How Close Can We Get?
Regardless of the teaching done on the subjects of righteousness, questions continually arise by some as to how close they can get to sin and still not actually be engaged in something that is wrong. Is it wrong to miss a single service of the church? Is it wrong to go to a dance if I don't engage in that part I believe to be wrong? Is it wrong to take a social drink? Is it wrong to wear the high skirts being worn by some today? etc., etc.
Certainly what the Bible teaches to be wrong is recognized by those respecting the word of God. However many seem eager to continue to work on these border line cases with the hopes they will find those agreeing with them and thus opening the door for still further advances into the customary practices of the world in general. They desire to go as far as they can without violating an actual "thou shalt not."
Something has happened to our thinking if we feel God is going to be pleased with such actions. When we obeyed the gospel we put away the claims of this world and supposedly re-fashioned our thinking into the will of Christ. (2 Cor. 5:17; Rom. 12:1-2, Gal. 2: 20). We no longer engage in these activities because we now have new cares and responsibilities which we should give priority to (I Pet. 4:3-4).
John gives us some thoughts along this line when he says "Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good" (3 Jn.11). We do not have to actually violate a "thou shalt not" to be displeasing to God, but even the desire to imitate or pattern after what is evil meets His displeasure. When we ask if it is a sin to miss a single service of the church, what is our question designed to be patterned after--faithfulness or lack of it. In drinking, what is the pattern or guide--drunkenness or abstaining. In our recreation --the world or the teachings of Christ? When we are proned to ask if something is okay which we recognize as a border case, let us ask what has been used as the standard to be imitated? Then, perhaps we will have our own answer and be pleasing to God.
Paul adds his voice to John's when he says, "Abstain from every form (or appearance) or evil" (I Thess. 5:22). If it is questionable, it has an appearance. If such is the case, it also has influence, and this becomes another consideration. Not just how I am affecting myself, but others as well. If it is something that can cause others to stumble, it better left alone. Even if the thing engaged in is a border case, and we'll say completely harmless, if it has an appearance of evil, an association with evil, we are better off to abstain therefrom.
Paul again admonished us in Rom. 12:9 to "abhor what is evil; cleave to what is good. Webster defines abhor as "to shrink from in fear, disgust, or hatred." If this be so, we should have no desire to even get close to that which is evil. This certainly would mean we would also desire to be free of that which is closely associated with it as well. We should instead be preoccupied with trying to set a pattern in the other direction.
How close can I get? Why should I care? I should instead be only concerned by the type example and influence I can be in the other direction--the direction toward God and righteousness.
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