{"id":14582,"date":"2008-04-01T20:49:34","date_gmt":"2008-04-02T01:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=14582"},"modified":"2019-11-01T20:55:22","modified_gmt":"2019-11-02T01:55:22","slug":"if-gluttony-and-drinking-are-both-sins-then-isnt-abstaining-from-alcohol-as-ridiculous-as-abstaining-from-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-gluttony-and-drinking-are-both-sins-then-isnt-abstaining-from-alcohol-as-ridiculous-as-abstaining-from-food\/","title":{"rendered":"If gluttony and drinking are both sins, then isn&#8217;t abstaining from alcohol as ridiculous as abstaining from food?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>How would you answer the following argument: &#8220;Getting drunk is a sin, but gluttony is also a sin. Since the Bible doesn&#8217;t tell us at what point drunkenness or gluttony is sinful, it is up to us to determine how much is too much. To completely abstain from alcohol is as ridiculous as saying you must completely abstain from food.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Now, I know from I Timothy 5:23, the Bible authorizes wine as a medicine and so it is not exactly parallel to grape juice (though that does not make it okay to drink [wine] even as a medicine (I Corinthians 8:9). I would also argue that Ephesians 5:18 condemns the process of getting drunk. But I am having a hard time finding a Biblical pattern to refute the above argument. What would be the Biblical principle(s) governing the line between eating and gluttony?<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>The argument assumes that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>drinking alcoholic beverages and eating food are exactly equivalent,<\/li>\n<li>the problem is solely in the realm of the quantity consumed, and<\/li>\n<li>one can drink alcohol at some level without harm on a daily basis.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Thus, the arguer must show that casual drinking of alcohol is permitted in the New Testament. You see, I can prove from the Bible that eating is both expected and necessary to sustain life. But that fact doesn&#8217;t justify overeating. However, I cannot prove that drinking alcohol is expected or necessary to sustain life. To argue that it is only wrong when it is overused skips a necessary step.<\/p>\n<p>The passages that you list are covered in the article\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/new-testament-beverages\/\">New Testament Beverages<\/a>, so I won&#8217;t repeat the arguments here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: How would you answer the following argument: &#8220;Getting drunk is a sin, but gluttony is also a sin. Since the Bible doesn&#8217;t tell us at what point drunkenness or gluttony is sinful, it is up to us to determine how much is too much. To completely abstain from alcohol is as ridiculous as saying&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[371,677],"class_list":["post-14582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-alcohol","tag-gluttony"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2606,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/isnt-a-moderate-drinker-still-sober\/","url_meta":{"origin":14582,"position":0},"title":"Isn&#8217;t a moderate drinker still sober?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 1, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: To say that taking a drink of alcohol means you are not completely sober (I Thessalonians 5:6-8) is wrong. By this reasoning, a moderate eater would be condemned as a glutton (Proverbs 23:20-21). Answer: The fault in this line of reasoning is that two different things are being paralleled.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34247,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/gluttony-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":14582,"position":1},"title":"Gluttony (Jacobs)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jarrod Jacobs The subject of gluttony is misunderstood by many people. Sometimes, during the Thanksgiving holiday, or after some big meal, someone will jokingly say, \"I hope the preacher doesn't preach on gluttony.\" At other times, I have been accused of \"not preaching on gluttony\" or \"not condemning gluttony\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/pig-eating.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3587,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/doesnt-ephesians-518-imply-that-some-use-of-alcohol-is-permitted\/","url_meta":{"origin":14582,"position":2},"title":"Doesn&#8217;t Ephesians 5:18 imply that some use of alcohol is permitted?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 13, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: God wrote in\u00a0Ephesians 5:18, \"Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.\" When God tells us not to get speeding tickets, what is He inferring? Obviously, that driving is not a sin. When God tells us not to get drunk, what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":53287,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/gluttony-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":14582,"position":3},"title":"Gluttony (Moyer)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Gluttony seems to be one of the under-taught issues of our day. This is, likely, due to our being uncomfortable with the idea that we ourselves might be guilty of it. While we think of it as generally referring to overeating, it is tied to other problems\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3801,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/gluttony\/","url_meta":{"origin":14582,"position":4},"title":"Gluttony (Hamilton)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 31, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey Hamilton Text: Numbers 11:4-34 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Someone, reading an article on the Roman Catholic teachings of the seven deadly sins, was surprised to find that gluttony included \u201ceating too soon, eating with condiments, eating too expensively, and eating with pleasing the palate in mind.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0He wrote to ask, if\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Audio&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21790,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/dont-big-companies-mistreat-animals\/","url_meta":{"origin":14582,"position":5},"title":"Don&#8217;t big companies mistreat animals?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 27, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I read your article about\u00a0the Bible and animal rights, and I see that it is right on. Anyone with biblical knowledge knows it is. My problem is not with the use of animals for food or leather, etc, but with the unbiblical practices of big agriculture, which unduly confines,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14582\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}