them and ceased to listen to the Lord for their direction, the Lord often allowed misfortunes to fall in Israel's path. God did not take pleasure in punishing his people, but allowed for these things to happen in order to refocus His children on what they should be doing.

Although we are not under the old covenant any longer (Jesus Christ paid our blood penalty for us if we believe in and accept him as our Savior),we often find ourselves in the biggest predicament when we cease to act like a people set apart. It is easy in this world we live in to call for an eye for an eye. It is easy to get caught up in what is fair and trying to see that each person gets what is coming to them. When a person wrongs us we feel justified to harm them in an equal way or at least in what we see as an equal amount.

However, if we are to be set apart, this goes to the core of what we are called to do. Just because the world gives us resounding support for these feelings does not make it right. We cannot get caught up in the accolades of what the unsaved populous says is just, we must keep our eyes focused on what God tells us is true. Love your neighbor and care for your enemy? The world calls us crazy, forgive those that have harmed you? What about justice they yell. Make peace whenever possible, oh but our nature often makes it easier to call for war.

Matthew 7:1
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged."

That verse is one we don't like. We like to stand back and say, "if I were in that position I would..." We don't like to let things go. We don't like to remember the times when we were in the wrong, no we like to live in the hypothetical.

Let us as Christians realize that we are called to be different. We are called to compassion not judgment. We are called to servitude not pride. We are called to giving not hoarding unto ourselves. We are called to love rather than to give into hate. We are called not "to be our own man" but to be the man (or woman) that God wants us to be. We are called not to be a mirror to the world where they look at us and see only a carbon copy of themselves staring back. We are called instead to be transparent so that Jesus might shine through us and allow others to say I want that in my life.