In the Word of God we find separation from evil, and separation to God.
Our calling and relationship to God is to order for us the character of our walk. So we find it in Romans 12:11I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (Romans 12:1). The apostle beseeches them by the mercies of God, that is, all that is contained in the blessings, they have already received as described before in that Epistle. Young and old Christians are alike in this. None of us can walk aright, but only in the measure that we are enjoying our portion in Christ. God said to Abraham:
He was the head of the family of faith. Israel was also called out by Jehovah (Ex. 6:2-82And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the Lord: 3And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them. 4And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. 5And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant. 6Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments: 7And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the Lord. (Exodus 6:2‑8)) as a nation. Their separation was to Him, and from evil, according to His holiness, and in each case the needed instructions go with the calling.
Christians have the highest place, and the nearest relationship, and unless we seek, by His grace, to apprehend, and to enjoy the love that is ready to be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us, we will not be able to “walk worthy of the Lord unto all well pleasing.” The blessed Lord in the glory is now our hearts’ object. The One the Father would occupy us with. “Hear Him,” is what He says still.
To instruct the soul so that it enjoys the Lord Jesus as its Savior and Lord, and to be thus practically near to Him, is the only right way to wash each other’s feet. (John 13.) It was the way the Lord took for us when He unfolded the truth in John, chapters 14, 15, 16, 17, and there we see, the measure of our separation from the world, is Himself in the place where He is up there.
“Sanctify” means “to set apart.” John 17:1919And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. (John 17:19). And this He has done that we also might be sanctified, “set apart,” by, or in, truth.
“Sanctify them through Thy truth, Thy Word is truth.” John 17:1717Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. (John 17:17). This is practical sanctification, or separation.
“By one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” Hebrews 10:1414For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. (Hebrews 10:14). That is absolute. We are His forever.
The instructions and exhortations at the ends of the Epistles, are helps for us to see what is consistent with our calling as children of God the Father, and members of the body of Christ.