Let me begin this blog by saying that I really am sad that this even has to be written. However, I could only go so long before the compulsion to speak some truth became stronger than my desire to be polite. In my fair municipality, the board of aldermen is voting on a law that would allow certain establishments to sell liquor on Sundays. For some of you, the fact that you still can’t buy alcohol on Sunday in some places might be shocking. I’m not sure what to think about the issue. I honestly haven’t investigated it enough to give any sort of informed opinion. The one benefit I see to the rule is that alcohol sales stop at midnight making 2:00 AM beer runs obsolete (that, of course, assumes that there aren’t establishments that bend or flat out break the current rule which is probably a shaky assumption). What has raised my hackles about this issue is that there seems to be a coalition of pastors who are raising Cain on the ramifications of this law being passed. What a sad situation. What a complete dereliction of duty. I’m a pastor. I’ve got a fairly solid (read: biblical) idea of what a pastor ought to be doing. First and foremost, the pastor’s call is to preach the gospel, to point people to Christ and their need of him as their Savior and their Lord. Nowhere can I find any indication from Scripture that my role as a pastor is to be a political activist. In fact, I find just the opposite to be the biblical view (see: Romans 13). In discussions of this issue I’ve heard two things that bothered me. First, I’ve heard that this is not a political issue but a moral issue. To that I say, so what? You know who were the most moral people in the bible? The Pharisees. Christ tore those guys up left and right. Why? Because moralism is not the gospel. If good morals could enact real change then God would have just stopped with the Ten Commandments. The second thing I’ve heard is that alcohol itself is inherently evil. Now I totally understand how someone who’s been hurt by an alcoholic or the abuse of alcohol would be tempted to feel that way. But that is simply not what the Scriptures teach us. Many of these people will point you to Proverbs 20:1:“Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler,
and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.”
I’d say they’ve greatly misinterpreted this passage. We’ve all heard someone say, “money is the root of all evil,” but that’s not what the Scriptures say. They actually say, “the love of money is the root of all evil.” In the same way, what does this passage teach? That those who are led astray by wine or strong drink are not wise. That’s the only interpretation that the book of Proverbs offers us, especially given what is written later on in Proverbs 31:6:
“Give strong drink to the one who is perishing,
and wine to those in bitter distress;
let them drink and forget their poverty
and remember their misery no more.
Open your mouth for the mute,
for the rights of all who are destitute.
Open your mouth, judge righteously,
defend the rights of the poor and needy.”
Right before the mother of King Lemuel espouses the benefits of a godly wife she commands her son as to how he should act as a King. She tells him to avoid strong drink himself, but not because it’s evil. She tells him to give wine to those in bitter distress. That’s the same Hebrew word (transliterated: yayin) for wine that used in 20:1. Furthermore, those that espouse a view of alcohol as inherently evil are going to have a tough time dealing with Christ. Christ’s first miracle was turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana of Galilee (John 2). And don’t let anyone tell you that was non-alcoholic wine (believe it or not, people will argue that). The same Greek word used for wine in that passage (transliterated: oinon) is the word used in Proverbs 20:1 & Proverbs 31:6 in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, called the Septuagint.
In the interest of full disclosure, I don’t even drink. I’m not morally opposed to drinking, I’m just a picky eater (as my mother would attest). I’d simply rather have sweet tea or Coca-cola. I’m not opposed to the responsible consumption of alcohol because the Scriptures are not opposed to it. More importantly, and like I said at the beginning of this post, the real issue is how Christians believe they will change this world. There seems to be a strong contingent of pastors and congregations who think that this law if it were to fail, would in some way be some sort of spiritual victory. Please don’t be tricked into thinking that. If legislation could change men and turn them into new creations then we wouldn’t need Christ (or pastors and churches for that matter). The only true spiritual change comes through the preaching of Christ, the risen Son of God. I’ll leave you with a quote from a far greater pastor than I am. Listen to what the great Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon says:
"If ministers of the gospel were more hearty in their work of preaching; if, instead of giving lectures and devoting a large part of their time to literary and political pursuits, they would preach the Word of God and preach it as if they were pleading for their own lives, ah; then, my brethren, we might expect great success; but we cannot expect it while we go about our work in a half-hearted way, and have not that zeal, that earnestness, that deep purpose which characterized those men of old..."
