Christian Separation from the World
I. Its nature. The unworldliness of Christ is our model. The separating line which marked His life from the world's life is the line which is to mark our own. Christ's separation was not an outward separation from the world, but an inward separation from its spirit.
II. This spiritual atmosphere of separation, amid His close contact with men, arose (1) from His life of holy consecration; (2) from His life of abiding prayer.
III. Its purposes. "As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world." Our mission of witnessing to the truth, love, will of God, can only be fulfilled by this spiritual separation from the world. Apart from this, everything else fails; it alone gives power to direct our Christian activity.
E. L. Hull, Sermons,2nd series, p. 191.