I had a dear friend who used to preach in the Lord’s Church. When his daughter was married, he had an open bar at the reception. I was so upset and shocked. I was told I was judging. Is this something we should warn those we love about? The appearance of evil?<\/p>\n\t
“Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment<\/em>” (John 7:24).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Of course, you made a judgment. The problem is assuming that all judgments are wrong.<\/p>\n
The question is whether Christians should be encouraging people to drink alcohol. For that, I would like you to consider:<\/p>\n
\n
- The Use of Alcohol<\/a><\/li>\n
- Old Testament Beverages<\/a><\/li>\n
- New Testament Beverages<\/a><\/li>\n
- Isn’t a moderate drinker still sober?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The argument that people should not judge is a defensive move that distracts from considering the actual issue. It focuses blame on the one asking whether something ought to be done instead of examining God’s word about the question.<\/p>\n
It seems there is a reason why this man was a former<\/em> preacher.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I had a dear friend who used to preach in the Lord’s Church. When his daughter was married, he had an open bar at the reception. I was so upset and shocked. I was told I was judging. Is this something we should warn those we love about? The appearance of evil? Answer: “Do…<\/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":[371,713],"class_list":["post-64496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-alcohol","tag-judging-others"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":21142,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-colossians-216-prove-that-drinking-alcohol-is-permitted\/","url_meta":{"origin":64496,"position":0},"title":"Does Colossians 2:16 prove that drinking alcohol is permitted?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 27, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The church of Christ uses Colossians 2:16 to teach against Sabbath-keeping and dietary laws. But the same verse says to not let anyone judge us regarding what we drink as well. This New Testament verse proves the drinking of alcohol is not a sin. Answer: \"When you were dead\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3340,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-shouldnt-people-drink-alcohol\/","url_meta":{"origin":64496,"position":1},"title":"Why shouldn’t people drink alcohol?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 26, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why shouldn't people drink alcohol? Answer: See the article \"New Testament Beverages\" for details. The brief answer is that the New Testament allows Christians to use alcohol for medicinal purposes, but not for recreational purposes. Christians are to strive to be sober and watchful at all times.","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34718,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/thank-you-for-all-the-work-you-did-to-produce-the-study-on-drinking-in-the-old-testament\/","url_meta":{"origin":64496,"position":2},"title":"Thank you for all the work you did to produce the study on Drinking in the Old Testament","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Brother, Answer: Thank you. You may be interested in the companion lesson:\u00a0Drinking in the New Testament. Also, both of these lessons were written in article format and can be found at: Old Testament Beverages New Testament Beverages","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14582,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-gluttony-and-drinking-are-both-sins-then-isnt-abstaining-from-alcohol-as-ridiculous-as-abstaining-from-food\/","url_meta":{"origin":64496,"position":3},"title":"If gluttony and drinking are both sins, then isn’t abstaining from alcohol as ridiculous as abstaining from food?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How would you answer the following argument: \"Getting drunk is a sin, but gluttony is also a sin. Since the Bible doesn'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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8408,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-the-blessing-of-wine-outweigh-its-dangers\/","url_meta":{"origin":64496,"position":4},"title":"Does the blessing of wine outweigh its dangers?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Generally, the Bible condemns drunkenness (in a variety of places) but nowhere condemns wine or alcoholic beverages in total. In fact, the mild exhilaration that comes from moderate imbibing of wine is seen as a blessing of God in several Old Testament passages. Health advisor says alcohol impairs the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20514,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-about-deacons-not-being-given-to-much-wine-doesnt-this-allow-for-a-casual-drink\/","url_meta":{"origin":64496,"position":5},"title":"What about deacons not being given to much wine, doesn’t this allow for a casual drink?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 19, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I really appreciated your \"New Testament Beverages.\" However, how does one answer the question relating to deacons must not be given to much wine? This seems to allow for a casual drink. If this was merely grape juice, should we not ask prospective deacons how much grape juice they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","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\/64496","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=64496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64496\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}