“Separation” and “gathering” must go together. Separation without gathering only puffs up and leads to the spirit of the Pharisee and to further scattering. When the Lord separates His people from evil, He gathers them around Himself. Christ is God’s great gathering center. We may get Christians together, but if it is not gathering to Christ and with Christ, it will only add to the scattering. We may gather people around some great truth, or to deepen spirituality, or to increase holiness and thus make a holiness party, or we may get Christians together to express the truth of the one body and to maintain a scriptural discipline and thus make an ecclesiastical party. We may gather believers together to preach the gospel, and thus make an evangelical party. But, however good our intentions, if we fall short of gathering to Christ as the living center, we shall only add to the scattering. It has been well said by another, “It is not Christians but Christ who is become God’s center. We may gather Christians together, but if it is not Christ in one’s own spirit, it is scattering. God knows no center of union but the Lord Jesus Christ. It is Himself the object, and nothing but Christ can be the center. Whatever is not gathering around that center, for Him and from Him, is scattering. There may be gathering, but, if not ‘with Me,’ it is scattering. We are by nature so essentially sectarian that we have need to watch against this. I cannot make Christ the center of my efforts if He is not the center of my thoughts” (J.N.D.).
H. Smith