I certainly join with you in prayer for you and for your son. I see you both guided easily and joyfully to your highest good—in your individual lives and in your relationship together.

I love this passage. In fact, I used it as a part of my Thanksgiving Eve service this week. It's such an important and reassuring promise for those of us who have—shall we say—wandered afar in our journey through this human experience.

As I suspect you've already learned, this is not as simple a question as it might seem. There is no specific, absolute New Testament statement that one can either choose to obey or disobey.

Metaphysically, this passage vividly describes a life in which the demands and distractions of the flesh become the only priority, and any spiritual purpose or awareness is resisted and denied.