"Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."-2 Cor. 6:17, 1817Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. (2 Corinthians 6:17‑18).
Wherever there is blessing it draws to God and to one another. Our natural state is separation from God and from one another. The spirit of selfishness-the effect of sin-is always separation. If God calls unto unity, He must separate us from evil. Jesus was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. It is not a union only in sentiment, but a vital union-a separation from evil, for God cannot bear evil. The great God cannot be where there is unrighteousness. It is unity in God and separation from all evil,-God drawing us into communion with Himself through the Lord Jesus. It is no matter where it is, but there must be separation from evil in cleaving to that which is good.
In verse 18 we get the way in which God reveals Himself to us when separate from evil: " I will be a Father unto you;" and then the position into which we are brought: " Ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."
What I would press is the essential character of the position into which we are brought. We find ourselves associated as children in His family. In our everlasting character, in the life we have received, we are sons. We are not servants, but sons, being of this family. We cannot be children of two families. We are children of one family. Being thus children of God, we have no association with anything else. In this way the Christian must be a separate person.
Note the specialty of the character in which He is a Father to us "saith the Lord Almighty." In looking to Him as our Father, we look at Him as Almighty. Our blessing flows from our experience of God. All the exercises of the Christian bring out to him the trustworthiness of God, the certainty of His interference in all things. As regards all the details of life, we ought to bring in the faithfulness and Almightiness of God; in every circumstance to recognize the Lord (Jehovah) Almighty.