If it's even possible for a Christian to be saved while living just like the world, it will be salvation by the skin of their teeth. Saved as through fire. And such a bare-bones salvation should terrify you as much as comfort you.
Tell me, reader, do you want to leave this world on a dark, despairing deathbed? Do you want to enter heaven like a shipwrecked sailor clawing his way onto the rocks? Then go ahead—be worldly! Mix yourself up with the Mammon-worshipers. Refuse to step outside the camp and bear the reproach of Christ.
But do you want heaven in your heart right now, not just heaven when you die? Do you want to grasp with all the saints the heights and depths of God's love? Do you want to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge? Do you want to enter your Lord's joy like a champion, not a refugee? Then come out from among them! Be separate! Don't even touch what is unclean!
Do you want rock-solid assurance of faith? You cannot gain it while you commune with sinners. Do you want your love for God to flame with vehement passion? That fire gets drenched every time you soak yourself in godless society.
Hear me clearly: You cannot become a great Christian this way. Oh, you may remain a babe in grace. But you will never grow to maturity in Christ Jesus while you yield to the world's maxims and modes of business.
It is ill for an heir of heaven to be a great friend with the heirs of hell. It has a bad look when a courtier is too intimate with his king's enemies.
And don't fool yourself—even small inconsistencies are dangerous. Little thorns make great blisters. Tiny moths destroy fine garments. Little frivolities and little rogueries will rob religion of a thousand joys.
O professor, too little separated from sinners, you know not what you lose by your conformity to the world! It cuts the tendons of your strength and makes you creep where you ought to run.
Then, for your own comfort's sake, and for the sake of your growth in grace—if you be a Christian, be a Christian! Be a marked and distinct one!
Closing Prayer
Look at your calendar, your friendships, your habits. Where have you let the world's way become your way? Today, choose one area where you'll stop blending in and start standing out for Christ.