Matthew 5
SHIFTING LINES IN SAND

We often see courting couples, who, if they think about it, decide to draw a line in the sand as to what their limits of physical intimacy will be before marriage. Some brave couples choose not to kiss before their wedding day, others draw the line at touching certain body parts, and for many, sexual intercourse before marriage is the big stop light. Except for the very strong, human nature, being what it is, means that many couples will go one or two steps further than their initial line in the sand.

The problem is the line in the sand. The automatic response to a line in the sand is “how close can we get to the line without crossing it?” Then all of a sudden, oops, the line has been crossed and a new one has to be drawn. Rather than drawing a line in the sand to measure the limit of our activity, a better question to ask is, “how pure can we stay?”

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus used this principle when he spoke about murder, adultery, oaths, prayer, fasting, adultery, loving enemies, and many other topics. The line had been drawn in the sand in the law of Moses: “You shall not murder.” But Jesus changed the line to the question of, how far away from murder can I stay?” He said that even hating was as good as killing someone.

There are all sorts of areas in life for which we draw lines in the sand. But instead of walking on the edge of the line, let’s listen to Jesus and say as far from it as we can.

I hope you have enjoyed reading the book of Revelation over the last few weeks, and have benefited from the thoughts I have posted on the Thinky Things website. I have posted a thought on each chapter of Revelation at https://thinkythings.com/read/. If you haven’t seen them and are interested in what Jesus is telling you in his last message, you can still see them at the Thinky Things website: https://thinkythings.com/read/, or click the “read” button below.

May we aim to live more like Jesus this weekend.

With love in our Lord
Robert
https://thinkythings.com/read/