huh?

I just logged onto my Voxtropolis for the first time in a couple of weeks and I had a few comments on some of my posts.  A couple from a friend of mine and one from someone that I don’t know (my apologies, I deleted it and so you won’t be able to find it here).  The comment from the person that I did not know made me stop and think, it was comprised of two very pointed questions that I wish to answer.  To be honest, I did not want to have to write a post like this, but apparently I must explain some of the things in my recent post “The Inherrent Evils of Text Messaging” and will gladly do so here.

The first question was “Why were you drinking a Margaritta in the first place?”

Well, if you have read the post, then it should be clear that I was not “drinking” a Margaritta, but rather, I sampled a friend’s drink.  Now, this is not to say that I have never had anything to drink, in fact, I enjoy a good glass of wine from time to time, but that’s about all really.  I don’t much like beer or ales, they are too bitter for my taste.  Wine suffices because of its complexities in flavor (I like trying to discern what these various flavors are, but still have much to learn about this art, hopefully my “Wine Expert” brother, Brian, can teach me more some time). 

I think though, that the issue that my recent commenter was trying to make is that I should not have even touched alcohol.  There are many people who probably feel this way and I very much respect their opinion.  There is a great deal to be said for this type of committment, in fact, in today’s day it seems that it takes a great deal of discipline to NOT drink and that sort of thing is always commendable.  But I fail to see the evils in alcohol.  The scriptures say that “drunkards” shall not inherrit the kingdom of God, not those who, from time to time, enjoy the fruit of the vine.  Fruit of the vine, hmmm, I’ve heard that some where before…

Ah yes, it was Jesus, speaking at the last supper.  He had just passed around a cup of WINE that He and the disciples drank from.  In fact, they all had at least FOUR glasses of wine that night as it was customary in the Passover supper, each cup representing something about God and His rescue of the people of Israel from the slavery of Egypt.  So, Jesus drank wine.  In fact, in other places in the New Testament we see that people accused Jesus of being a “wine bibber” for His practice of drinking with sinners. 

Jesus never sinned. 

Jesus drank. 

So, that would indicate that drinking is not a sin, however, DRUNKENESS is a sin.

Why is drunkeness a sin and just having a drink is not?  It is quite simple really. 

Sin can be defined a few ways, but probably one of the most common is to say that if we put anything before God, we are sinning.  When we get drunk we have allowed a substance to rule our hearts instead of God, and that’s the sin.  I’ll talk more about this at the end.

The second question was something like this: “And how do you think you could see God in a girl who is sinning?”

First of all,  it is my understanding that God created mankind “in His image.”  So, my answer is: How could I NOT see God in her?  She bears His very likeness.  It is unfortunate, but I think that many of “us Christians” have forgotten how to see God in the sinner.  It is my opinion that if we can not see God in the sinner then we CAN NOT LIVE LIKE JESUS.  Jesus said that He came for those who were sick, not for those who were healthy.  It breaks my heart to think that we can’t see God in those who are far from Him, this makes me think that we can’t really love people. 

God have mercy on us if we can not see your sacred image in the eyes of all of mankind!

Secondly, my friend is not some sinner, running around and trampling the grace of Jesus.  In fact, she very much loves Jesus and I think that it is a very narrow minded person that would assume something so drastic about someone that they don’t know.  Much like every one else that I know, myself included, my friend is not perfect and is spending a great deal of her time trying to figure out what it looks like for her to serve Jesus, and as she continues to seek, she continues to get closer to Him.  I would in fact wager that it is a greater sin to try and judge the character of someone that you have never met, because, after all, sinning means that we have put something else before God.  Placing judgement means that you take the place of judge and in so doing you try to take the place of God.

Finally, I will say this: my commenter did a wonderful thing in asking these questions.  In fact, I am glad-although a little upset that my friend’s character was called into question-because my commenter was honest about their feelings towards my post and asked questions based on those feelings.  So, to my commenter, thank you for your honest input.  I hope that my response at least explains my thoughts on these issues and I want you to know that I think you are probably someone that is very committed to the call to follow Jesus and so I hope that in this, we can be friends.

I think it is important to remember one thing though: there is not a single on of us that can honestly judge sin.  In fact, I make some points in the previous paragraphs about judgement being a sin, and these are merely my opinion.  So, I will end with the deep words of wisdom left us by Jesus: “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”