And that is where my struggle lies today, not with the sexual question (my wife and I have already decided what to teach our children and begun to do so), but with the question of how far do you go. Where do you draw the line? Let me ask you, where do you draw the line between what is right and wrong and another person’s property or freedom. For example: If you believe abortion is wrong, how far do you go to stop it?
1) Would you vote for a candidate that supports it?
2) Would you vote for a law to ban it and make it illegal?
3) Would you vote for that law if it made abortion equal to murder and allowed the death penalty for those who performed or received an abortion?
4) Would you speak out to others about it?
5) Would you go to a protest at an abortion clinic?
6) Would you try to convince a pregnant woman to choose life?
7) Would you forcibly stop your own child from getting an abortion? What about your son's girlfriend?
8) Would you forcibly stop someone else’s child from getting an abortion?
9) Would you damage the clinic facility? Harass or harm the workers? Kill?
Some people are willing to do and have done all of those things. In our country’s past some in the temperance movement went into bars and liquor stores and destroyed the bottles of alcohol while others helped drunks get sober. Some in the abolitionist movement began and continued the underground railroad to help slaves escape while others bought their reedom, ultimately, bloodshed settled that issue as well as some others in war. How far would you go? At what point would you say someone else went too far? What would you find it acceptable for others to do, but not something you would do?
In the Bible we have several examples and it can be difficult to sort through them to find where we should draw our battle lines. King Josiah with his army went throughout all the land destroying the idols and even into the area of what had been the northern kingdom. Of course he was the king and had the authority as well as the prophecy on his side (1 Kings 13:2, 2 Kings 23 and 2 Chronicles 34). Gideon destroyed the altar to Baal even though it was not really his to destroy, but God told him to do it (Judges 6:25-30). There were many others though who did not do things so aggressively. One of Ahab’s own servants hid 50 prophets and fed them from the king’s food, but never made a big scene like Elijah did in the challenge on Carmel (1 Kings 18). Many of the prophets never physically destroyed any idols. Jesus went into the temple and threw the moneychangers out, but He was God in the flesh (Matthew 21:12-13). Paul certainly did not tear down the idols in Athens, but he was a faithful servant of God. So, what is cowardly, bravery, or foolhardiness. How far will you go? If you don’t decide beforehand, you may go too far or perhaps in standing for the right you may not go far enough.