The inspiration for this short article comes from my son’s fine sermon (6/14/21) titled Spiritual Sobriety. Early in the lesson he spoke of the reasons why people today drink alcohol. One of the main reasons is that alcohol lowers inhibitions. Alcohol is a depressant to the body. It slows you down (your reflexes and brain). It also clouds judgment and lowers self-control. It slows down the pre-frontal cortex which acts as the command center for executive function, impulse control, and long-term consequence planning. It also alters neurotransmitters further relaxing the brain and reducing restraint, making rational decision-making much more difficult.
Sounds bad, doesn’t it. And yet people love to drink! Why? These effects feel good! People fell less stressed, often have more (though misplaced) confidence, and because they feel “loose” laugh and interact more easily. Later on, they may regret what they say or how they interact, but in the moment they feel good.
The word inhibition is defined popularly as “an inner impediment to free activity, expression, or functioning” (Webster, online). To many people, this is almost always negative. We live in a society that tells us to let ourselves loose, to express ourselves without restraint. Free love, unbridled expression, pursuit of our own desires, experimentation with various drugs. All of these come under the guise of finding or expressing our true selves. Parents are told not to restrain their children, but always encourage (even when such encouragement leads to improper and wild behavior.
Josh indicated in his lesson that instead of having lowered inhibitions, we should have heightened or higher inhibitions. It sounds wrong in our day and time. Many would certainly disagree. But, for the child of God it should make perfect sense!
Our call as children of God is one of restraint. The command, “You shall have no other god’s before me” is designed to inhibit us from idolatry. The same as commands like, “You shall not murder”; “You shall not commit adultery”; “You shall not steal”; “You shall not bear false witness”; “You shall not covet” (Exodus 20:1-17).
We “have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles (read here, the ungodly) – when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries” (1 Peter 4:3). Further, Peter says that “they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation” (4:4).
The world glories in lowered inhibitions. Those who seek to please God and resist the devil have a different purpose. Heighten your inhibitions, restrict the flesh, SERVE GOD!
