temperance

fun title, huh.

have you ever had a subject that you weren't necessarily thinking about just keep presenting itself in random places? well that's what has been going on with me, and unfortunately the subject just had to be temperance, which is kind of ironic if you think about it. so in an effort to exercises the demons, so-to-speak, i'll just write about it a little.

some months ago when i was still living in iowa city a good friend of mine was telling me that he and his family had had quite a heated discussion about drinking alcohol and whether it was right for a christian to do so. now, i will enjoy a drink now and then; i like the taste of good wine properly paired with food, it's nice to have a beer while enjoying music or a game with some friends at a pub, so my response to my friend's debate with his family was more a matter of justifying my own actions than a straight-up biblical rationale (which does exist, and i'll get to it in a moment).

i had, quite frankly, put the matter out my mind until recently when the subject of temperance ran itself out in front of my road once again. during a good discussion at 'journey,' the college/young adult ministry i lead worship for, we were discussing the nature of sin while we read 1 john 1 (a chunk of scripture that speaks candidly about sin among those who believe in Christ), and as all those who attend this ministry are in their college years, the idea that drinking alcohol somehow doesn't coincide with being a christian was one of the first, among many, of legalistic issues raised. i provided the same stock responses as before when i spoke with my friend months ago: "romans 14:22 says, 'the faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.'" that drinking in moderation is fine, et cetera, et cetera. and i preceded to put it out of my mind.

God doesn't seem to be done addressing this issue with me.

today, as i was reading in c.s. lewis's 'mere christianity,' i came across the chapter dealing with the cardinal virtues, one of which is temperance, and lewis was careful when writing this to note that temperance did not always carry the meaning it does now: that one is not to drink, but rather translated itself "to all pleasures..." he goes on to say that "one great piece of mischief has been done by the modern restriction of the word 'temperance' to the question of drink. it helps people forget that you can be just as intemperate about lots of other things. a man who makes his golf or his motor-bicycle the center of his life, or a woman who devotes all her thoughts to clothes or bridge or her dog, is being just as 'intemperate' as someone who gets drunk every evening." obviously there's more going on here than just whether or not one should have a drink every once in a while; in fact, drinking is barely a significant part of this issue.

isn't it very interesting how we are so easily distracted by one vice and place all our emphasis on it as being particularly nasty (i don't really need to list what those commonly thought-of hot-seat discussions are) while at the same time completely ignore the others that completely consume our lives? almost as if we say that as long as we don't fall prey to alcohol or drugs or anything else this culture has labeled unsavory, then we're perfectly free to pursue other vices because they just 'aren't as bad.' as lewis states, anything we place at the center of our lives instead of God is sin, which directly corresponds to the message of the Word.

'if we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us' (1 jn. 1:8) means all sin, not just those we have placed at the top of our own established hierarchy.