THE DEFINITION OF DRUNK
“Drunkenness: when the tongue walks on stilts and reason goes forward under a half sail.”
1) Rather than give us a blood alcohol percentage Luther describes drunkenness with two pictures. What is his point in the picture of…
• The tongue?
• Reason?
2) Read Proverbs 23:29-35. Compare Luther’s definition of drunkenness to Solomon’s description. How are the two similar? How are they different?
3) Now read Psalm 104: 14-15. What is different in this passage as it speaks about alcohol?
4) What, then, is the difference between drinking and getting drunk?
5) There are many other things in this life that are good when used properly, but sinful when they are abused. Turn to the person next to you and make a list of five such things in the next two minutes.
IS IT REALLY THAT BAD?
“If you follow the judgment of the world, it seems to be a trifling matter to drink a bit too much and to become intoxicated, and you think that those people sin more who greedily accumulate riches and defraud others. For drunkenness is judged to be strictly a private offense… That is why this sin is not only not considered a shame but is even desired as a sort of permissible alleviation of their cares and labors.”
Notable statement
6) “For drunkenness is judged to be strictly a private offense.” Why do many in our society consider drunkenness an insignificant problem?
7) Read Psalm 90:8. What does this passage tell us about “private” sins?
8) Agree or Disagree: One sin is worse than another depending on if it hurts someone else or not.
9) List some other types of serious sins become “a trifling matter” in the judgment of the world and easily dismissed as no big deal.
INHIBITIONS…
“Drunkenness certainly increases sin; for in a drunken person hidden sins break through, according to the saying: What is in the heart of a sober person is in the mouth of a drunken one.”
10) How can drunkenness increase sin?
11) Agree or Disagree: A sin of action is worse than a sin of thought.
12) Agree or Disagree: If you have been drinking, and you do something you wouldn’t normally do, you have had too much.
WHEN TO SAY WHEN
“It is not to be tolerated in Christendom that men should establish by laws a generally applicable standard of moderation. For people are different; one is of a strong, another of a weaker nature, and the condition of no person is in every respect and always the same as that of another. For this reason everybody should keep an eye on himself in order to determine what his condition is and what he is able to bear.”
13) What does Luther mean by “keep an eye on”?
14) Discuss how much your culture considers it a virtue to be able to “hold your liquor.”
15) Who should set the limit for how many drinks a person should have?
16) Revaluate your answer above considering the following: 1 Cor 7:4, 1 Cor 5:11-13, Romans 13.
17) Read 2 Peter 2:19. What must we be careful of?
ON OUR OWN?
“Therefore Christ says: ‘Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness’ (Luke 21:34). It certainly is apparent enough that in our lands drunkenness is a sort of pest which the anger of God has sent us. Everywhere we flee from the pestilence of the body. We put forth every effort to guard against it and are careful not to be harmed by it. But into this pest we plunge with extraordinary blindness; nor is there anyone who would so much as warn us, not to say hinder us.”
18) Notable Statement: “Everywhere we flee from the pestilence of the body… But into this pest we plunge with extraordinary blindness; nor is there anyone who would so much as warn us, not to say hinder us.”
19) What about drunkenness makes it more dangerous than the plague?
20) Read Galatians 6:1. When we talk to someone about the sin of drunkenness, what should always be our goal? Our motivation?
21) Discuss with the person next to you: Share the top five reasons why talking with someone about alcohol abuse can be difficult.
SUMMARY THOUGHTS …
22) Agree or Disagree: We would be better off without alcohol.
23) What should the Christian’s attitude toward alcohol be?
24) Share: How has your view of drinking changed as you have gained wisdom at different stages in life?
25) Share: How has today’s discussion helped you grow?