Borderline living can be dangerous. We heard of a fellow during the American Civil War who lived near the line dividing the North from the South. Not wanting to be too closely identified with either side, he wore blue pants and a grey coat. The results? The yanks shot him in the coat and the rebs shot him in the pants.

It seems to us that a lot of brethren, spiritually speaking, are putting themselves in about the same position as that fellow. When it comes to their religious practices and general life-styles, they don't want to be too closely identified with either saints or sinner, but kind of identified with both.

In many cases, they really want to be identified with truth and righteousness, but want to see how close to the borderline between truth and error, righteousness and unrighteousness, without stepping over the line. This is especially true of those areas where the border may not be as clearly marked as it is in others.

On the night of the Lord's trial, Peter tried borderline living. (See Luke 22: 54-62) The text says, "But Peter followed at a distance". He followed Jesus closely enough to see Jesus and to be seen of Him (v. 61), yet just far enough not to be clearly identified with Him. It didn't work. He wound up denying the Lord to his sorrow.

There are brethren who want to think of themselves as faithful Christians and want others to so consider them. At the same time, they want to be just as accepted within a worldly environment. If absolute purity of speech, life and decorum causes them to stand out like a sore thumb in society, then they will shave the corners a bit. At the same time being careful not to become so bold and blatant as to make the brethren feel the need for any kind of disciplinary action.

A member may attend services with just regularly enough to keep the elders, preacher, or other concerned brethren off his back. He wants a list of things that he "has to do" so as to meet the "minimum requirements" for membership. He wants to attend just those services that he "has to", but no more; contribute what he "has to", but no more; and perform any other chore that he "has to", but no more —so that he can have all the time and resources possible to be at other places, doing things that he had much rather be doing in the first place.

Then there are those areas with some degree of relativity — here it is hard to mark the exact spot where one crosses the border. Areas that raise questions like:
Where do you draw the line between modest and immodest apparel?
How long must hair be before it can considered long?
How much wine would a "little wine" be for the stomach's sake?
How long must one suffer with another to be truly long-suffering?

Since they cannot mark the exact crossover spot, brethren generally deal with this problem in one of three ways:
1. Mark those passages off as impossible to apply.
2. See how close to where the line may be without going over.
3. Try to stay a safe distance from where the line may be.

Those who take the last two approaches agree that there is a borderline to be crossed somewhere — that somewhere on each side of that line there is an area that is clearly right or clearly wrong.

It seems to me that the third approach is the one that Christian would want to take in view of what the Bible says about participation in doubtful things. (Romans 14:23).

Then there are those whose words speak the truth, but whose actions bid godspeed to the advocates of error. (cf. 2 John 9-11). They seemingly try to see how closely associated they can be with those on either side of the border and still be accepted by faithful brethren.

How close to the border do you live?