Separation and “Peculiar People” in the New Testament

Acts

2:40 And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”

2:41 So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.

2:42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

2:43 Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles.

2:44 All who believed were together and had all things in common;

2:45 they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.

2:46 Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts,

2:47 praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

2 Corinthians

6:14 Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship is there between light and darkness?

6:15 What agreement does Christ have with Beliar? Or what does a believer share with an unbeliever?

6:16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, I will live in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

6:17 Therefore come out from them, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch nothing unclean; then I will welcome you,

6:18 and I will be your father, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

1 Peter

2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own [peculiar] people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

2:10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

2:11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul.

Revelation

17:1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great whore who is seated on many waters,

17:2 with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and with the wine of whose fornication the inhabitants of the earth have become drunk.”

17:3 So he carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns.

17:4 The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her fornication;

17:5 and on her forehead was written a name, a mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of whores and of earth’s abominations.”

17:6 And I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the witnesses to Jesus. When I saw her, I was greatly amazed.

17:7 But the angel said to me, “Why are you so amazed? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her.

17:8 The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to ascend from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the inhabitants of the earth, whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, will be amazed when they see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.

17:9 “This calls for a mind that has wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated; also, they are seven kings,

17:10 of whom five have fallen, one is living, and the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain only a little while.

17:11 As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction.

17:12 And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast.

17:13 These are united in yielding their power and authority to the beast;

17:14 they will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.”

17:15 And he said to me, “The waters that you saw, where the whore is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages.

17:16 And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the whore; they will make her desolate and naked; they will devour her flesh and burn her up with fire.

17:17 For God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by agreeing to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God will be fulfilled.

17:18 The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.”

18:1 After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority; and the earth was made bright with his splendor.

18:2 He called out with a mighty voice, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! It has become a dwelling place of demons, a haunt of every foul and hateful bird, a haunt of every foul and hateful beast.

18:3 For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxury.”

18:4 Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, so that you do not take part in her sins, and so that you do not share in her plagues;

18:5 for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.

18:6 Render to her as she herself has rendered, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double draught for her in the cup she mixed.

18:7 As she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, so give her a like measure of torment and grief. Since in her heart she says, I rule as a queen; I am no widow, and I will never see grief,’

18:8 therefore her plagues will come in a single day — pestilence and mourning and famine — and she will be burned with fire; for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.”

18:9 And the kings of the earth, who committed fornication and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning;

18:10 they will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say, Alas, alas, the great city, Babylon, the mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.”