Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Hank Walker | Pastor at Peach City Fellowship

All over the world, alcohol consumption is an accepted rite for “ringing in the New Year.” Yet, new records are continually set with DUI arrests and catastrophic automobile accidents—all because people use their alcohol-impaired judgment to justify getting behind the wheel of a car and driving it.

Moreover, unthinkable violence and abuse take place throughout our communities because of the abuse of alcohol. Families are broken, jobs are lost, poverty ensues, and lives are cast into despair because of the overindulgence and addiction to alcoholic beverages.

Since I have led with such a dire assessment of the outcomes of drinking alcohol—and given that most of you know I am a Southern Baptist pastor (we Southern Baptists are famous for eschewing drinking, cussing, playing cards, and dancing)—you have probably concluded that I teach my congregants that Christians “CANNOT drink alcohol.”

And… you would be wrong! Why don’t I teach this? Because it is a SIN for me as a pastor to bind another believer’s conscience regarding a behavior that is not explicitly forbidden in the text of the Scriptures. As inconvenient as it is, drinking alcohol—however unwise it may prove to be—is not forbidden in God’s Word.

Unfortunately, in our history, the “Temperance Movement” took on the moral weight of biblical law in our churches (especially in the South). When I came to pastor my current church, we had a “Church Covenant” (to which members vowed compliance) that read, [I/we will] “abstain from the sale of, and use of intoxicating drinks as a beverage.” This Covenant is still prominent in many Baptist churches; so, if YOUR church’s Covenant has similar language, you ARE bound by your VOW to abstain—OR, you must leave the membership of that church—OR, your church MUST change its Covenant.

In our church, we changed the Covenant to read, “We will abstain from gluttony, DRUNKENNESS, illicit drugs, pornography, entertainments, or practices which jeopardize our own or another’s conscience or faith.” In doing so, we defined what the Bible prohibits, and what our people should affirm as proper Christian behavior.

Regarding alcohol, what SHOULD Christians do? Obey the Bible: (1) “Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and DRINK…” (Colossians 2:16a), and (2) remember that DRUNKENNESS is forbidden (1 Corinthians 6:9; Galatians 5:21).

Grace and peace, y’all. Soli Deo Gloria