Troublesome Topic: BE VIGILANT OF THOSE THINGS THAT NEED TO BE ISOLATED

All around us there are things that require us to say, “Watch out! Be careful!” Some of these things we must isolate against so they do not destroy us; some of these things we must isolate because they are important and valuable. Therefore we must evaluate everything to see if it needs to be isolated and why. We must avoid certain things, honor other things, and know how to tell the difference.

There are many things in life that are not sinful in themselves, but they take us in the wrong direction; they take us away from being clean and holy to being being common and unclean. At that point we may already be in sin, or we are one small step away from its clutches. Therefore we must evaluate everything.

The ancient Israelites had to be constantly on the lookout for anything dead, abnormal skin conditions, improper food sources, harmful relationships, and much more. These were all physical lessons that taught the spiritual reality of being watchful against any spiritual contaminations.

We have many spiritually destructive influences around us every day. Therefore, we must likewise remain constantly alert to their presence. God calls us to carefully evaluate everything in and around us to make sure there is nothing that we should separate ourselves (isolate ourselves) from.

POPULAR RESPONSES TO THINGS THAT SHOULD BE ISOLATED

Let me take this one step further. Many Christians today have the tendency to think or say one of the following

1. “If it’s not prohibited in the Bible, it must be OK, so doing it is no big deal.”

2. “If there’s no harm there’s no foul.”  (no blood no foul)

3. “If it’s not a sin, I can choose it if I want to.”

MY REBUTTALS

Rebuttal to – “It’s no big deal”

A small step away from God IS a big deal; it opens the door to sin; don’t go that direction.

We should never flirt with sin! We should never knowingly get involved with anything that takes us away from God. If something takes you the wrong direction, it doesn’t matter if it is not a sin; stay away from it because it will lead you into sin. If you play with fire, you know what will happen.

Rebuttal to – “no harm , no foul”

Who determines what harm means?  Are you the referee? 

Just because we don’t see anything wrong with something doesn’t mean it won’t have long-term consequences. For instance, we may see no immediate harm in what we watch on TV, on the Internet, etc. but if it doesn’t glorify God, and if Jesus would not want to sit and watch it with us, we should not do it. God knows better than we do if there will be hidden harm, so listen to Him.

Rebuttal to – “if it’s not sin, I can choose it.”

That’s why God said to isolate certain things.

He came up with this intermediary category to protect us from getting close to sinning.

Therefore we must constantly watch for negative influences, and we must avoid anything that puts distance between us and our covenant Lord.

Everything in the universe is either good for you or bad for you.

Everything you encounter will take you closer to God, further from God, or prepare you to be taken in one of those directions.

The next lesson for all three series on Covenants is GOD ALONE DETERMINES WHAT IS NORMAL FOR HIS KINGDOM