"I have given them Thy Word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy Word is truth. As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth" (John 17:14-19).

God's saints are associated with Him—separated from the world; separated unto God. The former without the latter would be mere mockery; the latter without the former is vain pretension and hypocrisy. The Lord's way is ever in the combination of these two.

Now all believers are His saints; but to sanctify, invariably in Scripture signifies to separate, whether it be a pot or a vessel, a day or a man. The saints therefore, are God's separated ones. They have been separated, according to the purpose of God, by the blood of Christ, by the call of God (Romans 1:7), and by His sovereign grace in quickening and in sealing them.

But some abide in Christ more than others. Though God's own are aware of the world's impending doom, and of God's present work, and of what He is about to do in general, still a few more heavenly-minded ones—that is to say, having the mind of heaven more fully shed upon their souls—learn all these things far more distinctly and practically, possessing God's own mind, resulting in true, active, and obedient separation from the world unto Himself.

—William Lincoln