11 Bible Verses about Holiness,  Worldly Separation

Then Jesus called the people to Him again. "Listen to me, all of you," He said, "and understand. There is nothing outside a man which entering him can make him unclean; but it is the things which come out of a man that make him unclean." No translationread more.
After He had left the crowd and gone indoors, His disciples began to ask Him about this figure of speech. "Have *you* also so little understanding?" He replied; "do you not understand that anything whatever that enters a man from outside cannot make him unclean, because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and passes away ejected from him?" By these words Jesus pronounced all kinds of food clean.

"On no account, Lord," he replied; "for I have never yet eaten anything unholy and impure."

They laid hands on him, crying out, "Men of Israel, help! help! This is the man who goes everywhere preaching to everybody against the Jewish people and the Law and this place. And besides, he has even brought Gentiles into the Temple and has desecrated this holy place."

Any one who bids defiance to the Law of Moses is put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment, think you, will he be held to deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, has not regarded as holy that Covenant-blood with which he was set free from sin, and has insulted the Spirit from whom comes grace?

There was a man of the name of Ananias who, with his wife Sapphira, sold some property but, with her full knowledge and consent, dishonestly kept back part of the price which he received for it, though he brought the rest and gave it to the Apostles. "Ananias," said Peter, "why has Satan taken possession of your heart, that you should try to deceive the Holy Spirit and dishonestly keep back part of the price paid you for this land?read more.
While it remained unsold, was not the land your own? And when sold, was it not at your own disposal? How is it that you have cherished this design in your heart? It is not to men you have told this lie, but to God." Upon hearing these words Ananias fell down dead, and all who heard the words were awe-struck. The younger men, however, rose, and wrapping the body up, carried it out and buried it. About three hours had passed, when his wife came in, knowing nothing of what had happened. Peter at once questioned her. "Tell me," he said, "whether you sold the land for so much." "Yes," she replied, "for so much." "How was it," replied Peter, "that you two agreed to try an experiment upon the Spirit of the Lord? The men who have buried your husband are already at the door, and they will carry you out." Instantly she fell down dead at his feet, and the young men came in and found her dead. So they carried her out and buried her by her husband's side.

If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own property. But because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world--for that reason the world hates you.

You unfaithful women, do you not know that friendship with the world means enmity to God? Therefore whoever is bent on being friendly with the world makes himself an enemy to God.

But you are a chosen race, a priesthood of kingly lineage, a holy nation, a people belonging specially to God, that you may make known the perfections of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not found mercy, but now you have. Dear friends, I entreat you as pilgrims and foreigners not to indulge the cravings of your lower natures: for all such cravings wage war upon the soul.

I have given them Thy Message, and the world has hated them, because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I do not ask that Thou wilt remove them out of the world, but that Thou wilt protect them from the Evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.

Yet God's solid foundation stands unmoved, bearing this inscription, "The Lord knows those who really belong to Him." And this also, "Let every one who names the Name of the Lord renounce all wickedness."

The religious service which is pure and stainless in the sight of our God and Father is to visit fatherless children and widowed women in their time of trouble, and to keep one's own self unspotted from the world.