BUILDING FENCES
I lived in only two houses from first grade until I married. Both of those houses were separated from the other houses with a wire fence. In the first house, there was a fence around the entire yard. In the second house, the fence was around only the backyard. The front, however, was enclosed in a hedge.
One of our neighbors did not like that hedge. She was constantly running into it with her car. One day she decided to chop it off. It took a trip from the local police to calm her down, but she never stopped complaining about it or running into it every chance she had.
Fences are a lot like the Christian life. To understand that, we need to look at the history of the fence.
The word comes from a 14th century word, “fens,” and was used to describe defense or protection. The ancient Greeks and Romans built fences around land they conquered. The Anglo-Saxons grew hedges as fences. Fences served as barriers. The message was, “Don’t trespass; this belongs to someone else.”
Fences are posts or stakes joined by boards, rails, or wire to surround, separate, keep away, and defend property. They secure limits and may direct movement. They even enhance the appearance of a space. They set aside an area and declare that the space they surround is off limits. It restricts entrance into a particular space.
It is said of fences, that they are a “product of the struggle for control between humans. They allow us to give that extra step towards a limit that we figure dangerous.” Only those with permission are allowed to enter. There are often signs on fences that carrying warnings: “Do not enter,” “Private, keep out,” “Private property.”
So, what do we have in our spiritual lives that should require protection? The answer to that is simple—the Christian life needs protection. Unlike the attitude of many, we cannot become Christians and leave ourselves open to the sinful world. What we have is valuable, and it needs to be protected.
The Bible talks about the physically protected areas of the Israelites. They built walls or hedges, but they also built towers so that someone could watch for the enemy. It wasn’t enough to have the hedge; someone needed to be on guard to warn the people. They did well in the physical but not so well in the spiritual (Isaiah 5:1-7). Because they did not watch their spiritual lives, they lost their relationship with God.
Paul warned the Ephesian elders about this same problem in the first century church. He told them to pay careful attention to themselves and the flock. He warned of fierce wolves, even those from their own number. They would speak twisted things, anything to draw them away from the truth.
So, visualize this. Here is a Christian. He has no protection. No one is checking on him/her. Wolves come knocking at the door. The temptations start, and the Christian falls away. No one remembered to build a fence. The Christian was left open and vulnerable, and the result was exactly what Paul said it would be.
The wolves are stealing our children. They are carrying them off with the lies of evolution, homosexualism, alcohol, drugs, immodesty, false teaching about worship, and many other errors. We have forgotten that we need a protective fence around the most precious thing we own, our souls.
We need to build fences. We need to repair them. We need to build them higher and higher as the wolves jump higher and higher to snatch us from our spiritual security. We need to fortify them with extra worship, Bible study, and constant prayer. We need watchmen: parents, teachers, elders, deacons, preachers, and strong Christians to stand armed with the sword of the spirit to attack the enemy.
Paul told Timothy that the time would come when people would not stand for sound teaching. They would turn to their own passions, no longer listen to the truth, and wander off into myths (Second Timothy 4:3-4). That time came a long time ago, and we are watching the results in our families and in our congregations.
We need to start rebuilding fences. Build new ones. Protect our families. Protect our congregations. Protect our souls.
Sandra Oliver
(johndesmont.com)