Christians and Alcohol: Abstinence Is Not Righteousness

So far we have looked briefly at our context concerning alcohol, what is and what is not sin concerning alcohol, and the fact that Christians must consider their brothers and sisters higher than their right to drink alcohol.

In "Consuming, Drunkenness, and Abstinence as Sin" I mentioned that there is an instance where Mark Drisoll's scenario would be valid. To remind you of the situation, he was "studying the Scriptures for a sermon about Jesus' first miracle of turning water into wine, as reported in John's gospel, a miracle that Jesus performed when he was about my age. My Bible study convicted me of my sin of abstinence from alcohol. So in repentance I drank a hard cider over lunch with our worship pastor."

Alright, we already showed that not drinking alcohol at face-value is definitely not a sin. That notion is totally unfounded. But there is another dimension to consider: the dimension of self-righteousness.

[Jesus] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

-Luke 18:9-14

There are some among us who abstain from alcohol and consider themselves righteous because of it. This is silly. And I do not want this to be a point you gloss over. If you exalt yourself, even in your own heart, because you abstain from alcohol, you are in sin.

Now, the proper response is not to go and drink a hard cider like Driscoll; that will absolve you of approximately nothing. Rather, the proper response would be to repent; ask God to lay your heart bare and uproot the self-righteousess that you may have concerning alcohol. If having a drink of alcohol will help remove this self-righteousness, so be it (just make sure to consider those around you as we have already talked about). But again, the act does not justify you; your heart before God is what is important here.

This is not a secondary issue when discussing alcohol. I think this is just as rampant as not considering a fellow believer before imbibing alcohol. Consider your heart. Like I asserted in "Reacting and Relating," "are you seeking to follow Christ at every turn or, like the rich young ruler, are you not quite willing to give up some things?" For some of us, the thing we might not be willing to give up may be our "right" to drink alcohol in certain circumstances; for others of us, it may be our self-righteousness in abstaining from it.

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Earlier in this series:
Christians and Alcohol: Prolegomena
Christians and Alcohol: In Context
Christians and Alcohol: Consuming, Drunkenness, and Abstinence as Sin
Christians and Alcohol: Reacting and Relating
Christians and Alcohol: The Corinthian Matrix

Christians and Alcohol: Sources So Far