PART I: HEAVEN'S CITIZEN IN WORLD
PART II: SEPARATION THROUGHOUT BIBLE
An ambassador is rightly sent from one government or kingdom to another. He is not sent there to manipulate or interfere with the affairs of the government. He is sent to that country to attend to the affairs of his own government as they may arise in that government, or in that country. That is his purpose.
There are subjects of Great Britain living in the United States. Great Britain has interests that concern her subjects in the United States. She sends her ambassadors here to attend to these interests as they may arise within the territory of the United States. And to these things alone is he to devote his time. He turns his attention to the affairs of his own country, as they may arise in the country where he is sent.
So was Jesus Christ sent as the ambassador of God to this world. He was in the country of Judea, under the government and jurisdiction of Rome. He was asked to attend to the affairs that pertained to that other country. But instead of yielding to the invitation, He stuck closely to the affairs that belonged to His own country.
They asked Him to act as a judge and a divider in the things that belonged altogether to the government in whose territory He was in. But He was not there to attend to these things. He was there to attend to the affairs of the kingdom of God. He was to attend to the affairs of the government which sent Him. And instead of crossing the line, and interfering with the affairs that belonged under the jurisdiction of this world, He remained loyal to the kingdom that sent Him. He adhered strictly to the affairs of that government, the kingdom of God, as they arose in the country where He had been sent.
God has people in this world. He has interests in this world. His people have interests in this world. Therefore God rightly has ambassadors in this world; but they are here to attend to the affairs of the kingdom of God. They attend to the affairs of the kingdom of God as they may arise in the course of things in this world. They do not attend to the affairs of the kingdoms of this world. And the ambassador for Jesus Christ that goes over the line, and undertakes to attend to the affairs of this world, abandons his own government. He breaks his allegiance to his own King, and unlawfully and illegally invades the province of another government.
"I pray for them."34 John 17:9 He is praying for His disciples whom the Father had given him out of the world. "I pray for them: I pray not for the world." Can the man whose affections and attention are upon this world benefit from this prayer? No, sir. "I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine." Then every man who would have the benefit of that prayer must be separated from the world, from the things of this world, from the affairs of this world. His affections must not be set upon the world as certainly and as entirely as Jesus Christ himself; for "they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world."35 John 17:16
Our publishing house was founded in Switzerland because there was to be the most liberty there and we would have the most opportunity to do our work for the longest time. Also, the United States has been considered the home of liberty. That is true, it was. But now the United States and Switzerland are the two countries where there is more persecution and more evils, than in Russia itself. Does not that demonstrate sufficiently that when we have any connection with these governments and lean in any respect upon them, we are leaning on a broken reed? The sooner we find that our only refuge, our only confidence, is in God, and our only allegiance is to His kingdom and the principles which He gave us, the better off we will be.
We are not to see how near we can go to the kingdoms of the world without compromising; but how far away we can stay to be perfectly safe. That is the principle.
There is another verse related to this principle. When asked which is the first commandment in the law, Jesus answered:
The first of all the commandments is, Hear O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.36
Mark 12:29-30
That takes all of the man, all the time, to be devoted to God. How much then is there left with which to serve Caesar? "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's."37 Matthew 22:21 The Christian himself belongs to God. He recognizes God's right to him. It takes a complete surrender to God to be a Christian. He must be born again, or else he cannot see the kingdom of God.38 John 3:3 And that kingdom is not of this world. To obey the first commandment, God calls men to surrender to Him. When a man surrenders himself to God, there is none of that man left for the service of Caesar.
Look again at the above verse in Mark: "With all thy mind." When that law is fulfilled in me, I want to know how much of my mind I am going to have left for running politics, for wirepulling in municipal affairs, for working to elect this man or that man, or to see who will nominate me for office, or to see what position I can have in the city or in the State?
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God . . . with all thy mind."39 Matthew 22:37 But if I divide my mind, and put part of it on these things, and give the rest to the Lord - then I am a double-minded man, unstable in all my ways.40 James 1:8 "Let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord." "No man can serve two masters";41 Matthew 6:24 Ye cannot serve God and this world; ye cannot serve God and Caesar.