Come out of her, my people

“Come out of her, my people” is presented as a continuing divine command to Christians in what the author calls mystical Babylon. It sets a boundary between God’s ability to bring good through people in compromised situations and the believer’s obligation not to remain in, or defend, a situation contrary to God’s law. The phrase is therefore both a warning against sharing in sin and a test of whether usefulness is being mistaken for approval.

The Command in Context

The author invokes the summons while considering believers whose position, in his view, violates scriptural order. He argues that God may nevertheless use their work to make the gospel accessible to people who could not otherwise hear it. That providential outcome does not make the situation right: the command still calls God’s people to leave, lest they share in its sins and receive its plagues.

This distinction is central to the author’s reading of the Book of Esther. He holds that God’s purpose to deliver the Jews was advanced through actions that remained sinful, including Mordecai and Esther’s participation in a marriage he judges forbidden by Jewish law. Their part in the deliverance does not absolve their conduct. In the same way, the fact that Christians in a situation the author deems unlawful may help spread the gospel cannot itself authorize that situation.

Providence Does Not Excuse Disobedience

The author repeatedly separates divine purpose from human responsibility. God can direct events through the voluntary actions of people, including actions that violate his law, without sharing in their guilt or approving their choices. In his account, Esther’s beauty and elevation, and the ignorance of Mordecai and Esther about their duty, become instruments in the deliverance of the Jews; the good accomplished does not make the transgression innocent.

He applies the same reasoning to religious work. A perceived opportunity to serve the gospel, or evidence of good resulting from a compromised position, is not proof that God approves the means. The warning “Come out of her, my people” therefore resists the use of success as a moral defense. The author also insists that God’s ability to turn ignorance to his glory does not excuse either the ignorance or the conduct that follows from it; forgiveness, he says, does not make disobedience innocent.

The Refusal to Do Evil for Good

The expression supports a direct practical demand: Christians should not break even a small command of Jesus in order to gain resources, cooperation, or access for religious work. The author challenges fears that stricter obedience would shut multitudes off from the gospel or deprive its work of large sums of money. Such fears, he argues, wrongly treat the cause as dependent on compromised arrangements rather than on God’s sovereign provision.

He maintains that God owns the world’s wealth and can supply what the cause requires. Believers should therefore follow Jesus even if obedience appears to leave the world in darkness, rather than disobey in order to place themselves where they can do good. The imperative to come out is not a denial that God can work through imperfect people; it is a denial that their usefulness grants permission to remain where they believe they should not be.

Ethical and Theological Force

The phrase holds together two claims that the author refuses to reconcile by weakening either: God rules events and brings good from evil, while human beings remain accountable for their own actions. The call to leave prevents providence from becoming an excuse for sin; the doctrine of providence prevents the believer from supposing that God’s work depends on disobedience. The result is a command to trust God’s power without treating beneficial consequences as evidence that every means is lawful.

The author’s appeal is also deliberately demanding. He acknowledges that Christians may serve God while ignorant of their duty, and says he will recognize those who know Jesus despite the ignorance under which they labor. Yet he will not suppress what he believes Scripture teaches merely to maintain religious cooperation or avoid offense. In this argument, “Come out of her, my people” names the point at which goodwill toward imperfect fellow believers must not become silence about obedience.