legalism then and now

Something else that was brought up at the Bible study the other night is begging to be commented upon. One of the remarks during the night was something to the effect of the Pharisees following the law "in the body but not in the heart." This is very true and applies just as much today as then. And it applies not only to following God's basic laws (i.e., the Ten Commandments) but also, I think, in the arena of Christian liberty. So please allow me to discuss a few areas where I think part of the Church body has gotten off track a little, and of course I'll vent a bit in the process.

The issue that always seems to come to my mind the fastest is alcohol consumption. Every Christian I associated with when I was young--or at least those whom I was aware were Christian--treated alcohol as some sort of poison, never to be associated with or even talked about. This struck me as somewhat odd but I had no knowledge of spiritual things then and I was the opposite of a party animal so I basically thought myself to be on their side. Yeah, beer is bad, it causes deaths, it should be avoided, blah blah. But over the years since leaving my small-town Bible Belt home and being saved myself I've come to realize how wrong this view is. Not only did our Lord create wine for His first recorded miracle, but He uses wine in some of His parables. The latter implies that His listeners were quite familiar with it and many were probably involved in the wine industry in some way. As if this weren't enough, Jesus Himself even drank alcohol on at least two occasions--at the Last Supper and from the sponge while on the cross--and maybe others that aren't coming to mind right now. It should be clear that alcohol consumption is not prohibited by Scripture and one could even argue, quite persuasively in my opinion, that drinking is endorsed by the Bible.

So does this mean drunkenness is okay? Of course not. And there's the Christian witness aspect too; it's not a great idea to go out and drink lightly with friends who are getting drunk and thus give them an avenue to justify their own stupid behavior. As with anything, there are limitations. I'm not aware of any of God's gifts that can never cause harm through any use or in any situation. The underlying principle here is that something that is dangerous in large quantities and/or in the wrong circumstances is perfectly okay in moderation and when handled with common wisdom. That's huge and sheds light on numerous other issues of liberty as well.

As another example, let's take gambling. This is perhaps a bit more touchy, as I'm not aware of Scripture ever endorsing gambling of any form while it condemns the practice at least a few times. But the important thing to look at here methinks is why gambling is prohibited. It's a dishonest way of making money without working for it and poor stewardship of the resources God has given us with which to provide for His kingdom.* If God wanted us to have more money He would see that received it; taking what we have and seeking to multiply it without earning it and at another's expense is sinful any way you slice it.

So, is taking a significant chunk of one's savings to the casino, track, or other gambling venue of choice with hopes of making money sinful. I sure think so and I doubt many Christians would disagree with me there. Is throwing $10 into a pool and playing poker with friends for a few hours (or a few minutes, depending on your skill level) a sin? Well, maybe and maybe not. It depends on the heart attitude. If the intent is to gain a few bucks I think that's sinful. If the intent is to have fun and interact with others while dropping some cash, in much the same way as one spends money on a movie or a baseball game, I don't see a problem. It all comes down to the attitude behind the action. Thus it's plenty possible to be God-focused and yet find that some of our actions resemble those of unbelievers. We're not of the world but we are in it.

As a side note, this gambling bit is of special significance given my upcoming vacation. While I don't expect to gain anything at all, I intend to take a small stash of cash, maybe $60 or so, and spend it having fun in casinos. Nothing major that could have disastrous consequences, but small stuff that's enjoyable with friends. And if I win, that's great and I'll count the money with the rest of my income and spend or save it accordingly. If not then no loss; I'm not depending on or expecting any return. Now other than the obvious fact that Vegas has plenty of undesirable elements that will have to be avoided or at least treated with caution, how is this different from, say, blowing money to see a show or eat an expensive dinner in a new place? That's right, it's not. It's coming from spending money, R&R money, "fun money." Again, ye gots to approach it right and not get carried away--we call that moderation.

I'm not ready to rest my case yet so I'll bite off a bit more and throw tobacco into the mix. Is casual, nonaddictive use of tobacco sinful? I don't think so and I know from their lifestyles that Spurgeon, Machen, Tolkien, Lewis, and many other giants of the faith are with me on this one. (As a matter of fact, they support my take on alcohol too.) It can be a great blessing, actually. It's known to help us relax and bring us peace of mind, to mention a couple of things. Now if it gets to the point of being an addiction with serious health and financial consequences that's a problem. That's letting yourself become enslaved to something harmful and thus limiting your own ministry against your will. But that doesn't mean all use of tobacco should be shunned without discretion. It's worth repeating that the sin-holiness divide is dependent upon the focus of the heart, not the external action.

I could keep going on and on. Pretty much every area in life could be covered--finances, language, leisure activities, you name it. And something I really need to discuss but will likely be an entire post or few of its own is my love of supposedly demonic role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. The controversy surrounding such activities is one of my greatest pet peeves. I am always put on edge when I hear of the latest installment, or even an old one that's been long forgotten about by most everyone else, of the evangelical church's continuing war on one of the best and most creative forms of entertainment out there. But it's an issue much nearer and dearer to me that these others I've mentioned so it'll require a discussion of its own.

Speaking of my own history with such matters, I think I'm so turned off by what I view as a fundamentalist attitude of separation from anything that could somehow be construed as worldly because I grew up in such an environment. Not that my family was this way--looking back I'm very thankful they weren't and I was able to grow up around and be comfortable around such "grey area" things--but all the Christians I knew were. This contributed greatly to my passive disdain toward religion in general until I left for college and realized there were other, very different people out there. It wasn't until I got to know Christians at college that I realized they weren't some weird stiff-necked people that abhorred anything that didn't fit their narrow lifestyle. And thus these days I'm sure that sort of attitude is prevalent among unbelievers who are just like I was for the same reasons. Condemnation of sin is always necessary and justified, but we do well for ourselves, the Church, and especially unbelievers to make sure what we're looking at is sin before we label it and crusade against it as such.

*We are part of God's kingdom, therefore we're supposed to provide for ourselves with part of that money. I'm not saying we should do the Buddhist monk thing and give every penny away only to live in poverty and fail to provide for those closest to us. Although one must admit that Jesus' exhortation of the poor widow who gave all two coins of her savings to the church seems to indicate that our personal wants are lower on the list than we might like to think.