Separate from Sinners

For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens;

Hebrews 7:26

Separate from sinners - what does that mean exactly? It can’t mean that Jesus was apart from sinners, because He wasn’t. He touched lepers, ate with those of dubious reputation, and graciously let a repentant prostitute wash his feet with her hair. Christ was the Spiritual Physician who did house calls for chronic sin-sick souls.

The Lord never sinned in thought or deed even though He came to a world contaminated by sin. His holiness set Him apart in glaring contrast to sinners around Him and the closeness of His righteousness convicted them of their sin and drove them to repentance.

When my wife and I first went down to South America as missionaries, we lived in the small town of Shell. There was a missionary hospital, a Christian school, two missionary aviation groups, and maybe 30 Christian workers. Five miles away was the small city of Puyo where most of the shopping was done. In between the two places were three houses of prostitution. The practice was legal there.

Since we would pass these places repeatedly in the time we lived there, my wife, Carol, became very burdened for the souls of these women. She asked around about what outreach had been done for these ladies of the night and none ever had been. She asked several missionary ladies if they would go with her to give them literature and invite them to a Bible study but none would. They were worried about having an appearance of evil.

Finally, an older Ecuadorian lady, who was extremely poor, agreed to go with Carol and they met with several of the prostitutes in the Christian woman’s small wooden shack.

They met together a number of times before we received a letter from our commending church in the States advising Carol to stop her visits. However, the letter came too late; the damage was already done...to the stronghold of Satan! Five of the “ladies” got saved, left their profession, and returned to their homes. Praise God for slow international mail service!

(Postscript: Very soon after that, we moved to an Indian village deep inside the jungle, so no further outreach was done).