He drew a circular horizon on the face of the waters, At the boundary of light and darkness. Job 26:10

The sign read, “Danger Minefield!” 

Nothing else was needed to convince me not to cross the rope barrier that hung between where I stood on the shore of the Dead Sea and the potentially life ending ground on the other side. This was a boundary with the danger clearly spelled out. 

The rope itself, though thick and heavy, wasn’t much of an obstacle. It could have easily been crossed if I wanted. But the warning written on the sign made certain I didn’t want.

All around, people were having fun, laughing, splashing, covering themselves in the therapeutic mud, and testing the theory that you can’t sink in the Salt Sea. They felt secure and free to enjoy themselves because they knew exactly where the boundary between them and danger was located.

If only all of life came so clearly marked! But wait . . . it does!

It’s called the Bible, but we fail to use it to establish our borders, relying instead on our feelings or understanding (something warned against in Proverbs 3:5). We push against the limits and test the borders of His commands in the hope we may find the wiggle room to fulfill our desires.

We intentionally ignore the “Danger Minefield” sign, and then wonder what went wrong when our life blows up. 

This boundary at the Dead Sea was made of a rope, but boundaries come in lots of forms: physical, mental, relational, and spiritual. 

An Established Boundary

A properly established boundary allows us to experience the freedom to enjoy life to the fullest.

Establishing boundaries around our physical well-being isn’t so difficult. We stay away from places marked minefield, avoid walking down the middle of the highway in the dark, and basically follow the directions on the medicine bottle.

Mental boundaries involve setting a limit on what we allow into our minds. David says in Psalm 101:3 that to have a blameless heart, he “will set nothing wicked before my eyes.” The word translated wicked means anything that is worthless or without profit. This verse carries the suggestion that we don’t allow ourselves to look upon things that are corrupting to our character or our faith. What we read, watch, and listen to matters.

Relational boundaries can be challenging because we often feel a burden to meet expectations placed upon us by others or the need to please people. But these are the boundaries that remind us of where we end and where someone else begins, meaning we know and accept what is ours to control and what is not. 

Crucial Boundaries

The most crucial boundaries are the spiritual boundaries we set. Without spiritual boundaries we will stand on shaky ground. These boundaries concern our beliefs and how we live out those beliefs. Without them we are easily led astray by false teachers. We are like the children Paul describes in Ephesians 4:14, “tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.”

How sad it is that we take signs such a “Danger Minefield” seriously, yet God’s warning to avoid false teachers causes much less hesitancy in our daily walk. 

The Bible sets our boundary to protects us from being led astray by false teachers and false doctrines. It is not a boundary we step over because the pastor gives a lively and titillating sermon, the music and special effects are entertaining, the service times are convenient, and the coffee and donuts are free. Those things aren’t necessarily bad, but the doctrine being taught is the boundary by which we know if this is a church that worships the Lord in truth. The Greek meaning of false teachers is a propagator of erroneous Christian doctrine. We are commanded to be on guard against such teachings.

The Role of Boundaries

The reasonably sane among us wouldn’t dream about crossing that line to walk about in a minefield. But we don’t give a second thought to our failure to know God’s Word.

How can we know what is false if we aren’t reading what is true?

There is a saying that “ignorance of the law is no excuse.”

Jesus says, “be on guard; I have told you all things beforehand” (Mark 13:23).

“Ignorance of the law” is not an option Christ has given us. 

Like Job understood, there is a “boundary of light and darkness,” and we must live accordingly.