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Formations lesson for Sept. 21: A Time for Boundaries
Lamar King, retired minister, High Point
September 09, 2008
3 MIN READ TIME

Formations lesson for Sept. 21: A Time for Boundaries

Formations lesson for Sept. 21: A Time for Boundaries
Lamar King, retired minister, High Point
September 09, 2008

Focal Passage: 2 Kings 23:1-28

In almost every church where I have served, I have taught a younger married couple’s Sunday School class. I have enjoyed contributing to the spiritual growth of young couples and young parents. One Sunday morning, years ago, I was teaching a class on marital fidelity. When I paused for questions, one young man, seated beside his wife, raised his hand and asked a question that surprised me. “Dr. King,” he said, “Why has God set boundaries on sexual relations in marriage?”

Before I could answer, he continued: “If I go to a convention in another state and I meet a woman who is attending the same convention, and we are lonely because I miss my wife and she misses her husband, what is wrong with us spending the night together?”

He was like the Energizer bunny. He just kept going and going and going. “Nobody but the two of us would know,” he argued. “She still loves her husband and I still love my wife, but we meet a God-given need in each other by keeping each other from being lonely and by sharing Christian love. Why is that wrong?”

His wife looked at him as if he had poured scalding water on her. Every set of eyes in that class that had been transfixed on him now turned toward me. I took a deep breath and hesitated before I answered him. I wanted my answer to be clearly understood.

I sensed that other young men in the class had a feeling that his argument made some sense. Indeed, the question, “Why are there boundaries in the Christian life?” is one that a great number of married men and women who faithfully attend church are asking in our culture today.

I called his name and said, “The Bible is a guide for faith and order in our lives as Christians. The Bible sets boundaries for Christians. I did not write the Bible. If I had written it, I probably would have omitted some things it does say and added other things that it doesn’t say. But I didn’t write it. It was written by people who were divinely inspired by God. It is God’s word to us. If we obey God’s word, we walk into joyous life. If we disobey God’s word, we walk toward a certain living death. We are faithful in marriage because God said we must be. And faith is the absolute certainty that God’s word can be trusted to bring abundant life.”

Any other questions?