Put an amoeba and a Christian in the same room and issue the command, “Be ye separate!”, and watch what happens. The amoeba will split into two distinct life-forms, each going it's own merry way, while the Believer will develop a split personality with an identity crisis. Take the religious stigma from our attempts at being separate and it will be very obvious how much like the world the whole process is. Just look at how many people in our society are trying to find themselves. Here is the common bond of thought: I am dissatisfied with myself, therefore I must become something different. And so we proceed to go about creating our true selves. So … after being called by GOD are we to follow the way of the world in our attempt to separate ourselves from it? If we do not know who we are as a 'new creation', then we will try to become something else - anything else - since our 'new man' can not be satisfied with what we see of our flesh. We assume that if we stop doing the things that seem worldly to us (or our group) and start doing 'religious' things (fill in the blank) then we will become our true selves as a Christian. We will even call it the 'sanctified life'. This we learned from the world, not from Christ! The context of the 'separation passage' in 2 Corinthians 6 is based upon the inherent difference (the nature of something though not readily apparent) between Believers and unbelievers. Do we even know what that difference is? If we see things to avoid instead of the Life of Christ … we need to read it again … and again … and again … Until next time ….. scoopfully yours, the shovel (aka Jim)