Sunday, August 15, 2010

Jesus Drank?



Obviously Jesus drank water seeing as how he was completely human and completely God, the human side of him would have needed water to sustain life. I am referring to the idea that Jesus in fact drank and was at settings that included wine, which would infer that Jesus is in fact not at all against responsible (key word: Responsible) drinking. I should offer some background as to why I'm talking about this issue, however.
I attend an EC denomination church. For those of you not familiar with the EC church, basically the majority of EC churches have made a statement somewhat along the lines of "The most responsible choice concerning alcohol is total abstinence". I did not know this was the common opinion though and when I recently went on a vacation to Canada, I fell into the the Devil's clutches and tried beer. I also sampled some wine. I felt no guilt for this and don't really believe I should. I see very little Biblical evidence for the idea that alcohol is sinful. If Jesus was opposed to drinking why would he turn water into wine? Why would he create a substance he knew was completely sinful. He would have sinned by creating a so-called "evil" substance and we know that Jesus was sinless. What we do see in the Bible, however,are plenty of warnings against drunkenness. Drunkenness and drinking are not the same thing. It's like calling eating and gluttony the same thing. We are not gluttons every time we eat breakfast. There is a way to responsibly enjoy alcohol. If we are to be like Christ I believe this also means that if we choose to enjoy alcohol, we are to follow his example of how to enjoy it responsibly.

I don't believe that total abstinence is a wrong view to take on this issue, its actually pretty respectable, but I don't think total abstinence should be taught as THE MOST responsible choice to take on drinking. As if responsible drinking is "less responsible". Its just not supportable, in my opinion.
Therefore, I believe that Christians are able to responsibly enjoy alcohol without feeling guilty about it. Follow Jesus's example and enjoy it responsibly. The answer to the popular question "What Would Jesus Do?" is; He would drink, but drink responsibly. So drink up fellow Christians!

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