"Make every effort"

Recently, I was celebrating a friend’s 21^st birthday at Old Chicago’s with a large group of people. Some were drinking a beer with their pizza. For some reason, our server was not really checking ID’s of those drinking. No big deal. Or so I thought until a conversation with the 20-year old sitting next to me. He was fighting an inward battle about whether or not to order a drink. Upon conversing with him for several minutes I find out that he has had a problem with alcohol in the past, yet is trying to live a Godly life and not drink (which for him has led to getting drunk.) Additionally, he had come to realize that even if he thought he could handle a drink he shouldn’t because he is underage.

Yet sitting there that night he was being tempted to order a beer because others at the table had a beer with their pizza and it looked good. Very good. Talk about a battle within. As the minutes passed he rationalized more and more about why he should have a beer. He asked my opinion. I turned and asked him what his conscience was telling him…this lead into a great conversation.

The question I have is not whether or not he should have ordered a drink that night. It is clear from the scriptures that we shouldn’t get drunk (Eph 5:18, Rom 13:13, 1 Cor 6:10, Gal 5:21.) It’s also clear from the scriptures that we ought to obey our authority (Rom 13:1-7) which in this case is the government, as they have established 21 as the legal drinking age.

Rather the question that should be asked is: what is the responsibility of those sitting at the table who had ordered beers? Were they causing a brother to stumble? Should they have asked if anyone had a problem with them ordering alcohol before they did? I believe that would have been the proper course of action. The Bible speaks of this in Romans 14:19-21 where Paul writes: “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.” By ordering beers those around this young man didn’t cause him any peace or mutual edification. In fact, I witnessed him not at peace much of the night. I’m not judging those who ordered drinks that night and I wonder if they knew what was going on a few chairs down from them.

In the end, by the grace of God, he didn’t order a drink that night and I believe God was pleased. He and I spoke two weeks later and within the first couple of minutes mentioned how glad he was he didn’t have a drink that night. Now in future, he said, it will be much easier for him to say no because he knows what it is like to win a battle.

I had never before seen this type of scenario played out right in front of me. I won’t soon forget this valuable life lesson…