{"id":25973,"date":"2020-09-12T20:19:36","date_gmt":"2020-09-13T01:19:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?page_id=25973"},"modified":"2024-01-12T19:33:53","modified_gmt":"2024-01-13T01:33:53","slug":"sober-minded","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/sober-minded\/","title":{"rendered":"Sober Minded"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

Sober Minded<\/h1>\n

by Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n

It is easy for the addict to tell himself that being under the influence of marijuana isn’t that bad. After all, he can still function, at least to some extent, while high. That is why people tell themselves they are better students, better lovers, better drivers, etc. while stoned. You and I know they are not. All that is happening is that they are too stoned to care or to accurately judge how poorly they are truly doing.<\/p>\n

“But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and\u00a0<\/i>sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be\u00a0sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.<\/i>” (I Thessalonians 5:4-8).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Greek words we are interested in, which are translated “sober,” are the adjective\u00a0nephalios<\/i>\u00a0and the verb\u00a0nepho<\/i>. They are a compound word consisting of\u00a0ne<\/i>, which means “not”, and\u00a0piein<\/i>, which means “drink.” Of these words, the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament states,<\/p>\n

“The concept which underlies the verb\u00a0nepho<\/em>\u00a0‘to be sober’ and the whole word group is formally negative. It is the opposite of intoxication both in the literal sense of intoxication with wine and in the figurative sense of states of intoxication attributable to other causes.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Jewish philosopher Philo illustrates this definition when he stated,<\/p>\n

“So too soberness [nephein<\/em>] and drunkenness are opposites.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Liddel and Scott define these words as “to be sober, to drink no wine.” Clement of Alexandria once said,<\/p>\n

“I therefore admire those who have adopted an austere [nephalion<\/em>] life, and who are fond of water, the medicine of temperance, and flee as far as possible from wine, shunning it as they would the danger of fire.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now that we understand the meaning of these words, let us see how they are used.\u00a0Nephomen<\/i>\u00a0is translated as sober in both I Thessalonians 4:6 and I Thessalonians 4:8. Notice the contrasts:<\/p>\n