Just as Christ was not of the world, even so we are not of the world

3. Again, ye are not of the world in your character; for that is the chief point in which Christ was not of the world. And now, brethren, I shall have to turn some what from doctrine to practice before I get rightly to this part of the subject; for I must reprove many of the Lord’s people, that they do not sufficiently manifest that they are not of the world in character, even as Christ was not of the world. Oh I how many of you there are, who will assemble around the table at the supper of your Lord, who do not live like your Savior. How many of you there are, who join our church and walk with us, and yet are not worthy of your high calling and profession. Mark you the churches all around, and let your eyes run with tears, when you remember that of many of their members it cannot be said, “ye are not of the world,” for they are of the world. O, my hearers, I fear many of you are worldly, carnal, and covetous; and yet ye join the churches, and stand well with God’s people by a hypocritical profession. O ye whitewashed sepulchres! ye would deceive even the very elect! ye make clean the outside of the cup and platter, but your inward part is very wickedness. O that a thundering voice might speak this to your ears! — “Those whom Christ loves are not of the world,” but ye are of the world; therefore ye cannot be his, even though ye profess so to be; for those that love him are not such as you. Look at Jesus’ character; how different from every other man’s — pure, perfect, spotless, even such should be the life of the believer. I plead not for the possibility of sinless conduct in Christians, but I must hold that grace makes men to differ, and that God’s people will be very different from other kinds of people. A servant of God will be a God’s-man everywhere. As a chemist, he could not indulge in any tricks that such men might play with their drugs; as a grocer — if indeed it be not a phantom that such things are done — he could not mix sloe leaves with tea or red lead in the pepper; if he practiced any other kind of business, he could not for a moment condescend to the little petty shifts, called “methods of business.” To him it is nothing what is called “business ;” it is what is called God’s law, he feels that he is not of the world, consequently, he goes against Its fashions and its maxims. A singular story is told of a certain quaker. One day he was bathing in the Thames, and a waterman called out to him, “Ha! there goes the Quaker.” “How do you know I’m a Quaker?” “Because you swim against the stream; it is the way the Quakers always do.” That is the way Christians always ought to do — to swim against the stream. The Lord’s people should not go along with the rest in their worldliness. Their characters should be visibly different. You should be such men that your fellows can recognize you without any difficulty, and say, “Such a man is a Christian.” Ah! beloved, it would puzzle the angel Gabriel himself, to tell whether some of you are Christians or not, if he were sent down to the world to pick out the righteous from the wicked. None but God could do it, for in these days of worldly religion they are so much alike. It was an ill day for the world, when the sons of God and the daughters of men were mingled together: and it is an ill day now, when Christians and worldlings are so mixed, that you cannot tell the difference between them. God save us from a day of fire that may devour us in consequence! But O beloved! The Christian will be always different from the world. This is a great doctrine, and it will be found as true in ages to come as in the centuries which are past. Looking back into history, we read this lesson: “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” We see them driven to the catacombs of Rome; we see them hunted about like partridges; and wherever in history you find God’s servants, you can recognize them by their distinct, unvarying character — they were not of the world, but were a people scarred and peeled; a people entirely distinct from the nations. And it in this age, there are no different people, if there are none to be found who differ from other people, there are no Christians; for Christians will be always different from the world. They are not of the world, even as Christ is not of the world. This is the doctrine.

Charles H. Spurgeon-The Character of Christ’s People-Delivered on Sabbath Morning,
November 22, 1855