Printer Friendly VersionEveryone wants to live the “good life” – life that is lived to the fullest. The question is: How do we achieve the good life? We all want to live there. So how do we do it? In this series of messages we want to look at one of the enduring strategies that the world celebrates as a means to the good life – wine, women and song. Let’s take a hard, honest look at what that strategy offers and what a biblical Christian faith has to say about the way to the good life.
We want to start our series with a look at “wine.” By that I mean
the use of alcohol and chemical means to life-enhancement. A popular cultural
strategy for having a “good time” is using your drug of choice to
enjoy a “high” or get some “relief.” So, what’s the
problem with that? What does it hurt? What’s the fuss?
Let’s look at what the Bible has to say about alcohol (and, by extension,
other drugs of choice) as a means to the good life.
--There are clear cautions about the risk, or dangers, of drinking. Proverbs
23:29-35, for instance, cautions that “in the end it bites like a snake.”
(ref. Also Proverbs 20:1, 23:20) Intoxicants are inherently dangerous and
prone to abuse.
--There is a strong rejection of drunkenness or intoxication. Drunkenness
is used as an illustration, or model, of disordered behavior. (ref. Isaiah
28, 19:14; Matthew 24:49; Luke 12:45, 21:34. “Do not be drunk with wine.”
(Eph. 5:18)
In fact, there would be significant cultural agreement with the biblical critique
of the use of alcohol. The damaging impact of alcohol on our culture has made
its own case about the dangers of drinking and the consequences of excess
drinking. There remains the arguable disagreement concerning an “occasional”
drink. And, to be honest, there is not a clear, direct biblical mandate for
total abstinence. Total abstinence can be strongly argued from scripture,
but on different grounds. (That is, the question of impact on the brother,
placing him – or her – at risk rather than the contention that any
consumption of alcohol is a sin in itself.) Let’s focus our attention
here on the use of alcohol or chemicals as a means to life enhancement.
Let’s be honest. People drink alcohol because it affects them. It changes
their body chemistry, changes their mood, produces a change in their feelings.
If the really desirable thing about alcohol was taste alone we could replicate
that taste alcohol-free. So, let’s be honest. People use alcohol because,
in some way, it makes them feel better even if they don’t use it to “excess.”
Scripture offers a critique and an alternative. Paul writes (Ephesians 5:18),
“Don’t be drunk with wine which leads to debauchery – i.e.
personal breakdown or dissolution. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus echoes that alternative when he counsels the Samaritan woman (John 4:13-14)
that if she drinks material water she will thirst again but if she drinks
the water that Jesus offers she will never thirst again.
We need to hear the biblical message clearly. That message is not about keeping
you from enjoying the good life, but helping you find it. If we are looking
for a way to enhance our lives and life-experience let’s honestly face
the key question. That is, can drinking or drugs do the job? Let’s see.
They can offer an illusion of enhancement, but there is no real change. The
illusion is necessarily temporary – it can’t last. And the illusion
may be costly. Certainly our life situation is no better (only our chemistry
has been changed) and is probably worse than before. The masking effect inhibits
our dealing constructively with real issues, we may suffer lost opportunities
(to deal with relational issues, for instance) and we risk possible real damage
as a result of what we do while we are affected by alcohol or drugs. After
the mood enhancement wears off we may be facing relational, financial, legal
or physical consequences. So, honestly, what real life enhancement do drinking
or drugs offer?
The Bible is not saying the desire to enhance your life is wrong – it’s
the strategy, the method that’s wrong. It can’t work. Don’t
get drunk on wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. Don’t try to satisfy
your thirst for life with the water of human / earthly resources. Don’t
simply hide from life, engage it. Drink the resources that Jesus gives. They
can satisfy your thirst.
The problem with Christ as a solution is that it is not quick and easy and,
let’s face it, we want to make life great the easy way. Life in Christ
may not be a quick and easy solution, but it is a real solution. It offers
real change and lasting change. Jesus brings change that transforms our lives
and life-experience for the better. He enables us to grow and mature. Alcohol
only masks our problems and challenges. Jesus helps us face and overcome them.
If you want to live the good life I want to offer a competing claim to the
promise of drinking and drugs. The best they can offer is temporary illusion.
Christ offers you real change – for good – in your life.
