The Church & the World--No Compromise!

When will the true Church ever get it through her head, there can be no coming together with the world? The message of the cross is foolishness to the world, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 1. That hasn't changed one bit. When the Church proclaims the truth as she ought, it intersects the world, and runs contrary to her. It condemns, it does not condone. The Gospel does not have to be spoken in an ugly manner for this to happen. It is simply the nature of the truth that it exposes lies. And people will not like that. Until the Spirit opens the eyes of any human, they will always view the truth in such a light. Let the Spirit open the eyes and all things change! We who love Jesus Christ, love the cross of Jesus Christ, also love the message of the cross. It is such a message the world must hear if she is to be saved from total destruction. It the message we had to hear as well. Listen to Tozer's take on this:

Therefore "Come out from among them and be separate," says the Lord. "Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you." --2 Corinthians 6:17

The church's mightiest influence is felt when she is different from the world in which she lives. Her power lies in her being different, rises with the degree in which she differs and sinks as the difference diminishes.

This is so fully and clearly taught in the Scriptures and so well illustrated in Church history that it is hard to see how we can miss it. But miss it we do, for we hear constantly that the Church must try to be as much like the world as possible, excepting, of course, where the world is too, too sinful....

Let us plant ourselves on the hill of Zion and invite the world to come over to us, but never under any circumstances will we go over to them. The cross is the symbol of Christianity, and the cross speaks of death and separation, never of compromise. No one ever compromised with a cross. The cross separated between the dead and the living. The timid and the fearful will cry "Extreme!" and they will be right. The cross is the essence of all that is extreme and final. The message of Christ is a call across a gulf from death to life, from sin to righteousness and from Satan to God.

The Set of the Sail, 35,36.