“Only you shall not go very far away” (Exodus 8:28)  

This was Pharaoh’s attempt to keep Israel close enough to easily return to Egypt when they grew tired of worshipping Moses’ god. If the poor Israelites needed to leave for a religious exercise, he reasoned, they’d still be close enough for the army to reclaim them if they stayed too long. After the same fashion, the Roman Empire had no problem with Christians, as long as they would also admit that Christ was just one of many gods. As we know from history, the Christians didn’t compromise. 

 Worldly wisdom recommends the path of “moderation”. According to this carnal policy, purity is admitted to be very desirable, but we’re warned against being too precise; truth is of course to be followed, but sin is not to be specifically denounced. “Yes,” says the world, “be spiritually minded by all means, but don’t deny yourself the pleasures of the world”. Most ministers comply with what’s politically correct. Have you ever heard a sermon based on, “Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)? Or how about, people who are “sexually immoral … shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire” (Revelation 21:8)? 

 Most reason, what's the good of condemning things that are universally accepted? Multitudes of church-goers yield to this cunning advice, to their own eternal ruin. If we would follow the Lord wholly, we must go right away into the wilderness of separation, and leave the Egypt of the carnal world behind us. We must leave its moral compromises and pleasures, and its nominal Christianity too, and go far away to the place where the Lord calls His sanctified ones. 

 “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:17-18).