Hi Mike,

I just read your answer to the guy asking about working 12 hours in the chemical industry and wondered your opinion about my job.
I work as a pharmacist and sometimes wonder if my job is requiring me to “break the commandments of God”. What do you think? I wonder because the drugs I dispense all have some negative side effects and are like a form of poison sometimes, and if we all had enough faith, maybe we wouldn’t need drugs at all. Another example would be being required to dispense birth control to women that are not married. Though I’m not committing sex sin myself, I sometimes wonder if God is displeased with me sort of facilitating sex sin for others (or at least making it easier to avoid one of the consequences of sex such as pregnancy, which sort of promotes a looser lifestyle). Just curious what you think.

Thanks,

D____

Hi D____,
Thank you for your question.
You ask:

I work as a pharmacist and sometimes wonder if my job is requiring me to “break the commandments of God”. What do you think? I wonder because the drugs I dispense all have some negative side effects and are like a form of poison sometimes, and if we all had enough faith, maybe we wouldn’t need drugs at all. Another example would be being required to dispense birth control to women that are not married. Though I’m not committing sex sin myself, I sometimes wonder if God is displeased with me sort of facilitating sex sin for others (or at least making it easier to avoid one of the consequences of sex such as pregnancy, which sort of promotes a looser lifestyle). Just curious what you think.

I know you are already aware that what I think doesn’t really matter. If you feel condemned for being a pharmacist, then you should not be a pharmacist simply because:

Rom 14:23 And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because [ he eateth] not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

But why would you feel condemned for filling prescriptions which were decided upon by someone else? Why would you take the decisions of others upon yourself?
Christ turned two hundred and fifty gallons of water into wine which contains alcohol. Alcohol is a substance which could very easily have been abused by those who were at that wedding:

Joh 2:10 And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.

If Jesus did not concern Himself with the fact that others could possible abuse that he gave them, then neither should we. You may say that wine in moderation is good, and that birth control pills in any amount are harmful, but you are ignoring the fact that the potential for abuse is always in the court of the user and not the provider.
Personally performing an abortion is to personally murder a baby human being and brother, but to fill out a prescription is nowhere near personally deciding upon the death of another human being, even if the person you are serving does make that decision.
You are not intended by your Lord to make decisions for others, and what they do with what you give them is not on your spiritual shoulders. All such decisions by others at this time are “without the cup and the platter.” Cleanse first that which is within, then in due time you will be given the position that will empower you to concern yourself with the activities of the kingdoms of this world and you, too, will be told:

Gen 41:44 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.

That is the position of God’s elect when He is ruling the kingdoms of this world:

Rev 2:26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Rev 2:27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.

Joseph typifies Christ and all those who are in Him. God is in us as He was with Joseph while Joseph was still constrained by the powers of Egypt. The time came when Joseph was given power over the lives of others, but until that day he served his Egyptian masters in any way that did not require that he renounce his own Lord.
That is where we are in Christ at this time. Even Christ prayed that God would keep us while we are yet in this world.

Joh 17:15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

Paul repeats this same doctrine:

1Co 5:9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
1Co 5:10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.

I hope this all helps you to see that there are many hard working pharmacists who want only to help their customers to keep their bodies in balance. Of course some their customers are abusing their prescriptions, but humans always have and always will abuse what God Himself has given them. More people die in cars than die of heart disease or cancer, but it would be foolish to contend that no Christian should build or sell cars. The same is true of pharmaceuticals.
I will close with these two verses in Corinthians

1Co 6:12 All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
1Co 10:23 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.

God bless your desire to know His mind in all your ways.
Your brother in Christ,
Mike