The Danger of Isolation

There is a verse that has God has impressed upon my mind a couple of times today:  Proverbs 18:1.  It says, "A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; he rages against all wise judgment."  The KJV says it in a different manner:  "Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom."  The word "intermeddleth" means to "be obstinate," or someone who is stubbornly opposed to wisdom.  God is the source of all wisdom, and Jesus has become for us the source of wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30).  To be isolated from God by our desires is to invite our destruction.

When a person is born, he is born into a life of sin.  Selfishness is natural.  Taking thought for your own life and how a situation impacts you is normal.  Our sin separates us from God, as it is written in Isaiah 59:1-2:  "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. [2] But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear."  Jesus is our Peace, who has broken down the middle wall of separation caused by sin, and allows us to draw near to God (Eph. 2:14).  We can be washed clean through the blood of Christ, having been born again by grace through faith in the power of the Holy Spirit.  1 John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

When a man is married to a woman, the minister will say something similar to what Christ says in Matthew 19:6:  "So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate."  The church (made up of born-again followers of Christ) has a relationship to Christ that a bride has to her husband.  We have been joined with Him, and should not seek to isolate ourselves from Him.  But the common tragedy is married people still retain their own desires and often break the marriage covenant with divorce.  This disaster is often seen in the church as well, when the desires of people override the unity and wisdom that God has provided us through His Word and Holy Spirit.

I'm learning firsthand the tough lesson that comes from separation from the ones you love and the ones that love you.  But being away from a wife and children for two months is nothing to the absolute hell that comes from being separated from God.  Heaven is the most beautiful place conceived of because God is there, and hell is the ultimate in ugliness because it is devoid of God's presence.  There is no shortage to the unspeakable wickedness that lies in the heart of mankind, and I cannot imagine the putrid foulness of the filthy uncleanness of the demonic spirits and depraved people who lie festering in that fiery, dark, scream-filled pit that is called hell.  It is an ugly picture to be sure.

Eve looked upon the forbidden fruit with desire, ate of it, and gave some to Adam who desired to please his wife rather than God.  Their actions literally severed them from the presence of God with all of their progeny.  But because of the glorious truth of the Gospel, we can be united once again with God through spiritual regeneration by faith in Jesus Christ.  Once God has united us with other believers in the Body of Christ, we are no longer to seek our own desire.  We are to be led by the Holy Spirit, for we find our unity through the power of God.  Ephes. 4:1-3 exhorts us:  "I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, [2] with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, [3] endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

There is no division or isolation in unity.  If we are opposed to God's wisdom, then we err by following after our own desires.  Christ is for us wisdom, and is the Head of His Body, the church.  To rage against wisdom is to seek destruction of your own soul.  I thank God for the unity of His Spirit, and the power of Christ to free us from sin, death, and our own destructive desires.  How many have been shipwrecked upon their own lusts, never again to rise?  Glory be to God who has delivered us from the power of our own flesh, for in us dwells no good thing.