CHURCH:
APATHY; CHURCH: SEPARATION; WORLDLINESS

The church, generally speaking, is afflicted with a dread, lingering illness that shows itself daily in the apathy and spiritual paralysis of its members. How can it be otherwise when 20th-century Christians refuse to acknowledge the sharp moral antithesis that God Himself has set between the church, as the body of Christ, and this present world with its own human systems?

The differences between the churchly world and the followers of the Lamb are so basic that they can never be reconciled and they can never be negotiated. God never promised His believing people that they would become a popular majority in this earthly scene.…

This revelation of what God expects of the New Testament church makes me fall down before the Lord. I find myself crying in faith and determination: “Jesus, I will trust You and follow You in this present evil age. I will trust You to be my very life and sufficiency in the fellowship and joy of the body of believers, Your church!”

Matthew 10:22; John 15:18–21; John 17:14–16; 2 Corinthians 6:17–18

Jesus, Author of Our Faith, 112, 113.