Of gulls and fish - leaving the safety of standards

One day as I looked out to sea I saw a large flock of seagulls and other birds flying low over the sea. They weren’t flying in any particular direction but were hovering close to the surface, diving and swooping. I wondered why they were doing this, and as I looked closely I saw a huge shoal of fish swimming close to the surface, some actually jumping up into the air and others flip-flopping about. All the birds had to do was stay close and the fish practically jumped into their mouths. 

In the same way, if we are careless about our standards and get too close to the edge, we can be caught by Satan and die spiritually. We need to stay well within the standards taught by the church to be safe. We may think we can handle ourselves and not be caught, and we may think we are having fun, but as we step onto the wrong side, we are stepping into Satan’s territory, like those fish leaving the safety of the sea and jumping into the air where they didn’t belong.