Feb 5, 2018 – Matt 25
All the nations will
be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a
shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. Matt 25:32
The separation
happens later--- good from evil, right from wrong, believers from unbelievers,
saved from unsaved.
Car trips with four kids were always interesting in our
family. The 2-hour trip to see our
families at holidays was often flavored with periods of tears, arguments, and
discipline. One of the lessons we
learned was division … how to divide up the back seat of the car so every child
had EXACTLY the same percentage of space.
No child would be happy unless we had the same amount of seat as our
siblings, and we discovered one of the greatest tools of every traveling family
– the imaginery border line! In fact, we
were so good at division & percentages, that we could tell when one of our
counterparts ‘crossed the line into our space’.
And mom & dad would hear about it when we caught the
trespasser! Our parents’ only defense
was to establish borders and create separation between us … and sometimes that
even involved a short stop along the road side to establish those borders
properly once & for all! L
Humans like to improve their lives through separation. With food, we separate egg whites from the
yolk and wheat germ from the grain. With
sports, we separate weight classes for competition, and separate fans in
stadiums for protection. There are
borders to separate nations and spaces, as well as imaginary lines to separate
kids in the back seat of cars. We use
separation as a tool for keeping political parties civil and gang members
alive. There is even separation in
employment ranks and treatment plans. If
you look closely, we use separation to manage much of our lives, with the hope
that it will improve them.
Not all separation is bad, many times it makes life
manageable. The problem is when we start
separating things God designed to be together.
Coming up with separation lines for sins leads to judgment and
pride. Developing separation of cultural
practices leads to racism. And separating
ourselves from “sinners” leads to lost souls and lostness in our own soul. God didn’t separate believers from the world,
yet in our separatist mindset, we like to draw the lines of holiness in our
relationships and churches.
Don’t misunderstand.
We ARE supposed to separate our hearts from sin, and be holy, because
our God is holy. But just as Jesus
didn’t separate Himself from sinners, neither are we supposed to hibernate from
people who sin around us. We must guard
our hearts, but extend our hands. We
must learn how to separate ourselves from temptation, while embracing those who
have fallen to temptation. It’s God’s
responsibility to decide when good is separated from evil, and believes
separated from unbelievers. Until then,
our job is not to take on God’s role, but call people to join His side.
Don’t try to be God – leave the separating to Him, and stick
with managing your own space.
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