In “Edinburgh” (1903) Robert Lewis Stevenson told the legend of two spinster sisters who lived together in a one room house. After living together for all of their lives, they a falling out. Neither of them moved out. Neither of them admitted wrong. Neither of them ever again spoke a word to the other.
Whether from lack of means or fear of reputation, they stayed in the house with each other for the rest of their lives. To solve their problem, they took a piece of chalk and drew a line to separate their house. The line divided the doorway and the fireplace so that each could come and go and each could cook without invading the domain of the other.
As Stevens says, “For years, they coexisted in a hateful silence; their meals, their ablutions, their friendly visitors, exposed to an unfriendly scrutiny; and at night, in the dark watches, each could hear the breathing of her enemy. Never did four walls look down upon an uglier spectacle than these sisters rivaling in unsisterliness.”
We cannot imagine living in such a negative atmosphere. As Robert Lewis Stevenson noted, this was a legend. Surely such could not be real.
In one place I knew, many years ago a man left his wife. After some months of his sin, he wanted to come home. She took him back. She kind of took him back. He moved home, but was told to live in the little rent house on the property. It was not visible, but there was a chalk line drawn between them. Her bed and kitchen in one house and his in another. Of course it did not work and unlike the two sisters in the legend, they did not stay together.
Both of these examples are anti-Christian!
In Matthew 18:15, Jesus says, “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.”
Jesus calls on Christians to cross the chalk line, to go to those who have sinned against us or to those whom we have sinned against. He calls on us to get on the same side of the chalk line, to build back our relationship with our brother or sister.
To do otherwise is to violate God’s will and endanger our own souls.
Lonnie Davis
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.