Evening, October 14
Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings
Romans 12:2
"And be not conformed to this world."
Romans 12:2
If a Christian can by possibility be saved while he conforms to this
world, at any rate it must be so as by fire. Such a bare salvation is
almost as much to be dreaded as desired. Reader, would you wish to
leave this world in the darkness of a desponding death bed, and enter
heaven as a shipwrecked mariner climbs the rocks of his native country?
then be worldly; be mixed up with Mammonites, and refuse to go without
the camp bearing Christ's reproach. But would you have a heaven below
as well as a heaven above? Would you comprehend with all saints what
are the heights and depths, and know the love of Christ which passeth
knowledge? Would you receive an abundant entrance into the joy of your
Lord? Then come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch
not the unclean thing. Would you attain the full assurance of faith?
you cannot gain it while you commune with sinners. Would you flame with
vehement love? Your love will be damped by the drenchings of godless
society. You cannot become a great Christian--you may be a babe in
grace, but you never can be a perfect man in Christ Jesus while you
yield yourself to the worldly maxims and modes of business of men of
the world. 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. Even small inconsistencies are dangerous.
Little thorns make great blisters, little moths destroy fine garments,
and 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, and be a marked and distinct one.