According to Malcolm Gladwell’s “Drinking Games” (The New Yorker), the incidence of alcoholism is not as simple as genetic predisposition, but has as much, if not more, to do with the cultural norms surrounding the use of alcohol. Culture matters more than genetics. Gladwell also comments on the effects of alcohol. He challenges some of our reigning assumptions and writes, “Drunkenness is not disinhibition. Drunkenness is myopia.”
Ephesians 5:18 sets up a contrast between drunkenness and life in the Spirit: “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.” It’s not a prohibition against alcohol so much as a call to a fuller life. Life in the Spirit provides a cultural change, and an encouragement to live a life for others. Gladwell reports, “[Alcohol's] principal effect is to narrow our emotional and mental field of vision.” The Spirit widens that field, giving us eyes to see, and love, those around us.
