My sobriety date is November 10th. 3 years ago was the date of the last time I got drunk. I'll be honest, I've drank and relasped a few times since then, but I still consider that date the day Jesus protected me, woke me up and saved me.
What caused me to stumble those few times though? Well everytime it was completely my fault because of lack of self control, but the most common thing that triggered my urge to drink again was finding out that someone I looked up to secretly partied. People who I believed to be leaders, strong Christians devoting their life to the Lord. It made me self concious of my own christianity. I desperatly wanted to be the best Christian I could be, but when I saw that others were not even trying to not fall, I felt like I needed to fall too.
1 Corinthians 10:32 tells Christians "Do not cause anyone to stumble..." Paul wrote this to the Church of Corinth because he wanted the Christians to be aware of non-christians and that their actions were being watched. The non-christians looked into the lives of Christians, and said well I thought this was considered bad. Paul used the example that if someone told you a certain meat was offered to an idol, even though they would have known it is fine to eat that meat, eating it in front of that person(the non-believer) would possibly cause them to stumble. (1 Corinthians 28-29) A good example of this now a days would be, say someone drinks casually and say they still love and obey God, well first off, if you are drinking underage you are disobeying God directly by not obeying authority, second, you are setting a bad example for new christians, or even christians who just look up to you, old or new. People over the age who are legally allowed to drink have to ask themselves this, "Am I causing someone to stumble?"
The problem that also occurs is that the drink becomes an idol and it is not glorifying God. Everything you do should be for the glory of God, as 1 Corinthians 10:31 says. 1 Cor. 10:23 says that, "We are allowed to do all things, but not all things are good for us to do. We are allowed to do all things, but not all things help others grow stronger." Some of these things also cause us to not grow. Verse 24 goes on to say, "Do not look out for only yourselves. Look out for the good of others." As Christians, our sole purpose should be to serve the Lord, and part of that serving includes bringing others to Christ. Therefore, if our actions, such as drinking, sex, or even cussing, are causing confusion and stumbling in new Christians or non-believers, are we truly serving God? The answer is simply no.
Even if our sinful actions are done secretly Luke 8:17 (NIV) says, "For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open." God always knows our hearts, but what we do in the dark, will come out for all to see. Eventually, the ones that look up to us, will see our transgressions and possibly fall because of them.
One might say, "Well God forgives our trangressions because of the blood shed on the cross" and explain this to a person looking up to them. Yes, this is very true but the problem is, we have people who look up to us that we don't know about. They watch from afar. We cannot go to them and say, "God has forgiven me" and if we know what we did was wrong and sinful, we cannot go up to them and tell them that either. They may not know our guilt.
As I grew in my faith, and I became stronger, I realized all this. I realized that I possibly had someone looking up to me as an example, and that I needed to end the viscous cycle of falling because of others. I have always been very open about my past, and I do not want to hide what I have done in the dark. The Lord has saved me and continues to save me everyday. I no longer drink at all. I do this for myself, but mostly for others. I want to bring people to Christ, not turn them away or cause sadness in them.
I hope this means something to someone. If this doesn't make sense, try reading 1 Corinthians 10:23-33. This is where I based this off of.
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