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While the lesson conveyed by the use of these five words--"fellowship",
"communion", "concord", "part", and "agreement"--is necessarily a negative one,
enforcing the truth that sanctification is an entire negation of such fellowship and
agreement; we must not miss the vital importance of the true fellowship.
We have already seen this in our second article, where we referred to the opening
words in the teaching of Hebrews on sanctification:--
"Both He that sancitifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one" (Heb. 2: 11).
Perhaps a very homely illustration will enable the reader to grasp our meaning.
Suppose that you knew an exemplary husband and father, who was accustomed every
evening, as soon as the office closed, to make straight for home. What would he think if
you accosted him one day and said: "Oh, Mr. -----, I am so glad to see that you are
`separated' from cinemas, billiards and whist drives"? The active and positive principle
governing his action was his love for wife and family and all the ties of home; the other
things were "not done", they did not come into the scheme at all.
So with true sanctification, "separation from" is but the negative and less important
side; "separation to" is living and active. Heb. 13: is often misquoted, stress being laid
on the negative side only: "Let us go forth, therefore, without the camp bearing His
reproach." The passage rightly reads: "Let us go forth, therefore, unto Him without the
camp bearing His reproach." The next verse often suffers similar maltreatment, being
quoted as: "For here we have no continuing city." The true lode-stone, however, is not
found in the absence of a city here, but in the presence of a city there--"but we seek one
to come."
Returning to II Cor. 6:, we find there the same features. Not only do we read of
"coming out", of "being separate" and of "touching not the unclean thing", but we read
also of the temple of the living God:--
"Ye are the temple of the living God."
"I will dwell in them."
"I will receive you and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and
daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."
In all this, of course, there is no intention of minimizing the absolute need for
separation. What we are seeking to show is that we are to be separate from the evil
because we are joined to the good--"separation from" something is not in itself the
fulfillment of the scriptural idea of sanctification.
The conclusion expressed in II Cor. 7: 1 it will be more appropriate to consider later
in this series. The thought of "perfecting holiness" is the chief corner-stone of the
structure; and we have other features still to examine that are nearer to the foundation.