DCLM Daily Manna Friday 16 June 2023
TOPIC: Come Out!
KEY VERSE
“Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you”
(2 Corinthians 6:17).
TEXT: 2 Corinthians 6:11-18 (KJV)
11 O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.
12 Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels.
13 Now for a recompense in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged.
14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.
18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
DCLM Daily Manna Friday 16 June 2023 MESSAGE
Frederick Charrington was the son and heir of a partner in one of London’s largest breweries. He was converted in his late teens and became an evangelical Christian. A year after his conversion, Frederick was passing by a tavern one night when he saw a woman waiting at the door. A man, obviously her husband, came out and she tried to keep him from going back in. With one blow of his fist the man felled her. Charrington ran forward and then he looked up.
The name above the tavern was his and he said, “With that one blow, that man did not only knock his wife out, he also knocked me clean out of that business forever”. From that moment, he gave up the family fortune he might have had and would rather not touch money earned in such a way.
Apostle Paul challenged the Corinthian believers to be different from unbelievers and separate themselves from any fellowship with them. They were expected to keep themselves unspotted from every form of pollution in the world because they are the temple of God.
Early Christians battled with a lot of issues for the sake of their faith and convictions. Many of them had to abandon their trade, when it involved promoting idolatry. Others suffered family separation when the unconverted spouse, father, mother or children turned against them for embracing Christ. The call to give up whatever ties might hinder our walk with the Lord is unequivocal.
Like Charrington, we cannot support a lifestyle that undermines our faith in Christ. When we come out and separate ourselves, the Lord will fully integrate us into His family and make us fulfil our destinies.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
Our distinctiveness requires distancing ourselves from every pollution.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:
Ephesians 1-3
