This is Part One of a three-part series on the controversial subject of Christians and alcohol. For marketplace ministers, it is a very important and relevant topic, because alcohol is so prevalent in business socializing and entertainment, while the ubiquitous "mini-bar" is an ever-present temptation to the traveling business person.

PART ONE

One of the greatest joys of being a Christian is to have freedom—freedom from enslavement to sin, and freedom from the legalism of traditional religion.

Yet anything taken out of balance is perilous. When we make freedom an idol, and exalt it at the expense of holiness and the fear of the Lord, we are indeed on dangerous—not holy—ground.

So many things in the Christian walk depend on the correct balance—prosperity balanced by integrity, the Spirit balanced by the Word, judgment balanced by mercy, and liberty balanced by the fear of the Lord and holiness.

Liberty, so central an ingredient to the successful Christian life, can so easily become licentiousness when allowed to spiral out of control. When liberty becomes an end in itself, it begins to dominate our thoughts and actions.

Dr. Neil Anderson in his book, "Walking in the Light," says: "There's always a price to pay for license. True freedom doesn't lie in the exercise of choices, but in the consequences of the choices made ... If we choose to walk by the flesh, we are responsible for the consequences of the choices we make."

Christians and Alcohol

After much heart searching and prayer, and not a little sweat and midnight oil, I believe it is timely to raise an issue that has been concerning me, and many around me, for some time. And that is what seems to be an increasing trend among Spirit-filled Christians to drink alcohol publicly, and even to promote and boast about the practice among church and other Christian groups.

At the outset, let me clearly state that nowhere in the Bible, as far as I can discern, is the moderate drinking of wine specifically forbidden or listed as a sin. To try to argue that would be disingenuous, and that is not my point at all. Biblically, there is no doubt that Christians have the liberty to drink wine, in moderation, as long as they do not get drunk.

However, I am approaching the issue from the perspective of what we should do, not what we can do in Christ. Paul puts it this way: "Everything is permissible (allowable and lawful) for me; but not all things are helpful (good for me to do, expedient and profitable when considered with other things). Everything is lawful for me, but I will not become the slave of anything, or be brought under its power" (1 Cor. 6: 12 AMP).

As I have talked to many, many Christians at all levels of authority in several different countries, the same basic arguments from the Bible have been put forward for the moderate consumption of alcohol by believers.

The favorites I have heard include these:

• Jesus drank wine, was called a "winebibber" and made wine miraculously for the wedding guests who had already "well drunk" at the wedding of Cana in Galilee;
  
  
• Paul told Timothy to "take a little wine for your stomach" (1 Tim. 5:23);
  
  
• In setting the guidelines for Church leaders, Paul said that "bishops" should be "not given to wine (1 Tim. 3:3), but that "deacons" be "not given to much wine" (1 Tim. 3:8), leaving the assumption open that less senior church workers can at least drink some wine, as long as it is not "much" wine;
  
  
• In Proverbs 31:6, we are told to give "strong drink" to him that is perishing, and wine to those who have heavy hearts.

Obviously, there are many more verses that can, with some creative exegesis, be made to justify the "sipping saints," but the clear and consistent message from the whole context of Scripture is that our liberty is always to be under disciplined self-control, and that we should never do anything that puts a "stumbling block" in front of anyone else.

Of all the arguments that alcohol is not a wise choice for Christians (and I will make a number below), the strongest by far is that we should not eat or drink or do anything else that causes one of our brothers or sisters to stumble. This is even more so, in the case of pastors, teachers and other leaders in the public eye.

As Paul says in Romans 14:21, "The right thing is to eat no meat or drink no wine [at all] or [do anything else] if it makes your brother stumble or hurts his conscience or offends or weakens him." In other words, to answer the question that Cain asks of God in Genesis 4:9, yes—we ARE our brothers' keeper!

Paul goes on in 1 Corinthians 8:9-11 (AMP), "... Be careful that this power of choice (this permission and liberty to do as you please) which is yours, does not [somehow] become a hindrance (cause of stumbling) to the weak or overscrupulous [giving them an impulse to sin] ... so ... this weak man is ruined (is lost and perishes) — the brother for whom Christ (the Messiah) died!"

Ambassadors of Christ

The Bible tells us we are "ambassadors of Christ" (2 Cor. 5:20), a serious commission which we should not take lightly, and that we should not just abstain from evil, but from all appearance of evil, "shrink from it and keep aloof from it in whatever form or whatever kind it may be" (1 Thess. 5:22).

One of the most pernicious arguments in favour of Christians openly and publicly drinking alcohol, and one that I have heard increasingly, is that if we want to attract the "world," then we need to be more like them, and not be restrictive or exclusive or rigid. In other words, if we want them to like us, we have to be like them—and that in so doing; we will somehow win them to Christ.

With all due respect to some of the various luminaries who have spouted that at me during discussion on the subject, I have only one possible reasoned and reasonable response: CODSWALLOP! Or if you prefer, BALONEY! TWADDLE! BALDERDASH! BUNKUM! HOGWASH! Get the message? It is not a subtle one.

I know, I know. Paul said that he would become "all things to all men," that he might by all means save them (1 Cor. 9:22), but I really don't think he meant that he would become a toper so that he could save the topers! In fact, he implies the opposite in verse 19: "For although I am free in every way from anyone's control, I have made myself a bond servant to everyone, so that I might gain the more [for Christ]."

Jesus tells us to be the "salt" and the "light" of the world (Matt. 5:13 and 14) in that order—salt cleans and disinfects, and light brings the hidden things out into the open—we are told by the Lord to "let your light so shine before men, that they may see your moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble and good deeds, and recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven" (Matt. 5:16).

We may indeed be shining as a light in a dark world, but that light will not have much effect if it is seen through the depths of an alcoholic haze! We are supposed to set an example, which means to keep ourselves "unspotted from the world" (James 1:27), "without spot or wrinkle" (Eph. 5:27), and "without spot and blameless" (2 Pet. 3:14).

End of Part One