Bumby Bible Questions 5

Introduction

Oh, good morning. We’re still here. I believe this is our fifth question and answer. Give or take one. I’ll trust you. And so this morning we’re going to go a slightly different direction, although we are answering a submitted question. And we are continuing, of course, our fourth Sunday or final Sunday, Bumby Bible questions, where you submit questions and we take them and add them to a list and try to get through all of them. Some of the questions have somewhat slowed, but we still have plenty, so continue writing them in because that will last, especially when we move on to next month. They’re going to go by quickly. So if you have questions, write them in. We enjoy looking at them and saying that’s too hard and picking different ones.

But this morning we’re going to try something a little bit unique. We’re going to focus on one question that has a whole lot of different directions that we can go with it. So this morning we’re going to try something new. And that question is: is it okay for a Christian to drink alcohol? A question that’s probably been on the minds of many Christians, and certainly one that is worthy of our attention, and as Greg said, of our time, and because of that, we decided to devote the entire question and answer session to this uh important question. One thing we want to do is to always be honest in our approach of the scriptures. Uh take away any bias. I’m not going to the scriptures trying to justify my desire to drink.

Neither am I going to the scriptures to try to justify my uh bias against drinking. Just going to the scriptures to say, what does the Bible say. And as that should always be our approach in answering Bible questions. Of course, the real struggle with that, and the reason this becomes a question worth 30 minutes of our time, the question that comes up in a QA format, I’m trying to advance it. Let’s see. There it is. Is the question of what does the Bible say isn’t as straightforward as saying, okay, well, if you look at John chapter 2 and verse 2, that says, this particular type of drink we have in America is outlawed. And John 3 and verse 4, this particular type of drink is outlawed or allowed.

And so when we examine what does the Bible say, we have to be careful to not reach one of those two extreme conclusions mentioned before. To sit back and say, well, the Bible says all that it needs to say about alcohol, so I don’t even have to look any more at it. Or to say, well, the Bible doesn’t actually address drinking. And so I don’t need to look at that either. It’s kind of interesting to me that we find those two extremes. Some people say it says more than enough, and other people say it doesn’t say really anything about alcohol. And we’re going to find that there’s really a truth in between as we really break down what the Bible actually does say. There is a lot about drinking in the Bible, but we have to break down what does it mean, what does it say?

1. The Bible Speaks Strongly Against Strong Drink

And to be fair, then what does it necessarily not say either? And so in our honest approach, we recognize that the Bible, at times at least, speaks very strongly against certainly strong drink and alcoholic beverages. Couple passages that we would put in that strongly negative column. One would be Proverbs chapter 20, the first verse. In fact, the Proverbs have a lot to say about the dangers of drink. We look at two of those. Proverbs 20, verse 1 says, Wine is a mocker. Strong drink is a brawler. And whoever is led astray by it is not wise. We’d certainly put that in the negative category, what the Bible has to say about both wine and strong drink. And we’ll see and talk about those terms a little bit later.

Another passage is Proverbs chapter 22, and you’re probably familiar with this one. It says in verses 29 through 35, who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long at wine. Those who go in search of mixed wine. Do not look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swirls around smoothly. At last it bites like a serpent and stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart will utter perverse things. Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the ocean. And one who lies in the top of the mass, saying, They have struck me, but I was not hurt.

2. Passages That Make Some Argument for Drinking

They’ve beaten me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake that I may seek another drink? Very graphic picture of drink and what it can do to someone. And we can all relate to that. We’ve seen images certainly, or maybe have known people who have practiced that exact same thing. So there’s two passages of Scripture that speak very negatively of wine and strong drink. Of course, the problem is that there are many passages that fit that description, but we have 30 minutes. So we’re going to pick two that are against, and now we’re going to look at two that would make some sort of argument for drinking of some kind. Perhaps you’re familiar with the context of Romans 14. In Romans 14, verse 21, notice that Paul to make a point on something that would be misunderstood, uses drinking.

Romans 14, 21, it is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine, nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak. Of course, in Romans 14, really is this the second part of the verse is the context that how will I impact my brother? Will something I do that I can do lawfully make my brother stumble? And if the answer is yes, it doesn’t matter what my quote unquote rights are, I will give that up for my brother. That the context of Romans 14 is about that first phrase. It is good neither to eat meat. There was a discussion, should we be eating meat as Christians, or should meat sacrificed to idols be eaten by Christians? Or should we stick with, for lack of a better term, of a different diet, vegetables.

And notice, though, that next phrase, though, nor drink wine. This passage seems to indicate that there would be some dilemma over drinking wine, but that there would be some on the side of yes and some on the side of no. Now we’re going to examine a little bit deeper into that as we go, but that does give an impression that we have to understand what does that verse say? What does it allow for? And certainly even more clearly, albeit with a different context, is 1 Timothy chapter 5 and verse 23. Paul writes to Timothy, no longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach’s sake and your frequent infirmities. So, of course, we think about the medicinal purpose that Paul is ascribing for Timothy to take advantage of here.

But if you’re just going to look at what the Bible says, if you’re going to be completely honest, you can’t say the phrase without any explanation. The Bible never says you can drink wine. Do you see how 1 Timothy chapter 5 and verse 23 eliminates the simplicity of that phrase? Now, you could make the argument, and perhaps even as we study this morning that the Bible is clearly against drinking wine, but you have to be able to explain why. You have to be able to understand what does 1 Timothy 5 mean? What does Romans 14 mean? And how does it pair with all those passages like in the Proverbs that make drinking not only look unappealing, but downright sinful and leading to all kinds of problems in this life and in the one to come.

3. The Terms Used: Wine and Strong Drink

And when we continue our attempt at an honest approach at this, it’s important to look at and understand the terms that were used. And so when we talk about what the Bible says, we have to look at what the Bible uses, the terms that are used, and they’re basically two terms that are used in both the Old and the New Testament. And those terms are wine and strong drink. And I spend just a little bit of time talking about those two terms that are, again, used in both Old and New Testament. If we look at the definition or the understanding of those words, the word wine, again, both old and new testament, can really speak to three different types of drink. The word wine is used in the Bible.

Now, now we need to differentiate that from the way we use the word wine today. To my knowledge, when we use the word wine today to describe a modern drink, we use it exclusively of an intoxicating drink. But in both Old and New Testament language, that word would have been used for both a non-intoxicating drink as well as an intoxicating drink. And so wine could mean one of three things. It could mean simply unfermented juice. And that’s the word we would use today, is just juice. But then the term wine could also refer to fermented juice mixed with water. And it could also refer to fermented juice not diluted. That’s just the full strength. And so those three terms are used, and there’s verses that clearly point out that sometimes it’s talking about non-intoxicating and non-fermented.

There’s times it’s talking about that which was mixed with water, and then there’s times it’s talking about that fermented juice that was not mixed with water. Then there’s the term strong drink. The term strong drink in the scriptures refers to any fully fermented drink. Any drink that had reached its height of fermentation and had not been watered down. So those are the terms that are used in the Bible, both wine, meaning one of three things, depending on the context, and then the word strong drink is used in the scripture as well.

Because one question that comes up when you study biblical terms is rightfully, well, wasn’t that at a different time when we manufactured brewed or what have you distilled beer and any kind of drinks of wine, we might say, in a different way. Whereas today, the most common drink off the shelves is a beer. Back in the New Testament days, when it’s mentioning wine, it’s not necessarily what they’re talking about. So what we’re going to see then is not only do the terms matter, but how much alcohol was in them matters too. For example, in juice, this is the easy one, there would be 0% alcohol. So if the Bible were to talk about drinking wine and it were to refer to unfermented juice, would we have a problem?

Well, no. But do you see the problem with saying the Bible is clear that you can never drink wine? If the Bible word for wine can include something with no alcoholic content, and it’s something as simple as we might call grape juice, then we have to be careful when we make blanket statements. It gets a little messier as we then look at, for example, what would a diluted wine alcoholic content be? And it might be somewhere between 2 and 4% alcohol. And by the way, when we compile these statistics, this is an average. You can go and find a number that’s just outside this range, you might find 1.5% to 5%, maybe 6%, but we try to be the most median, you might say, about the numbers presented here.

So when you think about alcoholic content of wine in this middle category, fermented wine that was mixed or diluted with water, you’re talking about an alcoholic content of 2 to 4%. Now, you may, these numbers may mean nothing to you, but we’re going to show you by comparison what alcoholic content is on the store shelves today, and you’re going to kind of see a point there. But let’s finish this chart. It gets a little dicey in this category where you talk about the fermented juice not diluted, the word wine, versus strong drink can kind of come down into that category, maybe in the 8 or 9% category. But if you had a fermented juice that was not diluted, most often it would be somewhere around 6 to 10% alcoholic content.

Strong drink, though, would clearly be in the 10 to 14% camp, and that becomes a really important number because without them having our modern day uh abilities and functionalities and our plants and manufacturing processes, this is about as strong an alcoholic content as they could muster naturally. Again, you can find maybe 18%, maybe even upwards of 20%, but you could only get so much alcoholic content from the natural means that they had around the first century, and certainly moving back into the old testament times. Now, these numbers again might not mean a whole lot until you start saying, okay, well, how did they even get there? And what are we supposed to do with those numbers? It’s important to note that you you saw the chart shift a little bit there, that the term strong drink, again, means any fully fermented drink.

That would include that third definition of wine. Wine not diluted falls under the category of strong drink, according to biblical standards. And as we’re going to see later, strong drink is always condemned in the scripture. Uh wine can mean one of three things. The third of those things fits into the category of strong drink. Now, in ancient times, historians and scholars tell us that uh the ancients would do certain things to limit fermentation. In a day in which they didn’t have freezers or the canning process that we have today to preserve or to stop that spoiling or fermentation process, the ancients came up with their own ways to limit that fermentation. One would, they would take the grape juice and boil it down to a paste, basically boil it until all the water or most of the water had evaporated out of it, and they had a pace.

The best thing to compare that to, if you go to the grocery store to the freezer section, you can get concentrated orange juice. Now, you Floridians probably cringe at the idea of frozen concentrated grape of orange juice, but that’s one in which most of the liquid content, the water content has been removed. You’ve got that concentrate, and then you need to reconstitute it by adding water. The ancients invented that method. They would boil it down to just basically a paste, and then when they wanted grape juice, they would reconstitute it. They would add water to that paste. And that didn’t stop, but it limited or slowed down that fermentation process. Another thing they would do is that many times that fermentation would rise to the top and they would skim that off of the grape juice.

That alcoholic content many times would be in that thicker, mealier part of the juice, and before drinking it, they would skim that off to remove much of that alcoholic content. When you see the third example, this is perhaps the one that we’re most familiar with in terms of what we might do in a home setting, is just simple water dilution. If you have a harsh cleaning chemical at home, you might try to mix it in with some water to dilute the properties, the strong nature of it with wine. Of course, if you look at those statistics again, to get from the 6 to 10% alcoholic range down to somewhere around 2 to 4, that would take a significant amount of dilution. This wasn’t just, okay, we’re going to pour in some of this, pour in some of that, and out pops this direct middle.

There would be a ratio perhaps of somewhere between three and six to one, water to alcoholic content, or even, as I learned recently in the Odyssey, for example, written by Homer, there is mention of it being even 20 to 1, water to alcoholic content. So this is not just dilution of they ran to their kitchen sink, which they didn’t have and poured a little bit of tap water in to dilute it. This is a significant choice they made to dilute down the alcoholic content. Of course, the questions that are asked are why? And it would be pretty simply to eliminate the alcoholic content. You don’t gain necessarily a lot otherwise, other than taking these different methods to limit the fermentation. So as you think about those are some of the ways of how they would dilute them.

4. Today’s Drinks Compared to Strong Drink

Now we don’t have those restrictions. And as I said before, perhaps the most common alcohol consumed is just a simple beer. You can go to the store and find that. And if you look at beer, somewhere between 3 or 4 to 6% alcohol is the content there. Now look up at our chart comparing that to biblical terms. You have a 0% and 1 to 3% versus a 6 to 10%. Now, where would beer, for example,’s alcoholic content fall? Somewhere between the diluted fermented juice and the undiluted fermented juice. And here’s the sticker. This is one of the the beer is one of the least alcoholic strong contents that we have on store shelves. Most modern day wine, for example, has an alcoholic content of 11 to 14%.

Now, when you look at our use of the word wine, where does that fit? Most closely. Under the definition of the term strong drink, which Ken rightfully already pointed out, is always condemned in the scriptures. That is one safe use of the word always. Strong drink is always condemned in the scriptures. And again, we’re not even at the edge of this chart yet. For example, liquors that you might see have anywhere, this the range gets incredibly wide here: 25, 30%, up to 50% alcoholic content. And then you can get extra hard up to 90% alcohol. I did a search just out of curiosity, and I even found one drink produced in America that has up to 95% alcoholic content. So I don’t know who drinks that and why, but obviously we’re not even in the same vicinity as the chart of strong drink in the old and next time.

Do you see when you start comparing this, you’re not even talking about liquor and extra hard alcoholic content because you’re not even close. We’re not even in the ballpark, you’re not on the same field, you’re not playing the same sport when you talk about drinking something on the right side of the chart with anything in the older New Testament use of the word wine or strong drink. Even when you start coming down, the questions get pretty clear. Wine’s average content would be still in what part of the chart? Strong drink. Now beer becomes a little bit interesting because it’s hitting the edges of that undiluted fermented juice, that wine slash strong drink usage. So one thing that we can learn from this from the get-go is if we are, as Christians going to say the Bible doesn’t say anything about our modern day drinking, that’s not true, because when it talks about strong drink, that is a lot of what’s on store shelves.

It doesn’t mean that it says everything. It doesn’t mean that every drink you’ll find at whatever store is listed, and there’s an exact parallel in the scriptures for it. But if you look at that strong drink category and you look at some of the modern-day alcoholic content, this is very clear biblical ground. This is very easy to understand, firm ground. The Bible condemns strong drink, and that’s a lot of what our country offers. As Greg’s indicated, he and I have done some a lot of research in preparation for this lesson. In fact, so much so that if you check the search history on our computers, you might come to the wrong conclusion. But we did so to try to be honest in our approach of what really does the Bible say, what is being talked about today versus, as Greg said, what you can buy on the store shelf today.

5. Arguments in Favor of Drinking

But we have to deal with the arguments maybe in favor of drinking. And someone would say, well, what about the fact that Jesus made and drank wine? What does the Bible say about that? That Jesus made and drank wine. Well, again, we would be honest and say that we recognize everybody knows the first miracle that Jesus performed was at that wedding in Cana of Galilee, where he turned water into wine. Well, one question must be raised about that, first of all, of those three definitions, the three categories of wine, can we say with a certainty which one of those three that he made? The term wine is used again in the New Testament, could refer to unfermented, basically grape juice.

Is it possible by the definition of the word that he made something that had some fermentation that was in that four to six percent? Yes, by the definition of the word, that would have been possible. We have to ask ourselves, though, if if at a wedding feast where some of this wine, whatever’s meant by that term, had already been consumed, would our Lord, would God in the flesh, create more intoxicating beverage to possibly, in fact, more than possibly, probably get these people intoxicated when the scriptures clearly condemn drunkenness. I think all of us would argue that no, Jesus would not have been a party to getting people to do something that was clearly a sin. And so the fact that Jesus made wine by the New Testament or first century definition is a stretch to use that as an argument to say, therefore I can go and buy something of a much higher alcoholic content and drink that at will today.

Another thing that’s interesting about Jesus in the New Testament is in Matthew chapter 11, he is accused of being a glutton and a drunkard. Now, it’s pretty easy to say, well, of course, Jesus wouldn’t be a drunkard. We know, if anything that the Bible says, even before our uh excellent study this morning, uh, was that the Bible condemns drunkenness. So Jesus obviously wasn’t a drunk. The question would be, though, are we fair with the logic? Remember, Jesus was called two things, a drunkard and a glutton. Now, no one would say, well, Jesus is called a glutton, but he wasn’t sinful. We know gluttony is a sin. So Jesus obviously never ate anything. Well, that’s not true. Jesus did eat food. And if he’s going to be called a drunkard, it’s probably unfair to say he never drank any sort of wine.

But again, just because even if there was a reference to Jesus drinking wine, we still don’t know what that means. Would Jesus have drank a strong drink? Of course not. That would be inherently, we might say, sinful by itself right from the get go. No definitions needed to be looked at. Could Jesus have drank wine? Could he have drank any wine that was just juice? Yes. What is the alcoholic content on that? Zero percent. So we have to understand what would that charge even be? Obviously a distortion. Jesus was neither a glutton nor a drunkard. And just as he was not a glutton, it didn’t mean he wouldn’t eat. Just being called a drunkard wouldn’t mean he never had wine. But the question would be, is there solid biblical evidence that Jesus drank something intoxicating?

And that is missing from the pages, certainly, of the New Testament. At best, there is suspicion, but there is no, again, firm foundation. So if you’re looking to the scriptures and being honest and saying, okay, can I drink something that’s not a strong drink, something that isn’t clearly in those percentages of alcohol that the Bible clearly condemns? Can I look to Jesus as my example with strong footing? The answer is no. The best case scenario is that maybe he had some sort of drink. And it certainly wouldn’t be in the upper echelon category because that would be sinful from the first taste. And it would be very hard for us to find, even if there was alcoholic content, to be able to find that on the shelves today.

Another argument that’s often given is well, Paul not only allowed Timothy to drink wine, he told him, specifically ordered him, drink a little wine for your stomach’s sake. And so does that open the door for us to social drink today. When you think about that again. If we’re going to be fair to the scriptures, what is Paul telling Timothy to do? Yes, drink wine, but why? For his stomach’s sake and for his other infirmities, as some translations have it. So when we think about what that would authorize, if if we were to take a very liberal approach and say that this clearly allows some sort of wine drinking, what type of wine drinking would it allow? A specific narrow purpose for the purposes of healing, recovery, medicinal purposes.

This really isn’t that different than if you go to the store and you take something like a Nyquil or something with some sort of content that would knock you out. Even if you’re if you’re to be really deep down into it and get into the weeds, you could argue anesthesia would fit this because when you’re knocked out, you don’t have full faculties, right? Sometimes when we’re talking about not drinking, we say things like, well, if you lose uh sobriety, not in the sense of not being able to walk in a straight line, but to make proper decisions as a Christian, that’s a problem. But then we’ll go and be knocked out or take knife wheel or something that knocks us out. And anyone who’s had any medicine like that knows you’re not a hundred percent uh in the right frame of mind.

That’s why they have those warnings that say don’t operate heavy machinery. So what does the Bible say there? I would say that it proves that you can use substances that help you heal again in a proper amount. Certainly Paul wouldn’t say, Timothy, you have a bad stomach, so get drunk. Have lots of strong drink. That’s not what he said. That’s not what he intended, and that can’t be what we take him to me. And no sound Bible student would argue that Timothy would conclude from that that he was allowed to just have a license to drink for any occasion. It was a specific uh commandment or allowance that was given there. The third objection sometimes that is raised is that drinking is just not explicitly condemned in the scriptures.

Drunkenness is condemned, but maybe drinking itself is not condemned. Well, there’s a couple problems, I think, with this objection as an attempt to justify social drinking. If we all agree, and I think most Christians would agree that the Bible is pretty clear on the condemnation of drunkenness.

The Bible clearly condemns drunkenness. Then I, if I’m being honest, then I have to ask myself, what does God consider drunk? Our research showed us that the state of Florida, the blood alcohol level of 0.08. If you exceed, if you’re at that point or exceed that, you’re considered intoxicated according to the state of Florida’s laws. You’re not allowed to operate a motor vehicle or do other things if that blood alcohol level is 0.08. My question would be, is God bound by the laws of the state of Florida? Is that what God says is drunkenness? Does God have a higher standard or does he have a lower standard than that? And so to be very careful to just say, well, drunkenness is condemned, therefore I can still drink, then I must ask myself, really, by God’s definition, what is drunkenness?

And then we also have that the idea of strong drink being condemned. And as Greg’s pointed out in that chart, that strong drink would include much of what we see as intoxicating beverages on the shelf today. And so are these arguments correct? Did Jesus make wine? Yes. Did Paul tell Timothy to drink wine? Yes. Is drinking explicitly condemned in the scriptures? No, not necessarily. But to use those as attempts to justify drinking an alcoholic beverage today that’s far different than alcoholic beverages are beverages in the first century is at best a weak argument. And of course, a lot of the more modern approach to this dilemma is to say, well, we don’t know the limit of being drunk, even though some countries have a content as low as like 0.02, for example.

So that would be one fourth of the state of Florida as if it was 0.08. So whose standard is it is a great point by Kim. But also the question is not, is it condemned, can I have? It’s why would I want to do this thing that I know at a certain level is sinful? Why would I take that first step? Now some people reply, they’ll say, well, you know, Greg, you like baseball, and baseball’s not given approval by the New Testament, and I could find some out of context first, probably to disprove that. But or we could say, you know what, baseball doesn’t have any explicit warnings from the Bible in the Old and New Testament. The Bible pages are not littered with warnings that it is not only sinful, but that it uh throughout history doesn’t lead to more and more sinful acts and violations.

There’s a reason the state of Florida keep makes it illegal to drive with a certain level of alcoholic content in you. There’s a reason different countries have these laws, and it’s not Christianity. It’s because it impairs judgment and it causes all kinds of problems in our lives here and now. So the question is not fair to say, well, do you do you have to find something to go watch a baseball game? Do you have to have a Bible passage that says that? The question is, where does God fall on the alcoholic question? And he’s clearly against drunkenness, clearly against strong drink. And when God is so clearly against something, why do we want to stand as for it? Why are we looking for that one little soft piece of ground in between that may or may not be appropriate and firm footing?

I think it’s really risky. And we have to ask the question is it worth my soul to stand on guaranteed shaky ground? And by the way, the Bible does mention baseball. Get ready for a groan here. Genesis 1 1, in the beginning is okay. I’m sorry. What we tried to do here is just give an honest approach. And as Greg said to this last answer, maybe our question should be not is this sinful, but is this good? And if you apply that to not just the subject of drinking, but to everything in life, that changes your view as a Christian. Not is this activity sinful, but is this activity good? Or maybe another way of phrasing that, is this activity godly? That completely changes your view of what you feel like is allowed, or maybe what should be practiced in your life.

6. Why Should a Christian Abstain?

So we’ve seen what the Bible says. We’ve looked at the terms that are used in the Bible and have seen that it’s really not comparing apples to apples to talk about the wine that was drunk in the first century and compare that to the term wine or many of our alcoholic beverages today. We’ve looked at why abstain. And so let’s talk about that, Greg, as we as we’re running out of time here. Why should a Christian abstain from the drinking of alcohol? I think two really quick ones. One is clearly drunkenness is condemned by God. We read two passages from the Proverbs to begin the study. I think we all know that that is the case. And a second one, strong drink is condemned by God.

We’ve shown that to be the case. And by the way, I think effectively why that is the case. The alcoholic content is so strong. And we’ll kind of end on this one. Are we concerned about our influence? If we remember the one passage we didn’t answer that was in the pro drinking, you might say column back in Romans chapter 14 was what within the verse. If drinking wine causes your brother to stumble, what should you do with it? Not drink. Even if none of the other statistics, none of the other Bible passages that we showed were what they were on the subject. With how dicey and controversial of a subject it is within Christianity, why would you drink knowing that you’re going to offend a heavy percentage of whoever you’re around, whoever you’re worshiping with, and whoever you know.

Conclusion

And by the way, what if you’re seen drinking something and somebody else who doesn’t know anything about alcoholic content says, well, that’s my license to drink this strong drink. To drink lots of this strong drink or lots of this even weaker drink that leads to drunkenness. Where does my influence sit? Not only am I doing the best for God, am I doing the best for God’s image and glory to those who can see me in the meantime? That becomes a crucial question that I think alcohol fails. So this is important question. We appreciate the question, appreciate all the questions, but give some thought to this. Be honest in your approach of the scriptures. What did the scriptures condemn? But also what do the scriptures allow in our life?

What’s the best way that we can reflect the glory of God in our own lives? Well, we appreciate your attention this morning. Appreciate the questions that have come, and please keep them coming as we continue this series. Let’s bow now for a word of prayer. Dear God and Father in heaven, we’re so thankful that you’re our God, that you loved us and blessed us in so many ways. We’re thankful for your word that we can read to know your will, to know more about you and what you would have us to do. Help us, Father, in every facet of our lives to let our light shine, to truly be children of yours. May we approach every subject honestly. May we approach them through the scriptures of saying, What would you have us to do?

And how can we best serve you and love one another? Bless us as we examine these things. Bless us as we try to be better servants and children of yours. Continue to love us, continue to bless us and save us in the end. This is our prayer in Christ’s name. Amen.