In case you are wondering as I was, there is another word that is along similar lines ‘stigmatism’ but is not the same as astigmatism. (I never knew they were two different words.) Anyway, I had opportunity to be at the eye-doctor last Friday and found that I had missed this word. Maybe I just couldn’t read it because of my astigmatism. But, I digress.
There are many lines that must be drawn in the religious world and in the church, unfortunately, sometimes we don’t see those lines very clearly. The reason usually is that we have a defect that is interfering with our spiritual vision. The defect could be any of the following and possibly you can think of others: ignorance, misinterpretation, learning from false teachers, love of the world, love of money, or lack of resolve. Many of the lines that God has drawn; and that we must duplicate in order to please him, seem somewhat insignificant to human wisdom and that to can interfere with our ability to see sharply and clearly what God has drawn.
When I was with the doctor he had me read, or at least try to read a chart of letters and numbers. As a result of my vision problems (in case you didn’t know, I have had glasses for all of my adult life), there were times that I couldn’t make out the letters. I would say, “That is either a ‘G’, a ‘Q’, or an ‘O’. Wait maybe it is a ‘C’.” It was tough. It took several minutes and several lenses before finally, I could see everything clearly. James likened the Word of God to a mirror that reflects the truth to us, but some people don’t ever look in the mirror, some just ignore what they see, some glance at it every once in a while, and others distort the mirror to their liking. If we want everything to come into focus we have to look deeply into that perfect law of liberty, and whether we like it or not, change ourselves for the perfection of God.
God has drawn some lines for salvation, some for worship, some for service of our fellow man, and some for constructing the church. There are some areas where he has even given authority to the elders of the church to draw some lines, and to husbands and parents to use their judgment to draw others. Where we are free to draw our own lines we need to apply any biblical principles that fit. Where others have the authority to draw lines, we need to respect their authority, and in the areas God has drawn lines no one else can change them. We need to continuously study God’s Word in order to have clear vision. We also need to remove any other devotions that are keeping us from reading God’s lines.
The Bible teaches that baptism is essential to salvation, but sometimes we are tempted to try to blur that line when our loved ones have not obeyed the gospel. God hates divorce, but when we are the ones involved we want to put what we want before the oath we took ‘to death do us part’. We may make any number of excuses for crossing God’s lines, but none of them make it acceptable.