"If you drink one drink..."

“If you drink one drink, then you’re one drink drunk.” That was what the preacher said, and as a naïve teen, I accepted it at face value.

The preacher was warning us kids about drinking alcoholic beverages and his reasoning seemed to make sense. After all, if you drop just one drop of swamp-water into a glass of pure water, the water is no longer pure. It seemed to make sense (and it was clever)...until college.

In my college freshman biology class I learned that the liver filters out impurities, such as alcohol, so that they do not reach the blood stream. Yet, the liver has limitations. After a point, the liver is overwhelmed and alcohol gets into the blood stream and begins to affect the brain.

I looked back on the logic applied by the preacher and I changed my view. His logic did not take into account the marvelous structure of the human body. It made logical sense, but it was not accurately applied.

My church friends who had had a similar learning experience were quick to comment that “We know that drunkenness is wrong, but you cannot prove from the Bible that drinking is wrong as long as you avoid drunkenness.”

They made a good legal point, and that is what this is all about, thinking about the Bible only in terms of law. It is called legalism, and a person could be very strict in their legal thinking or very liberal. The 'conservative' preacher and my 'liberal-thinking' fiends were all legalists because they treated the Bible as a law code and interpreted it in terms of legal commands of legal restrictions and legal liberties.

That was one of the problems with the Pharisees. When they saw the disciples of Jesus walking through a wheat field and taking some grain to eat, they accused them of violating the Sabbath. The disciples were not out in the field working. Yet, on a technical point, it could be argued that by taking grain from a standing wheat stalk they had harvested. Therefore, they were judged to be guilty! Legalism.

Jesus did not argue with the Pharisees on a legal point but responded, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27)The Sabbath was never meant to be a point of legal contention, but a day that God assigned for man to rest from his work. Yet, some had taken the Sabbath command and made it into an elaborate legal system full of restrictions.

Peter did the same thing when he posed a question to Jesus about forgiveness. He asked if he should forgive his brother seven times. (The general teaching of the Jews set a limit at three.) Peter probably thought he was being quite generous. However, though liberal in his thinking, he was still placing a restriction on forgiveness, a (generous) legal restriction. Jesus responded by telling Peter that there is no restriction on forgiveness.

God’s word is not a legal document, but rather, a revelation of His divine character. If you want to understand the prohibition of drunkenness, consider the character of God and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 5:18) If you want to know what the Sabbath is all about and how to apply that in your own life, ponder the activity of God during creation week. (Genesis 1 & 2.) If you want to fully understand Jesus’ teaching about forgiveness, open your eyes to the nature of God. (Exodus 34:6-7; Matthew 23:37; Luke 23:33-49)

It ought to awaken our minds when we realize that the Law of Christ, the Law of Liberty, and the Royal Law are all in reference to “love your neighbor as yourself.” God created us in His own image, and the way we respond to his instruction reflects our relationship with Him.

Are you a conservative legalist? A liberal legalist? A mainline legalist?

Or, stepping away from the legalism pendulum, are you being transformed into the image of Christ?

Mark Stinnett

November 27, 2022