WHY DO SOME CHRISTIANS TEACH THAT ALCOHOL AND GAMBLING ARE SINFUL?
I don’t think we should let such Christians put us off from following Christ’s teachings. There is a historic tendency to teach that alcohol drinking and gambling are sinful, unethical. It goes back thousands of years. Maybe it was a way to discourage excesses and vice. Nowadays a drug den is something society abhors, not so much a bingo hall or public house (if you have those in your country). Jesus Christ’s teachings were to Jews familiar with the Laws given by God to Moses and it was the duty of every Jew to stick by such laws. Christ endorsed such adherence and regarded disobedience to these laws as a sin, unethical for a Jew. Today we have less clear guidance. Society has underlying alignment of laws with the Jewish Laws but much is left to discretion of politicians. Yet to keep a clear conscience is a good way to avoid slavery to politically corrupted lawmaking which lines the pockets of the rich and oppresses the poor. Gambling might be easily corrupted and serve the interests of such rich oppressors and alcohol might make us prone to such enslavement too but they do not flout any laws of God. There are commands of God which do not only apply to Jews. We can seek them out and apply them to ourselves. The Good Samaritan principle is one. The greatest command is love. Love God. Love those looking out for you and those needing you to look out for them. If putting off vice is essential for a Christian then let it be a putting off of lying and hating and a putting on of truthful speech and love. That is where to start and that is a great goal to aim for too. Immorality is to be put aside too. This is the way of truth we find in Christ Jesus. Don’t be put off by other traditions.
