"I have the right do anything," you say - but not everything is beneficial. "I have the right to do anything" - but not everything is constructive."
1 Corinthians 10:23 (NIV)
Oh friend, are you born again? Do you have the Holy Spirit living within you? Are you free from the burden of sin? Free from the clutches of the evil one? Friend, are you a child of the Most High God? Then friend, you have the right to do anything! You are free indeed! Free from sin! Free from the Law! Free to truly live!
Paul believes it; he wrote these things and yet he tells us that eating and drinking is not about freedom but about BENEFIT. Will your behaviour benefit you? Will it benefit your loved ones? Will it benefit your Christian brothers and sisters? The question of BENEFIT takes it from Law to Love, for Love BENEFITS all. You need wisdom to evaluate – to judge – between BENEFIT and right. No better book to go to than the book of Proverbs for wisdom. Wisdom is God’s truth applied to daily situations, and the two passages I have selected speak tremendous wisdom into our lives as children of the Most High God.
Proverbs 23 says “listen to your father”. In the area of drinking wine, it is wise to listen to your parents. Honour your parents in this matter. Don’t rub your freedom in their faces, for there is great danger and ruin for those who drink too much. This description of a person waking up from a drunk always brings a smile to my face, for I have friends that talk like this, and they have no idea they are quoting the Bible.
Proverbs 31 is the most powerful passage for me for it points me to my Heavenly Father who is the Eternal King. A mother is speaking - not a father, but she points Lemuel to his position in his father. It is not for kings, Lemuel. NO - drinking wine and beer is for those who are perishing and for those who are in anguish, but not for royalty.
Friend are you a child of the One True King? Are you a son or a daughter of the Eternal King? Oh friend, I hope you are! May we heed the voice of this wise woman of Proverbs 31, and behave like the royalty that we are!
Click here to read Proverbs 23:19-35 and Proverbs 31:1-9
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