Should Energy Drinks Fuel the Christian Life?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Welcome to a new week of episodes with John Piper
00:00:07.080 | on the Ask Pastor John podcast.
00:00:08.880 | Today we talk about energy drinks.
00:00:11.240 | And Jose writes in to ask this,
00:00:12.960 | "Pastor John, energy drinks are controversial
00:00:15.100 | "in our youth group and as someone who likes them,
00:00:17.040 | "I was wondering if there are any negative effects
00:00:18.940 | "or reasons to not drink them.
00:00:20.920 | "They help me focus and to have energy during work.
00:00:23.820 | "I only drink one every two or three days,
00:00:25.580 | "but I would like to have some spiritual insight
00:00:27.400 | "in order that I might run this race
00:00:29.720 | "without being slowed down."
00:00:31.400 | And he ends with a smiley emoticon.
00:00:33.640 | (laughing)
00:00:34.640 | Pastor John, how should we think about energy drinks?
00:00:38.720 | - Well, it might be helpful to take our starting point
00:00:43.040 | from Paul's words in 1 Corinthians
00:00:47.400 | about how he navigates the whole area of appetites,
00:00:52.400 | whether food or energy drinks or sex,
00:00:57.040 | and what foods mean to Paul,
00:00:59.480 | what he takes into his body.
00:01:01.920 | So here's the pivotal text for me.
00:01:03.960 | It's 1 Corinthians 6, 12 to what, 15 maybe.
00:01:07.760 | "All things are lawful for me,
00:01:10.520 | "but not all things are helpful.
00:01:12.920 | "All things are lawful for me,
00:01:15.780 | "but I will not be dominated," I would say,
00:01:19.800 | or mastered or ruled or enslaved by anything.
00:01:23.920 | "Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food
00:01:28.640 | "and God will destroy both the one and the other."
00:01:31.600 | Now, let me pause there and say
00:01:33.480 | there's a lot of controversy around
00:01:35.840 | what in Paul's chapter here are slogans
00:01:40.800 | from his adversaries in Corinth
00:01:43.120 | and what are his own words?
00:01:46.000 | So it might be a slogan,
00:01:48.320 | "Food's meant for the stomach and the stomach for food,"
00:01:50.600 | and so they're justifying all kinds of things.
00:01:53.360 | But whatever the case is on that point,
00:01:57.760 | Paul's point becomes clear in what follows.
00:02:00.280 | Here's what follows.
00:02:01.500 | "The body is not meant for sexual immorality,
00:02:04.720 | "but for the Lord and the Lord for the body.
00:02:08.900 | "And God raised the Lord and will raise us up by his power.
00:02:13.900 | "Do you not know your bodies are members of Christ?"
00:02:18.240 | So clearly the upshot of those last couple of lines
00:02:22.440 | are the Lord is for the body,
00:02:25.920 | the body is for the Lord,
00:02:28.240 | the Lord will raise the body,
00:02:30.360 | and we are members of Christ even in our bodies.
00:02:33.640 | In other words, the body really matters.
00:02:36.520 | So the body matters to God morally,
00:02:40.800 | and in particular, foods matter and sex matters,
00:02:44.280 | and so the guidelines he gives matter.
00:02:48.520 | And what he says is, "All things are lawful for me,
00:02:52.600 | "but not all things are helpful.
00:02:54.520 | "All things are lawful for me,
00:02:56.280 | "but I don't wanna be dominated by anything."
00:03:00.240 | And then he adds, what, 1 Corinthians 10,
00:03:05.000 | "All things are lawful, but not all things build up."
00:03:08.920 | So here's my paraphrase for Jose.
00:03:13.140 | Number one, "Energy drinks are lawful for me,
00:03:17.120 | "but are they helpful to my real advantage?"
00:03:21.200 | And I'll come back to that.
00:03:22.880 | Second, "Energy drinks are lawful for me,
00:03:27.680 | "but do they dominate or master or enslave me?"
00:03:30.840 | I'll come back to that one.
00:03:31.800 | Number three, "Energy drinks are lawful for me,
00:03:35.960 | "but does my drinking of them build up?
00:03:39.420 | "Does it build up my faith?"
00:03:40.920 | And particularly, "Does it build up the faith of others?"
00:03:45.200 | So let me just give a thought about each of those questions
00:03:49.620 | that might help him navigate
00:03:51.900 | whether he uses them and how frequently he uses them.
00:03:54.680 | Number one, "All things are lawful, but are they helpful?
00:03:59.280 | "That is to my real deep advantage."
00:04:02.440 | That's the meaning of the Greek word, to my advantage.
00:04:05.840 | This is really part of a much bigger issue, isn't it,
00:04:10.000 | of the proper use of not just caffeine,
00:04:12.920 | but other stimulants, medications,
00:04:15.200 | Ritalin, Adderall, antidepressants, and so on.
00:04:19.480 | So let me just give one crucial guideline
00:04:23.540 | that I think is implied in Paul's wording,
00:04:27.180 | "Are they truly helpful?
00:04:29.540 | "Do they help me go after my deepest advantage?"
00:04:33.260 | And that would be this.
00:04:34.520 | This is my guideline.
00:04:36.300 | Are energy drinks or whatever I'm taking,
00:04:40.380 | are they masking deeper problems
00:04:44.860 | that I'm not dealing with because I'm masking them,
00:04:48.040 | or are they helping me really address
00:04:52.980 | and be freed from the deeper problems that I may have?
00:04:57.580 | I think that's the crucial question
00:04:59.700 | when it comes to the kinds of medications
00:05:02.420 | or stimulants that we take.
00:05:04.500 | Are we hiding from our hearts?
00:05:06.440 | Are we hiding from sins?
00:05:07.760 | Are we hiding things that ought to be dealt with?
00:05:10.100 | And this is just a superficial overlay.
00:05:12.620 | If Jose or any of us is masking deeper problems
00:05:17.140 | with stimulants, then they're not being used
00:05:19.560 | as a gift from God for our good.
00:05:22.060 | They're being used as a flight from truth
00:05:24.980 | and from the good that God wants to do deeper down.
00:05:28.260 | So that's my note on the first paraphrase.
00:05:31.940 | Here's the second one.
00:05:33.060 | Do they master me?
00:05:34.100 | Do they enslave me?
00:05:35.940 | What would, why would that matter to Paul?
00:05:39.580 | Why does he say that?
00:05:41.780 | Why should it matter to us?
00:05:43.380 | Well, it should matter because we have one master
00:05:47.140 | who bought us at the price of his blood.
00:05:50.500 | We do not belong to ourselves, but to him.
00:05:54.460 | He calls us to live as free people, not enslaved people.
00:06:00.340 | So it says in 1 Corinthians 6.19,
00:06:02.580 | "Do you not know that your body is the temple
00:06:04.740 | "of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?
00:06:07.820 | "You are not your own, for you were bought with a price."
00:06:13.100 | So glorify God in your body.
00:06:15.260 | So anyone who uses coffee or soda or energy drinks
00:06:20.260 | or other kinds of stimulants or medication should ask,
00:06:25.580 | am I dominated by this?
00:06:28.460 | Am I mastered by this?
00:06:30.060 | Am I controlled by this?
00:06:31.400 | Am I living consciously as Christ's freedman?
00:06:35.780 | Am I magnifying the price that he paid
00:06:39.100 | to set me free for him?
00:06:42.340 | It says in 2 Corinthians 5, "He died for all
00:06:45.740 | "that those who live might no longer live for themselves,
00:06:49.320 | "but for him who for their sakes died and was raised."
00:06:52.820 | Are we magnifying his mastery over us
00:06:57.780 | or living under another master?
00:07:00.740 | That's the second issue that I think
00:07:03.340 | he should take into consideration.
00:07:04.860 | Here's the last one.
00:07:06.300 | Do energy drinks build up?
00:07:10.020 | All things are lawful for me, but not all things build up.
00:07:14.460 | Why does Paul shift our focus?
00:07:17.280 | This is a really profound ethical question
00:07:19.660 | in the New Testament.
00:07:20.500 | Why does Paul shift our focus from what is lawful,
00:07:25.500 | so he says all things are lawful, to what builds up?
00:07:29.540 | Now this is huge.
00:07:30.580 | In Christ, we have died to the law.
00:07:34.100 | Romans 7, 4, you have died to the law
00:07:38.340 | through the body of Christ.
00:07:39.900 | And we are released from the law, verse six,
00:07:42.700 | having died to that which held us captive
00:07:45.100 | so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit
00:07:48.100 | and not the old way of the written code.
00:07:51.700 | And the problem then with deciding what's right
00:07:54.620 | and wrong about energy drinks is that you could obey a law
00:07:59.620 | without love, without giving a hoot
00:08:04.060 | about whether you're building anybody's faith.
00:08:06.940 | And so it's just not adequate to have an external rule
00:08:09.940 | solve this problem.
00:08:11.380 | Paul wants to go deeper.
00:08:12.940 | The reason Christians are set free from the law
00:08:17.020 | is not that we might become lawless,
00:08:19.960 | but that love would hold sway.
00:08:23.820 | First Corinthians 9, 21, "To those outside the law,
00:08:27.140 | "I became as one outside the law,
00:08:29.220 | "not being outside the law of God,
00:08:32.200 | "but under the law of Christ."
00:08:35.140 | So his freedom with regard to the law
00:08:38.500 | was being governed by another law,
00:08:40.180 | which he called the law of Christ.
00:08:41.460 | And what's that?
00:08:42.780 | Galatians 6, 2, "Bear one another's burdens
00:08:45.500 | "and so fulfill the law of Christ."
00:08:47.580 | Or Galatians 5, 14, "For the whole law
00:08:50.900 | "is fulfilled in one word.
00:08:52.160 | "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
00:08:56.040 | So when Paul says to Hosea, or me, or you, or anybody else,
00:09:01.740 | energy drinks are lawful, but do they build up?
00:09:06.340 | He means be sure that your heart
00:09:10.580 | is set on the good of others,
00:09:14.340 | and that your example to them and your choices
00:09:17.860 | are aiming to build people up in faith.
00:09:21.220 | That is helping them trust Jesus and treasure Jesus
00:09:24.140 | and honor Jesus above all things.
00:09:27.020 | So here's my summary three guidelines for Hosea and me.
00:09:30.800 | Are they truly helpful?
00:09:32.780 | Are energy drinks truly helpful?
00:09:34.980 | That is, are they masking problems that I need to deal with
00:09:38.100 | or helping me deal with them?
00:09:39.860 | Number two, are they dominating me,
00:09:43.100 | mastering me, and obscuring that Jesus is my real master?
00:09:48.100 | And number three, am I using them in love?
00:09:53.220 | Am I building others up?
00:09:54.900 | Am I seeking to build my own faith and the faith of others?
00:09:59.820 | - Amen, but here's the question that everybody's now asking.
00:10:02.240 | Do you, Pastor John, use energy drinks?
00:10:05.120 | - I have a box of energy drinks.
00:10:07.680 | - I knew it. - In my office.
00:10:09.880 | Probably don't use them quite as often as Hosea.
00:10:12.760 | He said, what, every two or three days.
00:10:15.360 | And what I do is that if I've got a pressing task
00:10:20.360 | and I cannot stay awake, yes, I'll go there.
00:10:24.040 | But that box that I buy at Aldi's,
00:10:26.400 | get 'em at Aldi's, real cheap, lasts a long time.
00:10:28.720 | But I mean, a question like this helps me
00:10:33.720 | keep my finger on the pulse of whether I'm defaulting
00:10:38.400 | to an artificial stimulant because I'm so proud
00:10:41.840 | I won't get enough sleep.
00:10:43.580 | See, in other words, that's what I mean by masking.
00:10:46.120 | If my real problem is that John Piper
00:10:50.500 | doesn't have the discipline to go to bed at night
00:10:52.900 | and therefore gets six hours instead of eight hours of sleep
00:10:55.460 | and therefore he's always falling asleep at his task
00:10:57.900 | and thus he resorts to an artificial stimulant,
00:11:00.420 | that's masking, that's hiding,
00:11:02.100 | that's running away from God and pride.
00:11:05.780 | - Bingo, that's really helpful, Pastor John, thank you.
00:11:07.940 | And thank you, Hosea, for the question.
00:11:09.980 | Tomorrow we return to talk about problematic marriages.
00:11:13.480 | In particular, Pastor John will attempt to offer hope
00:11:16.000 | for one very hard marriage.
00:11:17.640 | For everything related to this podcast,
00:11:20.580 | go to desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:11:24.700 | I'm your host Tony Reinke, I'll see you tomorrow.
00:11:27.020 | (upbeat music)
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