A pamphlet entitled “The Separateness of the Church” was on the literature table at Orwell Bible Church yesterday. The beginning words immediately caught my attention.

“Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” Matthew 5:13

In these words our Lord established at the very beginning the distinctness and separateness of the Church. If the sharp distinction is ever broken down between the Church and the world, then the power of the Church is gone. The Church then becomes like salt that has lost its savor, and is fit only to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men. It is a great principle, and there never has been a time in all the centuries of Christian history when it has not had to be taken to heart.

J. Gresham Machen