Set Apart

Well, one of the comments on my last post led me to this one. I want to talk about what it means, and what it does not mean, to be set apart. When I spoke of holiness I said that the general meaning is to be set apart. However in modern Christian culture I believe that we have taken this idea too far. We are to be set apart, but not separate. Modern Christianity, at least in America, has developed into a highly separatist culture. Christians go to Christian Churches, watch Christian movies, listen to Christian music, hang out in Christian clubs, send their kids to Christian schools, read Christian books, and have little to no interaction with the non-Christian world, and then we call this be set apart. This is NOT being set apart, this is being separate. Christ did not separate himself from sinner, instead he spent much of his time WITH them. One of the Pharisees most common indictments of Christ was that he spent his time with tax collectors and prostitutes. This is equivalent in modern culture to spending our time in drug dens and strip bars. What set Christ apart was his actions, he spent time with sinner but did not partake in their sins.
In modern Christian culture we concern ourselves far too much with appearing Christian instead of actually trying to be like Christ. The non-Christian world views us as judgmental not because we are set apart as God commands but because we separate ourselves to the nth degree and then look down on those who are not separate. If we, as Christians, are to be effective for the cause of Christ then we must learn to be set apart instead of separate. Please don't think that I am encouraging you to go engage in sin, I am not, what I am saying is that we should be spending time with those who do. While nothing that I listed above is bad in and of itself the conglomeration of all of the separations is a separatist culture which can have NO POSITIVE EFFECT for Christ.
As for how to be set apart but not separate. We must learn what it means to eat with sinners and not sin. Every Christian has certain sins that are more tempting to him and certain sins that are less tempting. While one man may be tempted to excessive drinking another may be tempted to steal and another to lust. As Christians we must know what temptations we are prone too and what temptations we are not prone to. If we do this then it will be obvious who we can spend time with and who we can't. I have never been particularly tempted by alcohol, in fact I have never been drunk in my life. I drank through most of high school and never once got drunk, so I can say with clarity that alcohol is not a temptation for me, I can spend time with drinkers and drunks and not be tempted to partake in their sin.
We must also know who we can witness too. This takes some trial and error but it is essential that every Christian learn what group of non-Christians he/she can fit in with. In this way we can be set apart, but not separate; we can be in the world but not of it. Then, and only then, can we be truly effective in following the Great Commandment.