As a kid, we played a variety of games to see “how close” we could get to something. We used paper footballs or sometimes quarters (or coins) to slide across a table and see how close to the edge of the table we could get—trying to get it to hang over the side without falling off.
Sometimes, it seems like we play the same game with our lives. We try to see how close to the edge we can get without falling off. That’s why God makes His instructions to us abundantly clear. He uses the word “abstain” (1 Thess. 4:3; 5:22; 1 Pet. 2:11), which means “to avoid contact with, to keep away, to hold oneself from.” When God tells us to “abstain” from something, He is not permitting us to see “how close” we can get to it.
Consider 1 Thessalonians 5:22—“Abstain from every form of evil.” Underline “every form.” What “form” and “how close” can I get to sexual impurity, moral impurity, greed, hatred, jealousy, wrath, selfishness, envy, drinking, etc., etc. (Gal. 5:19-21)? Let us NOT see “how close” we can get to sin! Let us hold ourselves far away!