Early this morning, while running on a familiar street, I was surprised as I turned a corner to see about twenty vehicles, including marked police cars and security vehicles. A crowd of at least twenty armed policeman and security personnel had surrounded a house; several were scaling its walls. As I curiously ran by, I asked a CPS guard what was happening. He replied, “We are cleaning up the area, targeting known drug houses.” I said, “Great! Thank you!” and then I ran on (a bit quicker than usual!).
I am grateful for that operation and I hope many more will follow. The scourge of illegal drugs has destroyed, and continues to destroy, countless lives, inflicting ruin on families and endangering society at large. The judicial system should show little, if any, mercy to those behind this evil. This is personal to me. As I write, someone that I know is on their deathbed (perhaps even dead by the time this article is published) because of substance abuse. Drug abuse is an evil that destroys lives and livelihoods. It indeed needs to be cleaned up. However, addiction to illegal drugs is not the only substance abuse problem in our land—so is alcohol abuse. And we should not be naïve and assume this is only a problem in the wider world. No doubt, some who are reading this know of its presence in their homes if not in their own life. Yes, alcohol abuse does exist among Christians. Why else would Paul sense the need to write that an aspiring elder must not be a drunkard (1 Timothy 3:3; Titus 1:7)?
Last Sunday evening, Stephen did an exceptional job explaining that, motivated by Jesus, Christians practice moderation in their use of alcohol. Specifically, sober-minded Christians (pun intended) do not get drunk. They are not “given to wine” (KJV), “not addicted to much wine” (1 Tim 3:8, KJV). In a phrase, maturing Christians—the kind of Christians that a church would want to be their spiritual leaders—are not characterised as “drinkers.”
So often, when this subject is addressed, preachers and teachers either emphasise the need for total abstinence from alcohol or that the Bible does not command total abstinence. I so appreciated that Stephen argued neither but rather emphasised the emphasis of the text: Do not be drunk, do not be addicted to alcohol, do not be characterised as a drinker. This was and remains a very needful reminder because alcohol abuse remains a temptation among Christians.
I was raised in a religious culture that emphasised complete abstinence from alcohol. There are worse ways to misinterpret Scripture, yet it must be acknowledged that the Bible does not prohibit the consumption of alcohol. Christians are at liberty to drink alcoholic beverages but, as Stephen made clear, drunkenness is a sin to be avoided. Failure to keep these two truths in proper tension can result in the abuse of alcohol. While defending their freedom to drink, some Christians become enslaved to alcohol—even when they are not imbibing to the point of drunkenness.
I once heard an angry fundamentalist preacher railing against Calvinists, making the statement, “When you become reformed [theologically] you will become a winebibber!” (That’s good King James language!) I was amused by his assertion yet at the same time I had to admit that, in some cases, his accusation is true. Being freed from fundamentalist legalism can result in an unwise exercise of one’s liberty, resulting in alcohol abuse. A friend of mine, whom God had rescued from alcohol abuse—long after he had become a Christian—confessed that, while boasting in his liberty, he had become enslaved. His abuse of alcohol nearly destroyed his marriage and did end his ministry. He told me that he thanked God for granting him repentance and that he had subsequently chosen to never consume that which he proved he could not keep within the bounds of biblical moderation. Wise man.
The burden of this article is to add my “amen| to what Stephen expounded last Sunday. Brothers and sisters, we need to be careful when it comes to alcohol. We need to be circumspect concerning certain medications. In either case, we must avoid being brought under the power of that which in moderation can otherwise be a blessing.
Christians who drink alcohol need to honestly assess why they drink it. Do you drink because it is a means of enjoying God’s good creation? Wonderful. But here are some less than wonderful reasons to drink: Is it to avoid the stigma of being a “kill-joy Jesus freak”? Is it in order to appear “cool” before an inebriated world (and sometimes an inebriated segment of the church)? Ask yourself, “Do I drink as a means to escape the pressures of living in a broken world? Am I dependent upon alcohol as a ‘stress reliever’ or as a means of forgetting my troubles?” If the answer is yes, then perhaps you need to consider whether you are abusing a gift from God.
If you are struggling in this area—Is your wife or your husband or are your children concerned? Is alcohol always on your mind as you come to the end of your workday? Do you sense guilt about your consumption? Are weekends and holidays getaways to a bottle?—then seek help. Don’t wait until it is too late. Don’t wait until you need to be surrounded by others in order to clean up your problem.
For some Christians complete abstinence from alcohol will be the right path while, for other Christians, responsibly imbibing will be completely appropriate. At the end of the day, the issue is not how much or how little but rather, why? Why drink? And, for some, the all-important question will be, why one more?
Concerned,
Doug