Introduction
One of the things I’ve been thinking about—and have been finding God poking at me about recently—is the idea of being set apart to Him. All too often in life, it’s easy to become so busy and so focused on our goals that we, as Christians, crowd God out. Even though the activities themselves may not be wrong, in and of themselves, if they’re putting God in second place or causing us to “fit” God in, then they’re getting in the way of a life that is holy (or set apart) before God. This will be a two-part series since I know there’s a lot of information here. This week, we’ll focus on the definition of set-apart living, why it matters, and what it isn’t. Next week, we’ll talk about how we can practically live a set-apart life according to Scripture as Christians in an increasingly hostile world.
How Do I Define Set-Apart Living?
It’s important to note here that, while set-apart living is often discussed in the arena of sexual purity or encouraging kids not to do drugs and drink, that is not all there is to it or even the main focus that we should have in discussing the subject. Sometimes some speakers or pastors will talk about it in a broader sense. Here I’m going to talk about it in the broader definition. I define set-apart living as living a life that is focused entirely on God. Set-apart living or living a holy life is living within the world but not being of the world. A person living this sort of life is going to look markedly different in their daily lives from someone who is not living set-apart to God. They won’t do, say, or listen to the same things as the world around them does. To those who do not see them frequently, the difference in their way of living may not be, immediately, clear. To those who see them every day, however, it is obvious that they are not the same and that the difference can only be attributed to a close, personal walk with God, not mere religion or personality.
What Does It Matter?
These days, not many appreciate a man or woman who has wholly given themselves to God. People who do so are often called radicals or, worse yet, cult leaders. I know a few good Christian leaders that have been accused of that. It has usually been on the grounds that they’ve chosen to live a life that exemplifies high standards of purity that “no one can expect to achieve” or that they preach a lifestyle that can be lived without knowing sin in God’s power.
And yet, these radicals and “cult leaders” do manage to achieve these standards by the grace of God. They are not perfect, and they do sin. However, they are not living in a lifestyle that encourages or fosters it, and they have removed the hindrances that might cause them to stumble in their walk with God or stagnate in the same. As such, the work He has done through their ministries is nothing short of astounding in most cases.
It has been my observation that many Christian leaders wish they’d see this success, but they rob themselves of it because they focus on everything they’re doing for God but forgo a focus on the One they’re doing it for. They talk well, but they do not practice the principles laid out for those wishing to see God move in their lives. They do not seek to utterly remove self from the equation so that in every way they may exemplify Christ, and so they meet with mediocre success.
Even in the church, it’s common to get weird looks from people if you choose to live entirely set apart to God. You don’t have to live like a monk in a monastery to get those looks, by the way. Things as simple as refusing to make fun of someone, not engaging in gossip, or refusing to watch, listen to, or read even certain “Christian” things are enough in many cases.
Given the Reasons to Bother
So, in a world that doesn’t value any semblance of godly living and with a church that is increasingly following suite, what’s the point? Why bother with this at all instead of just going with the rest of the world and much of the church in deciding that holy, godly living is impossible and entirely unnecessary?
The obvious reason, to me, is that we are to seek God’s approval, not men’s applause (Gal. 1:10). We are bought with a price, according to 1 Corinthians 6:20, and we are no longer our own but His. If we are truly His, then, there ought to be a desire within us to live a life pleasing to Him and to be in fellowship with Him, not with the world. This does not mean, of course, that we never fall or that we never choose sin over God. We, like the Israelites, sin time and again. But a Christian who is living in the Spirit and not according to the flesh is able to feed themselves in the Word and is convicted by God of that sin. A Christian living carnally or in the flesh is unable to feed themselves in the Word and needs to be rebuked for failing to follow even the most obvious of commands (See 1 and 2 Corinthians for an example of a church in this state). The Bible has a great deal to say to Christians about living in the Spirit instead of the flesh, and it is clear that we, even as His children, have the choice to live in sin. But a believer who is rooted in Him and exemplifies Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians, in Ephesians 1:16-23, will not live in sin forever. The fellowship they have known is broken when they live in sin, and those who have known that fellowship feel its loss keenly. They, then can continue in sin only if they sear their conscience and grieve the Spirit.
This then leads to the other reason which, though not our main focus as Christians, is no less important to our lives than the first was. The second reason that set-apart living matters is because it brings life more abundant. It brings a life that, while it is not always free of hardship and persecution, is filled with peace, joy, and fulfillment as you walk with Him. So, the only reason we need for why this matters is that He saved us to Himself and asks it of us, He also promises us blessings and more, beyond the already immense kindness he showed in saving our souls from damnation.
If we are His, adopted into His family through grace, then we are no more the servants of sin but are instead the servants of God. This matters because true Christians can never be content living in known sin without searing their conscience and grieving the Holy Spirit. Paul warns us not to do this very clearly in Ephesians 4:30. It brings grief to God’s heart when we choose the world’s way after all He did to free us from that into a better way in Him. We are, therefore, called on to live lives set apart to God even as we live in the midst of a wicked, corrupt world, and so we then must sin if we put anything before Him.
There is no sin we can do that is greater than robbing God of His rightful place and His glory in our lives. To do so is to deny the Creator His rights and our God His temple (1 Cor. 3:10-23). The other sins that we often focus on in the church, such as sexual immorality, drunkenness, addictions to drugs, and other “big ticket” sins, are (though clearly wrong and denounced in Scripture) merely the outgrowth of a life that is not given over to God. It is a life that is putting self and flesh on the throne, not God and Spirit.
These sins have no place in the Spirit-filled Christian life. If seen, other Christians, living in the Spirit, are instructed to go to them in love and rebuke the behavior so that they may turn around before they face the fullness of God’s corrective power in their lives (1 Cor. 5). These Christian brothers and sisters who are rebuked may not return immediately, but those who are truly His will return.
When they do, we are to greet those who do return not as though they are unbelievers but as brothers (2 Cor. 2:5-11; James 5:19-20). So then, choosing to live a life to ourselves, in any area, is to refuse our Lord His rightful place, and to worship anything (self, things, or people) above God is idolatry. As such, living a life set-apart to Him matters for these reasons: we are called to it, we are bought with a price and are not our own, we cannot be wholly blessed if we do not live in Him, and we sin if we place anything above Him in our lives.
What Set Apart Living Is Not
We’ve talked about what set-apart living is and why it matters, but I would be remiss if I didn’t touch on what set-apart living isn’t. Often, the object to holiness or set apartness is that it might lead—or must lead in the minds of some—to austere, monk-like living. While not everyone has this objection and some are honest enough to admit they simply prefer living their way instead of God’s way, many of us who started out more like the Corinthian believers and have had to be brought into this set-apart living by God’s firm but loving hand went through the fears that we would lose friends, might have to give up everything to go sit in a cave somewhere to read our Bibles all day, or might need to become monks. While these fears are blown out of proportion a bit, some people really do have these concerns. Some of us have sat there and thought, “Set apart living is impossible because there’s no way I can spend five or six hours a day just reading and praying.”
The fact of the matter is that isn’t what set-apart living is. Many of the men and women we see in both segments of Christianity lived lives that, while centered on God, involved regular jobs and living in a society that didn’t want them there because they were considered “radical”. God calls on us to live in the Spirit, to be transformed into His likeness, and not to be conformed to the world. He does not say “Dress in sackcloth, eat nothing but the simplest food you can find, and never do anything but read your Bible and pray.”
The Heart of the Issue
While some people genuinely are unsure of what it means to live a set-apart life and are worried they won’t be able to do so and live life too, the real issue is all too often not what we will or will not have to give up in particular. Instead, many who object to set-apart living object because they realize that a set apart life means dying to self. They’re okay with giving up things they think would be good things to give up to show how good they are as people. Some of them may even genuinely believe that giving up things while still living for themselves is living a life that’s “good enough”. But while these people may look good on the outside, if you start talking to many of them about areas of life they don’t want to give up but that are not in line with the Bible, the responses are rarely good. They can range from “Well, that’s not really necessary for today” to “I don’t think God cares” to “That’s one of those outdated things that only old-fashioned or holier-than-thou types do.” This is, of course, by no means a complete list of excuses we as human beings can come up with for why we don’t need to remove the things God has told us to remove. My own excuses usually have been along the lines of “Well, it’s not that bad” or “I’m not doing this really bad thing, so this one little compromise isn’t really a problem”. But they all boiled down to “I want to do this, and I don’t care if God cares or not.”
Living a set apart life will mean giving up the self-focused life and suffering ridicule for the things we choose to omit to make our focus our King instead of ourselves. That much is a guarantee. And too often, we have no desire to put God in charge because we’ll lose friends, activities, or things that we want more than close friendship with our Lord.
Conclusion
What a sad state of affairs when even some who claim the name “Christian” prioritize friends, things, and their own pursuits over the One who died one of the worst deaths known to man to rescue our souls from eternal damnation. He did all of that so we could have eternal fellowship with Him! At times, I daresay, we have all been guilty of doing this, but it should be the exception, not the rule, friends. Could we deliver any more sound a slap to the face of God than to accept His grace but then refuse to give anything of ourselves in a spirit of love, duty, and gratitude to our Savior? More and more of late, God has been showing me that He is not just Savior. He is also Lord and Master, titles which demand our respect and our devotion, not just a vague sense of gratitude for what He did with zero inclination to live as He has required.