The Cost of Drinking

Deuteronomy 21:18-21; Proverbs 23:20, 21; I Corinthians 6:9-11

GOLDEN TEXT: “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God?”—I Corinthians 6:9

UNDOUBTEDLY it is true that the misuse of alcohol has contributed immeasurably to the sorrows and difficulties of man. In the quotation from Deuteronomy relief is provided for parents who suffer from the evil conduct of a son they were unable to reform, and who under the influence of liquor, was ungovernable and insulting. Probably the case under consideration was one in which the victim of appetite would not only be given to such self-gratification, but that in his drunkenness he would be transgressing other laws of decency.

This was apparently the cause of the deflection of the two sons of Aaron, the High Priest, who offered “strange fire” in the tabernacle before the Lord, contrary to His instructions, and were judged worthy of death therefore.—Leviticus 10:1-11

The quotation from Proverbs shows that intemperance deadens the intellect and results in poverty.

In his first epistle to the Corinthians, Paul points out a number of evils, including drunkenness, and states that those who practice such things will not have a part in the Kingdom of God. It may seem surprising that it was necessary for the apostle to name such gross wrong-doing, and to tell the brethren at Corinth that if such conduct were continued they could not hope to be recognized of the Lord. However, the church had been only very recently established at Corinth, and its members were called from many classes, some degraded by nature and also by their environment in one of the most wicked cities of the world.

It helps us to understand and appreciate the devotion and brotherly love of Paul, to see his zeal and patience in dealing with evils among the brethren at Corinth. He admits that some of them had been guilty of the very wrongs he was condemning, but reminds them that they had been “washed, sanctified, justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

What they had been before they learned of the Lord and His high standards was comparatively unimportant, but if, after knowing Him and His principles, they lapsed back into sin, their hope as God’s people would become a vain illusion.

The moral of the apostle’s words is just as applicable now as it was to the church at Corinth. We, too, are surrounded by the old environment, we have in our flesh the same old dispositions that were ours before we came to the Lord. The mind of the flesh is ever ready to suggest wrong ways and means of serving the Lord. The danger of a compromise with the world or our own flesh is real and ever present, and will not end while we tabernacle in the flesh. Hence the importance of a positive course, an abiding determination and effort to “glorify God in our body, which is God’s.”—I Corinthians 6:20

The apostle elsewhere exhorts, “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the desires of the flesh.” He points out that this will require close scrutiny of the suggestions and desires of the flesh, saying, “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”—Galatians 5:16,17

Another translation of these verses (Rotherham’s) makes it clear that if we are to be successful in our desire and efforts to walk in accordance with the Lord’s Spirit, the shall find that the things which are natural to us, “the things we might chance to desire,” will be the very ones we must avoid. We cannot expect ever to come, in the flesh, to a point where the suggestions of our mind will not need to be carefully and prayerfully checked with the Word of God.

In the epistle to the church at Ephesus, Paul presents sublime views of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, but, in chapter 5, he also points out the “unfruitful works of darkness,” and warns against being ensnared by them. He exhorts that we “walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming [buying back] the time, because the days [and our surroundings in the world] are evil.”

“Wherefore.” says the apostle, “be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.” (Eph. 5:15-18) Here he indicates that the greatest danger the Lord’s people have to fear is being overcome with the spirit of the world, its ideas, methods and false reasonings. The alternative is to be “filled with the Spirit.”

St. Paul seems here to be suggesting a subtle contrast between drinking deeply of intoxicating wine, and being filled with the Spirit of God. One who is overcome with liquor is intoxicated with a false enthusiasm and joy. Those who are filled with the Holy Spirit are, on the contrary, stimulated with a genuine enthusiasm for doing His will, which causes a deadening of their human desires while they seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

We should take to ourselves the exhortation, “Let the words of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” —Colossians 3:16,17

QUESTIONS:

What was the “strange fire” offered by the two sons of Aaron, for which they were condemned to death?

How do we account for the apparent gross sins practiced in the church at Corinth?

Is there any comparison between intoxication by alcohol and being “filled with the Spirit”?

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