SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/7/2019
10:03 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Will Wine
Harm My Christian Testimony?
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eph. 5:18a
Message
of the verses: “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery”
(ESB).
I would
suppose that there are different answers to this question that we are looking
at in today’s SD. Perhaps some don’t
care if their Christian Testimony will be harmed. Perhaps a believer is attending a church
where drinking wine is not a problem, as like the missionary who is in Italy
that I talked about in an earlier SD where he stated that there was no use even
talking about trying to stop members in his church to stop drinking. Perhaps some are convicted by the Lord; they
care about their Christian Testimony, and then decide to stop. Perhaps some may think that their Christian
liberty allows them to drink wine and so they really don’t care about what
other believers think of their drinking wine.
John
MacArthur writes “Paul’s standard given to the Corinthians indicates that the
best testimony is to refuse a pagan host so as not to offend a brother: ‘If one of the unbelievers invites you, and
you wish to go, eat anything that is set before you, without asking questions
for conscience’ sake. But if anyone
should say to you, ‘this is mean sacrificed to idols,’ do not eat it, for the
sake of the one who informed you, and for conscience’s sake; I mean not you own
conscience, but the other man’s; for why is my freedom judged by another’s
conscience?’ (1 Cor. 10:27-29). The witness is most effective if the pagan
host can see how much you love and care for your Christian brother.”
Romans
14:7-8 says “7 For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for
himself; 8 for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die
for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.” We see in these verses that everything a
Christian is and has is the Lord’s. Let
us also look at 1 Cor. 10:31-33 “31 Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever
you do, do all to the
glory of God. 32 Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the
church of God; 33 just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my
own profit but the profit of the many, so that they may be saved.”
MacArthur
concludes “If we want to reach people who are not saved, as well as give an
encouraging example to those who are, we will not exercise our liberty to drink
or to do anything else that would cause them to be spiritually offended or
misled.”
We
have one more small section to look at “Is it Right?, and we will do that
tomorrow, Lord willing.
I
like today’s quotation, but the author is unknown: “Anger is an acid that can do more harm to
the vessel in which it is stored than to the person on which it is poured.”
7/7/2019 10:21 PM
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