This is a crafty word from the lips of the arch-tyrant Pharaoh. If the poor enslaved Israelites absolutely must leave Egypt, well then, he'll bargain with them. "Don't go very far away." Not so far that they escape his power. Not so far that his spies can't keep watch.

The world plays the same game today. It hates the non-conformity of nonconformity, the dissidence of dissent. It wants us to be "reasonable" and not take things too seriously. Death to the world? Burial with Christ? The carnal mind laughs at such ideas. And so the very practices that proclaim these truths are ignored or openly mocked.

Worldly wisdom always pushes compromise. It preaches "moderation." Oh yes, purity is nice, but don't be extreme about it. Sure, follow truth, but don't call out error too loudly. "Be spiritual," says the world, "but don't miss out on the party scene. Don't skip the shows everyone's watching. Don't be weird about the holidays. Why make a fuss when everyone else is doing it?"

And multitudes who claim to follow Christ fall for this cunning advice. To their eternal ruin.

If we're going to follow the Lord completely, we must go all the way into the wilderness of separation. We must leave the Egypt of this carnal world behind. Its values, its pleasures, its religion too. We must go far, far away to the place where the Lord calls his set-apart people.

When the city is burning, you can't get too far from the flames. When plague sweeps through town, you can't put too much distance between yourself and the disease. The farther from a viper, the better. And the farther from worldly conformity, the better.

Let the trumpet sound to every true believer: "Come out from among them! Be separate!"