You can't reform or repair Babylon; you have to remove yourself from it.

Soon after God judged the earth with a flood in Genesis 6, human society began to rebuild. In a city called Babel, their pride led them to rebuild with a giant tower, as if to say, "God won't get us with a flood this time." Babel became a place of human ingenuity, pride, and confusion (Genesis 11). God turned these people over to their own devices and started fresh with a man named Abraham.

The city of Babel eventually evolved into a nation called Babylon. Babylon constantly tried to invade and attack God's people, Abraham's descendants. Sometimes, God's people made alliances with Babylon, which always resulted in God's people becoming corrupted.

By the end of the Bible, Babylon has become an illustration or metaphor for all of the broken and corrupt values and systems that govern human society. Babylon is still corrupting Abraham's spiritual descendants. The Bible uses the image of a prostitute to illustrate Babylon's effect on God's people.

So God tells His people, "Come out of her, my people..." (Rev 18:4). The imagery is sexual. "Come out of her" means what you think it means. Today, we might say that "the church is in bed with the government." The church gives Babylon all of our money, and Babylon screws the church in return. The church falls in love with the prostitute, but the prostitute has lots of other lovers. Babylon is not in love with the church. She's using the church to enrich herself.

Some Christians mistakenly think that the church will reform Babylon. The church ushers in social change by providing an alternative to Babylon, not by trying to fix Babylon.

This does not mean that God's people should physically isolate themselves from society (i.e., the Amish, monks, etc). It does mean that God's people should stop looking to the prostitute for help. She doesn't love you. God's people should provide alternatives to the system, not prop the system up. This will require more work, time, resources, and dedication than simply propping up the system, but it's the only way to bring about sustainable change.

Christians should create and support Christian alternatives instead of propping up the corrupt systems of Babylon. Christians should not expect the prostitute to help. She doesn't love you.

Some of God's people will inevitably feel called to engage Babylon. This has always been the case. Joseph, Daniel, the Prophets, and others interacted with Babylon, but their interactions were as prophets or missionaries. They participated in the system only to confront its evils and redirect resources towards merciful and just initiatives like providing food during a famine.

"Come out of her, my people..." means stop looking for a loving covenant in a corrupt system that only takes from us, but doesn't love us.