Setting Boundaries with Sin

 

 

 

By Ravi Zacharias

 

 

How often does the appeal to the eye outweigh the caution to the soul?

 

 

One day, young John Wesley looked at his mother and said, "Mother, can you give me a definition of sin?"  And John Wesley's mother said this, "Son, whatever weakens your reasoning, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes away your relish for spiritual things."  In essence, she said, "If anything increases the authority and power of the flesh over the spirit, that to you, John Wesley, becomes sin; however good it is in itself."

 

 

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We very seldom ask, "What are the guidelines?  What perimeters?  What boundaries?  Are there any fences we must not cross?"  It was G. K. Chesterton who said, "Whenever you remove any fence, always pause long enough to ask why it was put there in the first place."  Unlimited pleasure ultimately leads to unlimited regret.