Should a Christian enter a sweepstakes?

I remember many years ago being asked to take a shilling ticket in a raffle to help a sick man. To take a ticket would be to join in gambling. To refuse to help would lay oneself open to the charge of meanness, which would have reflected on Christ. The way out of the difficulty was plain, and it served to teach two lessons—that a Christian would not gamble, and that a Christian was ready to do good to all, as Scripture exhorts. I gave some money to the man who was getting up the raffle and asked him to present it to his sick comrade. I only mention this as a practical example of how a Christian should act.

"The lot is cast into the lap," that is, like a dice being thrown, with people depending on "luck" to favor them. But the believer depends on God. Even if the above methods are used, it is not luck that disposes the result, but the Lord, who intervenes in men's activities (v. 33).

Question: I feel sure in my own mind that the principle of gambling is wrong. What Scriptures would you quote to support that?

Question: I am not clear as to the definition of luck or chance. I feel there should be no such element in a Christian's life, but could you please give me some light on the subject in view of the following Scriptures? "The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD," Prov. 16:33. "The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong … but time and chance happeneth to them all," Eccles. 9:11.

Take up certain copies of the "religious" newspapers or church-sponsored magazines, and you will find bazaars advertised, many of which are rendered more attractive by military or other bands, and lotteries. Advertisements of sermons by notable men, with collections afterwards; meetings so arranged as to attract by the repute of the speakers the largest number of people. All these things are done professedly in the name of Christ.*

If all things are lawful to the Christian, certainly all do not profit. As Christ never did what did not profit, so neither should the Christian. He is free, but it is only according to Christ for good, and this in love, the good of others. But there is another guard: if all things are lawful to the Christian, he refuses to be brought under the power of anything: were it not so, it would be bondage, not liberty. Thus to have regard for others' good must be kept up, as well the liberty itself intact. The Christian is called to serve others, never to be the slave of a habit in anything great or small.

What then does all this mean? It evidently means that it pleases God that in the church there shall be a number of things as to which no rules are given, but the saints are left to be tested and exercised by them. As they are exercised they grow, and become "of full age … their senses exercised to discern both good and evil" (Heb. 5:14). Should I eat, or should I not eat? Or again, that feast spoken of in 1 Cor. 10:27; should I go, or should I not go? How easy to have issued the command, "Under no circumstances go to any feast where there is the smallest chance of the host furnishing you with meat which has been offered to idols." But the command was not issued. Of course I may not be disposed to go, but if I am disposed, I am left at liberty to go, with the instruction to consider the conscientious feelings of others, if they express them.

God intends us to be exercised as to such matters, each for himself. Were there a definite command in Scripture there need not be the exercise. Then, simple obedience is the only course pleasing to God. But these other matters, how many they are. Should I go here or there? Should I partake of this or that? May I enjoy this pleasurable recreation or not? Ought we to carry out this service or this ordinance in this way or that way? What acrimonious and harmful controversies have raged around such questions. And the answer is so simple. Let the wrangling cease! Hands off each other! Each man to his own knees, in the presence of his own Master, that he may get, as far as in him lies, the knowledge of his Master's will.

Verses 25, 26. "Whatsoever is sold in the shambles eat," etc. Though it is incumbent on all who love God to love their brethren also, and to seek therefore to remove all occasion of stumbling from their path, the liberty of Christ is to be freely exercised in the ordinary walk of life. The Christian is not to go out of his way to find difficulties. No questions should be asked for conscience' sake. Let him take the world as he finds it, and use its things in thankfulness to Him whose they really are, remembering and maintaining that the earth and its fulness are the Lord's. Nor can the evil ends to which His bounties may be turned by men invalidate the title of His saints to the free enjoyment of whatever He has made.

Ample room for liberty of conscience as to our own individual walk, even to going to a feast with unbelievers, if so disposed, or eating meat sacrificed to idols, is insisted on in the very same chapter in which the truth of the Lord's Table is presented. Consideration for others, however, is to have due place with us. "Let no man seek his own but every man another's wealth." All this helps to make the points insisted on clear that breaking bread does not commit me to everything that another may think right. It is the expression of CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP, not with all that Christians may do. Otherwise there would be no room for the exercise of individual conscience, and each would be ruling everybody else.