Is it a sin to drink alcohol?
Hi, welcome to today's Little Lesson.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Today, we're going to answer a question sent to us by one of our beloved viewers.
The question revolves around alcohol.
Is it a sin to drink alcohol for Christians?
Of course, within the body of Christ, under the banner of Christendom, there is a wide
spectrum of opinion on the proper answer to that question.
There are some who say Christians should never drink alcohol, never touch it, and there those
that say it's okay, there's nothing wrong with alcohol as long as you don't get drunk.
I think that's where it ends on this side of the spectrum.
It's pretty hard to argue that it's okay to get drunk from the New Testament seeing as
how the New Testament warns that no drunkard will inherit eternal life.
That's not an endorsement for drunkenness.
That's a sobering warning.
One thing I can say at the outset, there's a surefire way to guarantee that you'll never
be tempted to get drunk by overindulging in alcohol is to not indulge at all.
Right?
Right.
I've personally never been drunk, but I don't drink period.
It's not necessarily because I have a Biblical conviction that it would be wrong for me to
drink alcohol.
It's pretty much based on the fact that I've never liked it.
I've tasted a little sip of beer once or twice in my life.
People have said, "You have to acquire the taste for it."
Okay.
I'm just not willing to torture myself until I acquire that taste.
Wine, you know, I've had that on occasion.
It just always seemed so strong and overpowering.
I know that probably shows that I'm not a cultured person because I don't have various
kinds of wine with different kinds of food that enhances the flavor.
I'm a pretty plain and simple person, just not that sophisticated.
It just seems so overpowering.
Champagne, it's the same thing.
Never, ever tried vodka or whiskey or any of the hard stuff.
Anyways, if you don't ever want to worry about falling so far that you get drunk, one way
to do it is avoid all together.
To say, I think from the Bible, to say that no Christian should, as a rule, never touch
alcohol, I think it's hard to support that from the Bible seeing as how Jesus changed
water into wine.
It's pretty clear that back in Jesus' day, wine was a very common beverage.
In fact, Paul wrote to Timothy and said, "Use a little wine for the sake of your stomach
and your frequent ailments."
He's prescribing wine to Timothy, who's a missionary in a different region of the world
than where he was, his hometown.
Of course, any missionary, anyone who's traveled around the world probably knows this.
There are different bacterias in different parts of the world, and people who drink the
water all the time develop an immunity to the bacteria in their water.
A foreigner comes who doesn't have any immunity built up to that, and they drink the same
water that everyone else is drinking, and they get very, very sick.
I suspect that's what happened to Timothy.
He was drinking the water, and Paul said, "Hey, don't drink water exclusively.
Use a little wine."
There's a medicinal quality I think there as well in that the alcohol has an ability
to kill some germs.
When you get a cut, you might rub some alcohol on there, and that's a medicinal thing.
That's just the way it is.
Again, I'm not a drinker because I don't enjoy it, but I would never, ever point my finger
at a Christian who does partake of alcohol.
Some seem to like it.
All of my friends who I've known to drink alcohol aren't drunkards.
They never get drunk.
They just have a glass of wine occasionally with a meal.
In many other cultures of the world, particularly I think of in Europe, it's common to have
wine with every meal.
Again, they're very reserved and not ever getting drunk.
I've been with those families.
I remember one time I was in Brussels, Belgium, eating at a woman's house, and there was wine
on everybody's place.
She said, "Let's give a toast."
I held up my glass, and she said, "To the Holy Ghost."
Everyone said, "To the Holy Ghost."
These were all Christians, and they all clinked their glasses.
I clinked my glass.
I had a little sip to the Holy Ghost just to be polite.
Let's have a little bit of mercy.
Now, I think of some Christians I know who are very, very adamantly opposed to alcohol,
one in particular who's a very close friend of mine who's adamantly opposed to alcohol
because this person witnessed their uncle become an alcoholic.
It destroyed his life and destroyed his family at the same time.
Naturally, if you witness that, and you see alcohol as being the source, well, then, you're
going to have very negative feelings about alcohol, and that's understanding.
Again, it all comes down to self-control.
It's interesting that those who are sometimes very condemning of other Christians who indulge
in a little bit of alcohol because it's mind-altering, they're stuffing their bodies, their mouths
full of foods that are body-altering and, in some cases, mind-altering.
You know, we ought to ask these people, "Is it okay to stuff a Hostess Twinkie in your
mouth?" because that will alter your body a little bit.
Everything you put in your mouth has some effect on your body, some more than others.
You know, those who are pointing their finger need to notice that there's three fingers
pointed back at them and before you condemn others for putting something in their body
that's potentially negative.
Again, alcohol is not negative in small amounts, but yet the same people who are condemning
anyone for drinking any alcohol, they are stuffing their bodies full of junk food.
They are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and you can tell they're hurting their bodies.
It might be good to be merciful toward those who occasionally have a glass of wine at their
meal and don't get drunk.
All right.
More could be said on this, but I think I've said enough.
That's all I'm going to say.
Thank you so much for joining me.
God bless you.