Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

October 14– Evening

by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and edited by W. C. Neff

“Don’t be conformed to this world.”

—Romans 12:2

If there is any way for a Christian to be saved while he conforms to this world, it can only be so like one who escapes a burning building in the nick of time. Such a bare salvation is almost as much to be dreaded as desired. Dear friend, do you want to leave this world in the darkness of a desponding deathbed and enter heaven like a shipwrecked mariner climbs the rocks of his native country? Then be worldly! Be mixed up with money-seekers and refuse to go outside the camp bearing Christ’s reproach.

Don’t you want to experience heaven here on earth as well as heaven above? Don’t you want to comprehend with all saints the heights and depths of Christ’s love which surpasses all comprehension? Do you want to receive an abundant entrance into the joy of your Lord? Then come out from among them and be separate; don’t touch that which is unclean. Do you want to attain the full assurance of faith? You cannot do it while you commune with sinners. Do you want to be enflamed with vehement love? Your love can only be dampened by the flood of godless society. It is not good for an heir of heaven to be great friends with the heirs of hell; a member of the king’s court shouldn’t be 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 rob your relationship with Christ of a thousand joys.

O dear one, who professes to know Christ but is too little separated from sinners, you don’t know what you are losing by your conformity to the world. It cuts the tendons of your strength and makes you crawl where you ought to run. For your own comfort’s sake and for the sake of your growth in grace, if you are a Christian, then be a Christian— one that is marked and noticeably so. [M&E]