I constantly hear people asserting that we must find common ground. We must unite, and stand together. We must make peace. We must love one another. Honestly, I have wrestled with these sort of assertions for a long time,. On the surface, they sound good and righteous. And there are Scriptures which seem to support the ideas espoused by these assertions. But the source of my conflict are the clear, unwavering Scriptures that command me to have nothing to do with certain people apart from rendering that service and aid which is also commanded by Scripture. Well, I’ve wrestled long enough. I am going to do my best to separate myself from the darkness. The question I now ask is this: Will you do the same?

I am well aware that many will shun this post. They avoid anything and everything ‘religious.’ Sadly, they are at the heart of this post in as much as they are lost in the darkness. Nevertheless, this discussion must be had.

If you are a disciple of Yeshua, and a child of YHWH, the Living God, then you have been commanded to have nothing to do with the fruit (i.e. works) of darkness (i.e. lawlessness). So, let me ask you:

Do you maintain close friendships with people who openly support and defend idolatry?

Do you maintain close friendships with people who openly support and defend murder?

Do you maintain close friendships with people who openly support and defend theft?

Do you maintain close friendships with people who openly support and defend sexual immorality?

Do you maintain close friendships with people who openly support and defend adultery?

Do you maintain close friendships with people who openly support and defend lying and deception?

These are tough questions, with tough answers. The answers are tough because many in our modern society cannot see that there are many forms for each of the basic sins I just listed. Maybe, if I had asked these questions this way, you’d have answered differently:

Do you maintain close friendships with people who openly support and defend the worship of false gods/religions?

Do you maintain close friendships with people who openly support and defend abortion?

Do you maintain close friendships with people who openly support and defend Socialism and/or welfare (of any type)? Or that corporations are private entities with their own rights?

Do you maintain close friendships with people who openly support and defend homosexuality or pedophilia?

Do you maintain close friendships with people who openly support and defend sex outside of marriage?

Do you maintain close friendships with people who openly defend and maintain the idea that you can change your sex? That simply having white skin makes you a racist? That the poor are virtuous simply because they lack wealth? That people have a ‘right’ to use government to enslave others on their behalf? Who insist that you must accept everyone’s idea of what is right and wrong as equally valid? That people who disagree with any of the questions I just asked should be silenced?

I suspect these questions might have been a little more difficult to answer this time around — especially if you claim to believe in Yeshua and YHWH. You see, if you are a true disciple, then you should be against everything I just listed in this last set of questions. You should be against them because Scripture defines each of them as idolatry, murder, theft, sexual immorality, adultery, and lying. What’s more, Scripture also says that those who practice (i.e. live their lives according to or by) these things will “Will not inherit the Kingdom of YHWH!” Why? Because all of these things are defined as ‘the fruits of darkness (lawlessness/evil).’

This leaves those who choose to seek YHWH over this world with tough choices: either admit that you do not love The Father or The Son, or walk away from anyone and everyone who practices the fruits of darkness.

This does not mean we can harbor hatred in our hearts for those still lost in the darkness, far from it. We are still commanded to teach the Gospel and TORAH to those who seek it or who will listen. We are to call out evil when and where we see it, and refuse to partake in or defend it. We are to do those things our Father and Messiah have commanded, to include feeding the hungry, ministering to the sick and injured, defending the helpless and visiting those who are in prison. And we are to be patient with the lost, never returning an insult with an insult. This is agape love, and this is the love we are commanded to have toward those who walk in darkness.

But those who claim to or seek to walk in the Light are to have no close, friendly relationships with such people. Nor are we to support or defend their practices. It is for this reason that I have started to search for every way I am still attached to the things of darkness in this world, so that I may separate myself from them. I am going to put Facebook away for this very reason, but I am also going to start separating myself from those ‘friends’ who I know do not recognize or bend their knee to the Father and the Son.

Will this mean I lose friends? Yes! Does it mean I will experience financial hardships? Most certainly. Will I be insulted for this move? I expect I will. In fact, I expect I will be treated as though I am the cause of all things that are perceived as having gone wrong in our society. I no longer care. The Messiah said that, if we follow Him, and obey His commands, these sort of things would happen to us: we would be persecuted on account of Him and everything He is. But I have also come to the point where I realize that I should count it as joy. When I am persecuted by evil for seeking to live righteously, evil testifies that I belong to the Messiah and the Father! How wonderful to know that evil rejects me because I have chosen Him!

How do I know that I am correct in my choices? Well, in a world where everything has turned to chaos, and all the foundations of the earth have turned to water, the only anchor I have found by which I can secure myself is the Scriptures. Having studied them for over a decade now, I am thoroughly convinced that they are exactly what they claim to be: The Revealed Word of YHWH! And they testify to the Messiah, and to His redeeming work on the cross. Scripture tells me what YHWH considers lawful and good, and what He calls lawless and evil. This is Light and darkness. It is by clinging to the good and renouncing the evil that I am set free: set free because I no longer have to wonder what to do to be a ‘good’ person. And though I am not and will never be ‘good,’ so long as I love Him and continue to seek Him, He promises to count me as ‘good’ because of His Son’s sacrifice. It’s just that saying I love Him is not enough. Scripture says, if I love Him, I will obey Him.

Well, I love the Father and the Son, and that is why I am starting to separate myself from all darkness as of today. For far too long, I have mingled in the shadows of darkness. No more. Today, I step out into the light and grab hold of Him Who is Light. I invite you to do the same. Join the fellowship.h