From a devotional today on 1 Peter 4:7….. This is wisdom I have come to know through personal experience, through family history, and through years of watching people try to live under the burden of chemical dependency, and seeing many compromise or lose altogether relationships, health, financial stability, self- respect, joy in living, Christian witness, and in far too many cases, their very physical existence as a consequence of their addiction.
“Can we talk about alcohol? It is a sensitive subject, but it needn’t be. There are two groups of people who tend to get all the focus—the alcoholics and the teetotalers. My concern today lies with the vast population between. I believe ( the Greek word pronounced like ) “nay-fo” or true sobriety does not live between alcoholism and abstinence but on another spectrum altogether.
Before going further, however, we should name the main thing that almost never gets discussed in a conversation about the consumption of alcohol. Let me be emphatically clear. The demonic strategy of deception and distraction would obscure the real issue here. The issue is not about drinking alcohol at all. The issue is the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
7 The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.
Human beings are made in the image of God, which means we are made to live and flourish at the level of Divine-Human Life. This is what is meant by a Holy Spirit-filled life. Jesus Himself shows us what this looks like. As our human spirit interactively participates with the Holy Spirit we have the capacity to become everything the New Testament says we can become—which is both breath-giving and breathtaking.
Wine (and other alcoholic beverages) is an intoxicant. Many people can drink alcohol and not become intoxicated or impaired. Some cannot owing to what I would call the infirmity we commonly call alcoholism. Again, the issue is not alcohol per se but the Holy Spirit-filled life. There comes a point at which the consumption of alcohol impedes the working of the Holy Spirit with the human spirit. The Apostle Paul, writing to the middle first century churches, offered this guidance:
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, (Ephesians 5:18)
The kind of sobriety the Bible speaks of cannot be reduced to not drinking or drinking too much. It means being filled to overflowing (even intoxicating) life with the Holy Spirit. One of the most fascinating side conversations on the Day of Pentecost was this one:
13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”
14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15 These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! (Acts 2:13-15)
The Holy Spirit operates like an intoxicant (though intoxicant is the wrong idea, as it means poison), simultaneously bringing an inebriating joy and sober mindedness. Wow! This is what we must give our utmost attention to—not debating over whether a glass of wine at dinner is a problem. It’s not, until it is; at which point it should be addressed. We must be focusing all of our energy on both the ordinary and extraordinary implications of being created in the image of a God and filled to flourishing overflowing by the Holy Spirit.
O.K., now that we’ve touched on this sensitive subject, I would like to offer some pastoral counsel as it comes to the use of alcohol, should you a) not be prone to the infirmity of addiction, and b) choose to partake of it. I am sure I will be criticized for not taking a complete abstinence approach to the subject. If this is your conviction (or your church’s position), I respect it wholeheartedly. Even so, as a pastor, I owe wise pastoral guidance to those who do not take this approach. In keeping with that, I offer the following principles on the matter of consuming alcohol.
Only consume alcohol:
1) In awareness of the presence of God, never in secret
2) With others, never alone
3) In moderation, not in excess
4) In peace, never to escape sadness, anger, or to medicate pain
5) With food, never in hunger
6) With respect to all applicable laws
7) With love to abstain where it might cause others to stumble
7 The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.
Wake up sleeper and rise from the dead. . . ” JD Walt seedbed.com 3/30/22
I have much more in the way of personal and family experience I could say about the demonic influence that lies in wait in intoxicating substances found in all kinds of bottles…. but then, I suspect nearly every person reading this also has the same or similar stories they could tell. When I’ve been in the presence of women as young as their thirties diagnosed with any number of health maladies including cirrhosis or even all out liver failure, in addition to my prayers in grief for their circumstances, I have prayed humble gratitude to God knowing that there but for the grace of God go I. I made the personal choice almost two decades ago to refrain from alcohol. Even then it had been a decade or more since I had drank to intoxication. By 38 I knew quite well that I had the ability to use alcohol as an excuse for not doing what I needed to do and for doing things that I had no business doing.