fpeopCome out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins and lest you share in her plagues.
– Revelation 18:4
Aah, how this is a call from God, a plea from God to his people, not to live according to the ways of this world, not to get caught up in the priorities and the perspective of this world, but to live for another world.
Revelation 18:4 teaches us not to take part in the sins of this world.
“Don’t take part in the sins of this world lest you share in the plagues that come upon that sin.” This is like an encapsulating call in the Book of Revelation. This letter was written not just to cause us to have all these questions about end-times. This letter was written by John under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to call out the church from compromise with the world to say, “This is where the world is going. All of its sins are leading to all of these plagues. Don’t live then according to the ways of this world. Come out and be separate. Live different.”
You think about so many facets of our lives where we look just like people around us in the world as followers of Jesus. The only difference is we go to church on Sunday, we pray every once in a while, we read the Bible, but are we living separate from the ways of this world? Not meaning that we separate ourselves completely from relationships with people in the world. No, we’ve been told clearly by Jesus to go and make disciples of all the nations. That involves going into the world, but as we do, to not take part in her sins or her ways.
Revelation 18:4 reminds us to live according to God’S Word.
That’s the call from God to us right now in Revelation 18:4, and I just want to encourage you to think in your life, even as I think in my own life, how are you or I compromising with this world? How do our lives look like others in this world who don’t know God, who don’t know Jesus, who aren’t children of God in ways that we need to be living differently than others in this world?
Just think about your mindset, your priorities, your schedule, your use of money, your use of time, your use of all the resources God has given you, your work life, your family life, your interaction with others in your workplace or at your school. Just think, how is God calling you to come out and live different?
Oh God, help us, we pray, to heed your call, to come out from the ways and the patterns, perspective of this world, the priorities of this world. Help us to live different, to not take part in the ways of this world, but to live according to your Word, to spend our time, to spend our money, in accord with your Word. God, we pray that you would transform our affections and our desires and our thoughts and our plans and our dreams according to your Word, not according to what this world would say we should desire or think or plan or dream for.
Prayer for the Berber People
Lord, help us to be separate from the world, even as we go into the world, and God, we pray, help us to live for this dream, to see disciples made among all the nations. God, we pray for the Berber people of North Africa and far beyond North Africa as they’re spread out around the world. Lord, we pray for millions upon millions of Berber men and women who have not been reached with the good news of your grace. God, we pray that you would raise up more believers, followers of yours, who will come out from the ways of this world and live to get the gospel specifically to the Berber.
Lord, we pray that you would lead all of us to come out from the ways of this world and to live and to give, and to use our lives however you desire, to see disciples made among all the nations. God, help us to live for that purpose, your purpose, as your people in this world, and we pray all this according to your Word in Revelation 18:4, according to your call to us. Help us to heed it and obey it today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
