Boundaries are biblical.

Boundaries are important because God has created them. They are a part of the good world God created. In fact, boundaries are as old as the world itself. To see this, we’re going to look at the first few chapters of the book of Genesis.

In the creation story in Genesis 1, God creates and separates.

Genesis 1:3-5

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

God creates by simply saying, “Let there be…” and then He begins separating, drawing lines between light and darkness; between water and dry land; and so on. The entire act of creation is about the establishment of God’s boundaries and limits.

That’s all a boundary is — it’s a limit, a line that should not be crossed. Boundaries help define things. The delineate between what’s mine and what’s yours. And you probably notice when those boundaries are violated.

We have some new neighbors who moved in next door to us. They’re really nice people with young children who play outside and we’ve had the chance to talk with them a few times. But they don’t seem to understand the boundary between our property. We have weekly trash can pick-up every Thursday. I park my green trash can on the curb in front of my house every Thursday. But on the final Thursday of the month, we also have recycling pick-up; these are the blue trash cans. And on recycling day, for some reason, my new neighbor parks his blue trash can in my spot, on the curb in front of my house.

I haven’t said anything to them about this…because I’m a nice guy. But I noticed it!

And the same thing happens in the Garden of Eden. God’s boundary was violated…and He noticed.

God establishes a clear boundary and He communicates this to Adam in Genesis 2.

Genesis 2:16-17

And the Lord commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

So we see that God established boundaries from the beginning, both in the act of creation and in the establishment of a moral boundary concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This means that boundaries are a good thing. Boundaries pre-date the Fall of Man.

God’s boundary was intended for Adam’s well-being. Good boundaries are always intended for our flourishing. They make us healthier people. Healthy boundaries provide safety and security.

We know this from our experience of parenting. If you have a child in your life, you know that children NEED good boundaries to keep them safe. Moreover, children intrinsically crave these boundaries. They provide children with a necessary sense of security.

In that sense, we see that establishing good boundaries is a loving thing to do.

Healthy people have healthy boundaries — we will see this over and over as we go forward in this series. Just remember that this principle goes all the way back to the beginning. Boundaries are good — because they come from God Himself.