Page 52 that virtually all of them have to do with the former. The Greatest Parking Space of All Let’s fine-tune this a bit, shall we? Getting back to the question, ,How do we choose between parking spaces?, I’d like to use marriage as our example. The New Testament contains some wonderful teaching on this particular subject. It shows us the boundaries of the parking lot, and it also gives us the choice of parking spaces. When it comes to marriage, there are three core questions to address: Whether? When? Who? In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul discusses this issue with a fair amount of detail. The principles in this passage apply to every non-moral decision a Christian will ever make. Hence, the reason why we’re using it for this chapter. I would encourage you to read the entire chapter sometime. For our purposes, we are just going to highlight a few sections. I wish everyone could get along without marrying, just as I do. But we are not all the same. God gives some the gift of marriage, and to others he gives the gift of singleness. Now I say to those who aren’t married and to widows–it’s better to stay unmarried, just as I am.
The strength of temptation also comes from a tendency to push virtues to such an extreme that they become vices. For example, it is all too easy for the joy of eating to become gluttony, or for the blessing of rest to become sloth, or for the peace of quietness to become noncommunication, or for industriousness to become greed, or for liberty to be turned into an excuse for licentiousness. We all know what it’s like for pleasure to become sensuality, or for self-care to become selfishness, or for self-respect to become conceit, or for wise caution to become cynicism and unbelief, or for righteous anger to become unrighteous rage, or for the joy of sex to become immorality, or for conscientiousness to become perfectionism. The list could go on endlessly, but I think you get the point.
Sam Storms