The New holiness (50% Less Genocide)

First: Les Miserables is an awesome, awesome book. Verily, it doth rock mine socks.

On a different note: Recently I've been exposed to another unfamiliar viewpoint. Not unheardof, but forgotten, dismissed, pushed to the back of my mind. It centers around 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1.

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?
For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people." "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you." "I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

I'd nearly forgotten about this idea of separateness. I guess I've interpreted it (like a true disciple of Donald Miller) to mean doing everything that non-Christians do - with the exception of illegal or immoral things - and showing your differentness through acceptance and love.
What does it really mean to be separate? For Old Testament Jews, it meant following strict rules and slaughtering any heathen tribes who might corrupt them. (Question of the day: Would the God of the Old Testament approve of modern oppression of Palestinians by the Israeli Government? Follow-up question(s) of the day: What, then, should be my position on this oppression, as a servant of this God? Or has my God really changed that much?)
For New Testament Christians, separation meant... um, not too sure. Somehow that's always a tricky one. (Tangent Alert!) We all like to think we know how they did church back then (or at least that our pastor or our church does, and that we're a bang-on biblical 1st century assembly) but when I read my Bible it looks pretty sketchy. I just don't think we have enough information to act high and mighty about being right or being "associated with those who believe in following all of Christ's commands" as (roughly quoted) some guy I didn't know in some magazine I forget said recently. For myself, I haven't yet encountered a group of Christians whom I would consider obedient enough to the letter of the New Testament "law" to be able to pick the grit out of their brother's eyes. That's all I intend to say on the matter. (End Tangent.)
Since I find understanding of New Testament church practices to be strangely elusive, let's focus on Jesus. (I use a lot of brackets, don't I? This one's about a couple of cool web sites for Bible research. If you don't care, skip it. If you know of other good'uns, let me know. Anyway, there's a good online concordance to be found at http://www.gospelcom.net/narramore/concordance.htm. So much easier than sitting there with my NIV and a KJV and a Strongs and flipping back and forth. While I'm at it - and if you happen to like the KJV/Strongs thing, go to www.e-sword.net, where you can download a Bible in several versions (including original languages, excluding (tragically) the NIV). The coolest of these is the KJV with Strongs notes, which makes concordanizing quite easy. You can also download centuries-old commentaries etc., and apparently there's a version for your Pocket PC. So there ya go. Back to Jesus.)
I like wondering about Jesus, what he'd really be like if we could strip away all the translation and culture gap and conventional thinking that gets in the way of the message. What would it be like to go to church with Jesus, or have a meal with Jesus, or wait for a bus with Jesus? Think about that - "What Would Jesus Do" in 5 minutes while waiting for a bus with me? Would he just stand there? Would he smile, say "How's it going?" (Would he say it like he meant it - like a real and honest question?) Would he tell me I was a sinner and needed to repent? (Maybe not, but John the Baptist probably would. I say this because I don't really like this approach, but if Johnny did it, it must be valid. I guess.) I wonder if Jesus was a good conversationalist, if he could really communicate his care for you, his interest in your life. I wonder if he really took advantage of his God thing, like pulling the "you've had 5 husbands" trick on everyone. I wonder how much he was into the "messianic secret" thing, just wandering around, looking like anyone else, getting rocks in his shoes and having birds poop in his hair. What would happen if Jesus preached at my church, and we didn't know it was him? Would we like what he'd say? Would we disagree? I can't answer these questions, but they're fun to think about.
Man, I'm having a heck of a time staying on topic. What I'm slowly getting around to is that Jesus was a bit of a partier. He went to an (apparently) week-long wedding party, involving copious amounts of alcohol, and when the booze ran out, Jesus Christ bought the next round. Jesus hung out with extortionists and prostitutes. He often showed a disregard - even a disinterest - for The Official Rules For Being Good. I do not believe that Jesus would condemn modern Christians for social drinking, movie-going, or associating with immoral people. Christianity is not about rules, particularly rules of avoidance - the Don't Smokes and Don't Drinks and Don't Read Harry Potters that so many of us focus on. (Myself included.)
However...
There is this idea of separateness. Holiness apparently means specialness, differentness. What does that mean for us? For me?
Big question. I can't answer that here. But I know there are things in my life that aren't honoring to God. I've known this for a long time, long enough that I've almost forgotten. I've grown accustomed to compromise. How long ago was it that I first watched a movie and though "this is wrong, it's bad for me. I shouldn't be watching this" and then ignored that and kept watching? I don't want to ask "what kind of movies are appropriate for a Christian to watch" because I think that's a personal thing. Well, no, I guess I am sort of asking that. I'm just not expecting us to all agree on the answer.
So what should I be doing as a Christian to be "separate"? Not going to bars? I don't think that's it. If we take Jesus for our example, the idea is not to avoid the people or places that might "corrupt" us, but to simply not be corrupted by it. It's important, however, to note that we can't all do what Jesus did. Jesus hung out with prostitutes - not all Christian guys could handle that. More on that later, maybe. I think it's our responsibility - and the responsibility of our brothers - to know and be honest about what we can and can't handle, and avoid situations that we know will be too much for us. So if we are confident that a certain situation - say, going to a bar - will not cause us to be tempted to get sin, (in this case, get drunk) how do we know whether this situation is one where we're called to be separate?
Maybe I should elaborate. What I'm talking about here is separateness for the sake of (can I say this?) appearances. There's the idea of not causing your weaker brother to stumble - so if you're going to the bar, don't invite a guy who's a recovering alcoholic - but the idea I'm thinking of is separateness as (this sounds wrong to me) evangelism. I'm starting to doubt myself here. Is this legitimate? I'm having a hard time articulating it in a way that I like. Is there a place for saying "I'm not going to do this simply because I'm supposed to stand out as a Christian?" Maybe not. This sounds like legalism to me, or more specifically, Phariseeism: seeking holiness through avoiding evil, or more often, avoiding the appearance of evil. Incidentally, what does the Bible say about avoiding the appearance of evil? Depends on which version you read. 1 Thessalonians 5:22 reads "Abstain from all appearance of evil" in the KJV, but in the NIV it simply says "Avoid every kind of evil." How interesting. My personal Greek expert tells me "appearance" and "kinds" are both implied by the Greek word "eidos". So I guess the idea is there, sort of. I'd like to find other verses that speak on this subject. ("This subject" being, I suppose, when and how we should be concerned with looking righteous.)
Lets talk about prostitutes. I saw a play once in which a guy met a prostitute, became her friend, and eventually "redeemed" and married her. I thought that was beautiful, but then I thought about what it would be like if that really happened. What would people think if they found out I associated with a prostitute whom I'd met walking the streets, that I even paid to spend time with her. I'd say it was all ok, we just talked. I enjoyed her company and I wanted to help her. Maybe I loved her. Aside from disapproving of our potential romance, what would you say? What would you think? Maybe you'd believe me, trusting my integrity in spite of suspicious circumstances. If this was the case, what would you say? Would you try to dissuade me from further contact? Even if I could convince you that I wasn't in danger of corruption and that I believed that it was right for me to do this, would it make you uncomfortable? If not you, I think at least some people would feel this way. Surely some people would disbelieve me altogether. What would this do to my reputation? My "witness"?
You know what? Forget that. Who the crap cares? Jesus (as I believe I've already said) hung out with prostitutes. He cared for them. He didn't care what other people thought of him. He didn't weight the pros and cons or assess the risk of compassion. He also spoke his mind and challenged the religious elite when they were in the wrong. Of course, he did get killed for that, but that's the way it goes sometimes when your real with people and you ignore "The Rules".
So were are we? What are the legitimate reasons for and methods of separateness? Recap time:
- Both the Old and New Testaments speak of "separateness" from the ungodly world.
- It seems to me that this is referring primarily to the avoidance of sin.
- "Everything is permissible for me" - but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me" - but I will not be mastered by anything
- We should be mindful of the effect our actions have on those around us and care more about their well-being than our own pleasure. We probably don't put enough emphasis on not causing our brother to stumble.
- It is my belief that looking righteous should not be a big deal to us. We should not purposefully do things which would damage our reputations, but neither should we hesitate to do what's right for the sake of appearances. (Maybe this doesn't come up very often. I'm just thinking Jesus hanging out with sinners.)
That's what I've come up with, as of the time of this posting. Sorry for taking so long, I've been working on this off and on for several days. You may have noticed that my viewpoint changed more than once while writing. I am by no means done thinking about this. As always, I welcome your opinions.

Once more: Les Miserables. So hot right now.