Randy

Here’s a quote:
“The way that Christian freedom seems to be judged in some Reformed quarters by the ability to consume alcohol and tobacco is quite bizarre. Now, don’t misunderstand me here. I enjoy cheap wine, British beer, fine brandy and good Scotch; and I do not even regard smoking as a sin – stupid, yes, sinful, no. But to judge the vitality of one’s Christian faith by the consumption of these things is as silly as to judge it by abstention.”

And another quote:
“This is where real Christian freedom lies: in the realization that we can do nothing to effect our own salvation; that Christ has done it all for us; and that we are therefore able to give ourselves freely and unconditionally in sacrificial service of others. The same thing, the life, death and resurrection of Christ, is what makes it possible for me to drink beer and without endangering my soul; but that is a collateral bonus of spiritual freedom and not a significant function of my spiritual maturity.”

All glory to God.
-Bob Lesiw

There is a time for strong words for those who choose to abstain and expect others to do the same. When legalism enters the Church it causes pain to the Body, it is the opposite of grace. The persons that carry the legalism in would likely also feel pain when it is identified for what it is.

I am thankful for the test this church has weathered, though not intimately aware of the pain that has been endured, because it has brought to light a central but complex continuum: legalism vs. liberty. I am also thankful that as a result of all the discussion our body is not now encumbered by another rule.

Let’s move on.

Randy Martin

Thank you for your input- some good stuff- especially the C.S. Lewis quote. I think that all of your warnings are helpful and legitimate as we look at Scripture.

Here are a couple of cautions- not because I think you are falling into them but because I know the tendencies of my own heart.

In interacting with others in the body we must be careful of assuming.

First, we must be careful of assuming legalism or wrong motives on the part of those who are abstaining. Those who abstain and have concerns about alcohol often have motives of love for others and a desire to please and honor God. While legalism is a real danger it is not inherent in the position of abstinence. While we know this we need to remember it lest we fall into the error of judgmentalism.

Second, we must be careful of assuming that we are somehow better than those who haven’t gotten yet. It is a fine line to walk in our hearts to hold to the truth and understand our Christan liberties even while not despising those who do not personally feel they can utilize their Christian liberties. None of us have anything that we haven’t received and all that we have received has been received because of the grace of God.

Temperance is, unfortunately, one of those words that has changed its meaning. It now usually means teetotalism. But in the days when the second Cardinal virtue was christened “Temperance,” it meant nothing of the sort. Temperance referred not specially to drink, but to all pleasures; and it meant not abstaining, but going the right length and no further. It is a mistake to think that Christians ought all to be teetotalers; Mohammedanism, not Christianity, is the teetotal religion. Of course it may be the duty of a particular Christian, or of any Christian, at a particular time, to abstain from strong drink, either because he is the sort of man who cannot drink at all without drinking too much or because he wants to give the money to the poor, or because he is with people who are inclined to drunkenness and must not encourage them by drinking himself. But the whole point is that he is abstaining, for a good reason, from something which he does not condemn and which he likes to see other people enjoying. One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself without wanting every one else to give it up. That is not the Christian way. An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons—marriage, or meat, or beer, or the cinema; but the moment he starts saying things are bad in themselves, or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning.

One great piece of mischief has been done by the modern restriction of the word Temperance to the question of drink. It helps people to forget that you can be just as intemperate about a lot of other things. A man who makes his golf or his motorcycle the center of his life, or a woman who devotes all her thoughts to clothes or bridge or her dog, is being just as “intemperate” as someone who gets drunk every evening. Of course, it does not show on the outside so easily: bridge-mania or golf-mania do not make you fall down in the middle of the road. But God is not deceived by externals.

* C.S. Lewis. Mere Christianity. The MacMillan Company. New York, 1955.

Randy Martin