This has come to me so many times that I feel that I have to make it clearly known exactly what I believe regarding this issue. Many have asked me why I do not drink and to answer them rightly requires a good bit of time as well as materials to answer them correctly. So…
This is taken from John MacArthur’s commentary on Ephesians 5:18. It is lengthy but very good to study to determine whether or not drinking is right for you!
Eph 5:17
So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. (5:17)
Do not be foolish repeats and reinforces Paul’s previous plea for believers not to be unwise, and understand what the will of the Lord is expands and makes more explicit his plea to walk wisely (v. 15).
In light of the urgency to make the most of our time, not being foolish includes, among other things, not becoming anxious or panicked. When we look around at the pervasiveness of evil and at the unending needs for evangelism and service to others in Christ’s name, it is easy to be overwhelmed. We are tempted either to give up and withdraw or to become hyperactive, losing precision, purpose, and effectiveness in a frenzy of superficial activity.
The proper sense of urgency, however, drives the wise believer to want more than ever to understand what the will of the Lord is, because he knows that only in the Lord’s will and power can anything good and lasting be accomplished. He will not be foolish by running frenetically in every direction trying to see how many programs and projects he can become involved in. Such activity easily becomes futile and leads to burnout and discouragement, because it works in the power of the flesh even when it is well–intentioned. Trying to run ahead of God only puts us further behind in His work.
The work of many churches would be greatly strengthened if the number of its superfluous programs and activities were cut back and the Lord’s will were sought more carefully and the principles of His Word applied more faithfully. When our priorities are God’s priorities, He is free to work in us and through us to accomplish great things; but when our priorities are not His priorities He can do little with us because He has little of us.
The unwise believer who behaves in a foolish manner tries to function apart from God’s will, and is inevitably weak, frustrated, and ineffective, both in his personal life and in his work for God. The only cure for such foolishness is to find and to follow the will of the Lord.
God’s basic will is, of course, found in Scripture. Here we find His perfect and sufficient guidelines for knowing and doing what is pleasing to him. But the will of which Paul seems to be speaking here is the Lord’s specific leading of individual believers. Although His plans and directions for each believer are not found in Scripture, the general principles for understanding them are there. God does not promise to show us His will through visions, strange coincidences, or miracles. Nor does He play a divine guessing game with us, seeing if we can somehow stumble onto His will like a small child finds an egg at an Easter egg hunt. God’s deepest desire for all of His children is that they know and obey His will, and He gives us every possible help both to know and to obey it.
God’s will for our lives is first of all to belong to Him through Jesus Christ. His first and primary will for every person is that he be saved and brought into the family and kingdom of God (1 Tim. 2:3–4). God’s will is also that we be Spirit–filled. As Paul went on to teach in the following verse, we are not to “get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18).
Second – We experience God’s will by being sanctified. “This is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thess. 4:3), Paul said. And we enjoy His will through proper submission to other men. “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evil–doers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men” (1 Pet. 2:13–15). Likewise we are to be submissive to leaders in the church: “Obey your leaders, and submit to them; for they keep watch over your souls, as those who will give an account” (Heb. 13:17).
Third – God’s will may include suffering. “If when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God” (1 Pet. 2:20; cf. 3:17; 5:10).
Fourth – God’s will culminates in believers’ giving thanks no matter what. “In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess. 5:18).
When a person is saved, sanctified, submissive, suffering, and thankful, he is already in God’s will. “Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart” (Ps. 37:4), David tells us. In other words, when we are what God wants us to be, He is in control and our will is merged with His will, and He therefore gives us the desires He has planted in our hearts.
Jesus is our supreme example for fulfilling the commands of Ephesians 5:15–17. He always functioned according to the divine principles established by His Father: “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner” (John 5:19; cf. v. 30). Second, Jesus knew that His time of earthly ministry was short and would soon be cut off, as seen in frequent sayings such as “My time has not yet come” and “My time has come.” He always functioned according to His limited privilege of time and opportunity, using every moment of His life in His Father’s work. Third, Jesus always functioned according to the His Father’s purposes. “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work” (John 4:34).
“Therefore,” Peter said, “since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God” (1 Pet. 4:1–2).
The words of David sum up the proper reaction to this teaching: “I will sing of mercy and judgment: unto thee, 0 Lord, will I sing. I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way” (Ps. 101:1–2, KJV).
Eph. 5: 18
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, (5:18a)
The verse which these words introduce is one of the most crucial texts relating to Christian living, to walking “in a manner worthy of the calling with which [we] have been called” (4:1). Being controlled by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential for living the Christian life by God’s standards. God’s way cannot be properly understood or faithfully followed apart from the working of the Spirit in the life of a believer.
But before Paul commanded us to “be filled with the Spirit” and gave the characteristics of the Spirit–filled life (vv. 18b–21), he first gave a contrasting and negative command, And do not get drunk with wine. Getting drunk with wine not only is a hindrance to, but a counterfeit of, being filled with the Spirit. In light of the apostle’s preceding contrasts between light and darkness (vv. 8–14) and between wisdom and foolishness (vv. 15–17), his point here is that getting drunk is a mark of darkness and foolishness and that being filled with the Spirit is the source of a believer’s being able to walk in light and wisdom.
Evangelical churches and groups in our own day have widely differing views on the subject. Denominations and missions organizations sometimes have differing views even within their own constituencies from country to country.
We must be clear that drinking or not drinking is not in itself a mark, and certainly not a measure, of spirituality. Spirituality is determined by what we are inside, of which what we do on the outside is but a manifestation.
Many reasons are given for drinking, one of the most common of which is the desire to be happy, or at least to forget a sorrow or problem. The desire for genuine happiness is both God–given and God–fulfilled. In Ecclesiastes we are told there is “a time to laugh” (3:4) and in Proverbs that “a joyful heart is good medicine” (17:22). David proclaimed that in the Lord’s “presence is fulness of joy” (Ps. 16:11). Jesus began each beatitude with the promise of blessedness, or happiness, for those who come to the Lord in the Lord’s way (Matt. 5:3–11). The apostle John wrote his first letter not only to teach and admonish fellow believers but that his own joy might “be made complete” (1:4). Paul twice counseled the Philippian Christians to “rejoice in the Lord” (3:1; 4:4). At Jesus’ birth the angel announced to the shepherds, “Do not be afraid; for behold 1 bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people” (Luke 2:10). God wants all men to be happy and joyful, and one of the great blessings of the gospel is the unmatched joy that Christ brings to the heart of every person who trusts in Him.
The problem with drinking in order to be happy is not the motive but the means. It brings only artificial happiness at best and is counterproductive to spiritual sensitivity. It is a temporary escape that often leads to even worse problems than the ones that prompted the drinking in the first place. Intoxication is never a remedy for the cares of life, but it has few equals in its ability to multiply them.
SCRIPTURE ALWAYS CONDEMNS DRUNKENNESS
Drinking to the point of drunkenness, of course, has few sane defenders even in the secular world. It has caused the loss of too many battles, the downfall of too many governments, and the moral corruption of too many lives and whole societies to be considered anything less than the total evil that it is. The United States alone presently has over twenty million alcoholics, almost three and a half million of which are teenagers. And alcohol is a killer.
Drunkenness is the clouding or disruption by alcohol of any part of a person’s mind so that it affects his faculties. A person is drunk to the extent that alcohol has restricted or modified any part of his thinking or acting. Drunkenness has many degrees, but it begins when it starts to interrupt the normal functions of the body and mind.
Both the Old and New Testaments unequivocally condemn drunkenness. Every picture of drunkenness in the Bible is a picture of sin and disaster. Shortly after the Flood, Noah became drunk and acted shamelessly. Lot’s daughters caused him to become drunk and to commit incest with them, as a foolish and perverted means of having children. Ben–hadad and his allied kings became drunk and were all slaughtered except Ben–hadad, who was spared only by the disobedience of Israel’s King Ahab (1 Kings 20:16–34). Belshazzar held a drunken feast in which he and his guests praised the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. And during the very midst of the drunken brawl the kingdom was taken from Belshazzar (Dan. 5). Some of the Corinthian Christians became drunk while at the Lord’s table, and God caused some of them to become weak and sick and others to die because of their wicked desecration (1 Cor. 11:27–30).
The book of Proverbs has many warnings about drinking. Speaking as a father, the writer said, “Listen, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way. Do not be with heavy drinkers of wine, or with gluttonous eaters of meat; for the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe a man with rags” (Prov. 23:19–21). Our skid rows today are filled with more men clothed in rags because of drunkenness than the ancient writer of Proverbs could ever have imagined. A few verses later he asked, “Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger long over wine, those who go to taste mixed wine. Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly” (vv.29–31). Wine is enticing to look at, with its bright color, sparkling bubbles, and smooth taste—just as modern commercials vividly portray it. What the commercials are careful not to say is that “at last it bites like a serpent, and stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will utter perverse things” (vv.32–33).
We also read in Proverbs that “wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is intoxicated by it is not wise” (20:1). Drunkenness mocks a person by making him think he is better off instead of worse off, smarter instead of more foolish, and happier instead of simply dazed. It is a favorite tool of Satan for the very reason that it deceives while it destroys. Surely it presents vulnerability to demons. The drunk does not learn his lesson and is deceived over and over again. Even when he is waylaid, beaten, and finally awakens from his drunken stupor he “will seek another drink” (23:35).
Between those two warnings about drunkenness we are told, “A harlot is a deep pit, and an adulterous woman is a narrow well. Surely she lurks as a robber, and increases the faithless among men” (vv. 27–28). The revered Old Testament scholar Franz Delitzsch commented, “The author passes from the sin of uncleanness to that of drunkenness; they are nearly related, for drunkenness excites fleshly lust; and to wallow with delight in the mire of sensuality, a man created in the image of God must first brutalize himself by intoxication
Isaiah warned, “Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink; who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them!” (Isa. 5:11). An alcoholic characteristically begins drinking in the morning and continues through the day and evening. Again the prophet portrayed a vivid scene when he said, “And these also reel with wine and stagger from strong drink: the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, they are confused by wine, they stagger from strong drink; they reel while having visions, they totter when rendering judgment. For all the tables are full of filthy vomit, without a single clean place” (28:7–8).
Scripture shows drunkenness in its full ugliness and tragedy, as always associated with immorality, dissolution, unrestrained behavior, wild, reckless behavior, and every other form of corrupt living. It is one of the sinful deeds of the flesh that are in opposition to the righteous fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:19–23). Drunkenness is first of all a sin. It develops attendant disease as it ravages the mind and body, but it is basically a sin, a manifestation of depravity. It must therefore be confessed and dealt with as sin.
Peter told believers to forsake the way of the Gentiles, who pursued “a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousals, drinking parties and abominable idolatries” (1 Pet. 4:3). Paul admonished the Thessalonians, “Let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation” (1 Thess. 5:6–8; cf. Rom. 13:13). He warned the Corinthian believers that they were not even “to associate with any so–called brother if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one” (1 Cor. 5:11). In the next chapter he went on to say, “Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God” (6:9–10).
It is possible for a Christian to become drunk, just as it is possible for him to fall into other sins. But his life will not be continually characterized by drunkenness or any of the other sins mentioned by Peter and Paul.
In light of the Ephesian situation, however, it must be recognized that Paul’s primary concern in the present passage is religious, not moral. To the Ephesians, as to most pagans and former pagans of that day, drunkenness was closely associated with the idolatrous rites and practices that were an integral part of temple worship. In the mystery religions, which began in ancient Babylon and were copied and modified throughout the Near East and in Greek and Roman cultures, the height of religious experience was communion with the gods through various forms of ecstasy. To achieve an ecstatic experience the participants would use self–hypnosis and frenzied dances designed to work themselves up to a high emotional pitch. Heavy drinking and sexual orgies contributed still further to the sensual stupor that their perverted minds led them to think was creating communion with the gods.
The modern drug and hard rock culture is little different from those pagan rites. Drugs, psychedelic lighting, ear–pounding music, and suggestive lyrics and antics all combine to produce near–hysteria in many of the performers and spectators. It is significant that much of this subculture is directly involved in one or more of the Eastern, mystical religions that teach greater spiritual awareness through escape into supposed higher levels of consciousness induced by drugs, repetition of prescribed names or words, and other such superstitious and demonic means.
The greatest god of ancient mythology was known as Zeus (Greek), Jupiter (Roman), and by other names in various regions and times. In what we can now see as a Satanic counterfeit of Jesus’ conception by the Holy Spirit, myth claimed that Zeus somehow caused the goddess Semele to become pregnant without having contact with her. Semele decided that she had a right to see the father of her child, and while it was still in her womb she approached Zeus, only to be instantly incinerated by his glory. Before it could be destroyed, Zeus snatched the unborn child from her womb and sewed it into his thigh, where it continued to develop until birth. The infant god was named Dionysius and was destined by Zeus to become ruler of the earth.
The legend further told that when the Titans, who then inhabited the earth, heard of Zeus’s plan they stole the baby Dionysius and tore him limb from limb. Again the child was rescued by his father Zeus, who swallowed Dionysius’s heart and miraculously recreated him. Zeus then struck the Titans with lightning, reducing them to ashes from which was raised the human race. As ruler of this new race, Dionysius developed a religion of ascendancy, whereby human beings could rise to a level of divine consciousness. The mystical system he devised was comprised of wild music, frenzied dancing, sexual perversion, bodily mutilation, eating of the raw flesh of sacrificial bulls, and drunkenness. Dionysius became known as the god of wine, the intoxicating drink that was integral to the debauched religion that centered around him. His Roman counterpart was Bacchus, from whose name we get bacchanalia, the Roman festival celebrated with wild dancing, singing, drinking, and revelry that has for over two thousand years been synonymous with drunken debauchery and sexual orgy.
The city of Baalbek, in eastern Lebanon, contains some of the most fascinating ruins of the ancient world. It is the site of pagan temples first erected in the name of various Canaanite gods, and later rededicated in the names of corresponding Greek and then Roman deities when it was conquered by those empires. The central temple was that of Bacchus, the columns and parapets of which are intricately and profusely decorated with carvings of grapevines—symbolic of the excessive use of wine that characterized their orgiastic worship.
That is precisely the type of pagan worship with which the Ephesians were well acquainted and in which many believers had once been involved. It was also the type of worship and associated immorality and carnality from which many of the Corinthian believers had such a difficult time divorcing themselves and for which Paul rebuked them strongly. “Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? … I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons” (1 Cor. 10:16, 20–21). Later in the letter he gave a similar rebuke: “Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper, for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk” (11:20–21). Satan is a thief and a liar, and he revels in stealing the most beautiful and sacred things of the Lord and counterfeiting them in sensually attractive perversions that entice men into sin and deceive them about the truth.
In Ephesians 5:18, Paul was therefore not simply making a moral but also a theological contrast. He was not only speaking of the moral and social evils of drunkenness, but of the spiritually perverted use of drunkenness as a means of worship. Christians are not to seek religious fulfillment through such pagan means as getting drunk with wine, but are to find their spiritual fulfillment and enjoyment by being “filled with the Spirit.” The believer has no need for the artificial, counterfeit, degrading, destructive, and idolatrous ways of the world. He has God’s own Spirit indwelling him, the Spirit whose great desire is to give believers the fullest benefits and enjoyment of their high position as children of God.
The context of this passage further indicates that Paul was speaking primarily about the religious implications of drunkenness. The frenzied, immoral, and drunken orgies of pagan ceremonies were accompanied by correspondingly corrupt liturgies. In verses 19–20 Paul showed the kind of liturgy that pleases God: Spirit–filled believers “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God to even the Father.”
SCRIPTURE SOMETIMES COMMENDS WINE
Despite its many warnings about the dangers of wine, the drinking of it is not totally forbidden in Scripture and is, in fact, sometimes even commended. Drink offerings of wine accompanied many of the Old Testament sacrifices (Ex. 29:40; Num. 15:5; cf. 28:7). It is likely that a supply of wine was kept in the Temple for that purpose. The psalmist spoke of “wine which makes man’s heart glad” (Ps. 104:15), and the writer of Proverbs advised giving “strong drink to him who is perishing, and wine to him whose life is bitter” (31:6). In speaking of God’s gracious invitation to salvation, Isaiah declared, “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost” (Isa. 55:1).
Paul advised Timothy, “No longer drink water exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments” (1 Tim. 5:23). Jesus’ first miracle was turning water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana (John 2:6–10). He also spoke favorably of wine in the parable of the Good Samaritan, who poured oil and wine on the wounds of the man he found beaten by the roadside (Luke 10:34).
Like many other things, the kind of wine of which Scripture speaks (discussed below) has the potential either for evil or good. I believe there was a time when the juice of the grape, like every other thing God created, was only good and did not have even the potential for evil. Fermentation, a form of decay, likely was made possible by the corruption of nature at the Fall and actually began with the vast environmental change caused by the Flood and the accompanying removal of the vapor canopy over the earth that had protected it from direct sunlight. It is not unreasonable to believe that in the millennial kingdom the process will again be reversed, when the curse is removed and nature is restored to its original state of perfect goodness.
GUIDELINES FOR CHRISTIANS
In light of the fact that Scripture gives many warnings about drinking wine, yet does not forbid it and even commends it in certain circumstances, how can a believer know what to do? Following are eight suggestions, given in the form of questions, which if answered honestly in light of Scripture will serve as helpful guidelines.
IS TODAY’S WINE THE SAME AS THAT IN BIBLE TIMES?
Our first task in answering this question is to determine exactly what kind of wine is referred to in the Bible, and the second is to determine how that wine compares to what is produced and drunk today. Many sincere, Bible–honoring Christians justify their drinking wine on the basis of its being an acceptable practice both in the Old and New Testaments. But if the kind of wine used then was different from that used today, then application of the biblical teaching concerning wine will also be different.
One kind of wine, called sikera in Greek (see Luke 1:15) and shēkār in Hebrew (see Prov. 20:1; Isa. 5:1), is usually translated “strong drink” because of its high alcohol content and consequent rapid intoxication of those who drank it.
A second kind of wine was called gleukos (from which we get our English term glucose) and referred to new wine, which was especially sweet. Some of the onlookers at Pentecost accused the apostles of being drunk on this kind of wine (Acts 2:13). The corresponding Hebrew word is tîrôsh (see Prov. 3:10; Hos. 9:2; Joel 1:10). Because freshly–squeezed juice would ferment rapidly and could cause intoxication even when not fully aged, it was generally mixed with water before drinking.
A third kind of wine, however, is the one most often referred to in both the Old and New Testaments. The Hebrew word for that wine is yayin, which has the root meaning of bubbling or boiling up. The figure of bubbling did not come from the pouring of the wine but from the boiling of the fresh grape juice to reduce it to a heavy syrup, sometimes even a thick paste, that made it suitable for storage without spoiling. Because boiling removes most of the water and kills all the bacteria, the concentrated state of the juice does not ferment. Yayin most often referred to the syrup or paste mixed with water and used as a drink (cf. Ps. 75:8; Prov. 23:30). Even when the reconstituted mixture was allowed to ferment, its alcohol content was quite low.
The most common New Testament Greek word for this third kind of wine is oinos, and in its most general sense simply refers to the juice of grapes. Any accurate Jewish source will point out that yayin, mixed wine, or oinos, does not refer only to intoxicating liquor made by fermentation, but more often refers to a thick nonintoxicating syrup or jam produced by boiling to make it storable. In Jesus’ illustration of putting new wine (oinos, not gleukos) only into new wineskins, He was possibly saying that it was thereby “preserved” from fermentation as well as from spfilage (Matt. 9:17).
The practice of reducing fresh grape juice to a syrup by boiling or evaporation was widespread in the biblical Near East as well as in the Greek and Roman cultures of that day—and is not uncommon in Palestine, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon in our own day. In addition to being diluted for use as a beverage, the heavy syrup was used as a flavoring and as a jam–like spread on bread and pastries. Both the syrup and most of the drink made from it were completely nonintoxicating.
The Jewish Mishnah—the ancient oral and later written interpretations of the Mosaic law that preceded the Talmud—states that the Jews regularly used boiled wine, that is, grape juice reduced to a thick consistency by heating. Aristotle described the wine of Arcadia as being so thick that it had to be scraped from the skin bottles in which it was stored and the scrapings diluted with water in order to make a drink. The Roman historian Pliny often referred to nonintoxicating wine. The Roman poet Horace wrote in 35 b.c., “Here you quaff under a shade, cups of unintoxicating wine.” In the ninth book of his Odyssey Homer told of Ullyses putting in his boat a goatskin of sweet black wine that was diluted with twenty parts of water before being drunk. In A.D. 60 the Greek biographer Plutarch commented that “filtered wine neither inflames the brain nor infects the mind and the passions, and is much more pleasant to drink.”
Writing in Christianity Today magazine (June 20, 1975), Robert Stein explains that the ancient Greeks kept their unboiled, unmixed, and therefore highly–alcoholic wine in large jugs called amphorae. Before drinking they would pour it into smaller vessels called kraters and dilute it with water as much as twenty to one. Only then would the wine be poured into killits, the cups from which it was drunk. It was this diluted form that was commonly referred to simply as wine (oinos). The undiluted liquid was called akratesteron, or “unmixed wine,” wine that had not been diluted in a krater. Even among the civilized pagans, drinking unmixed wine was considered stupid and barbaric. Mr. Stein quotes Mnesitheus of Athens:
The gods have revealed wine to mortals, to be the greatest blessing for those who use it aright, but for those who use it without measure, the reverse. For it gives food to them that take it and strength in mind and body. In medicine it is most beneficial; it can be mixed with liquid and drugs and it brings aid to the wounded. In daily intercourse, to those who mix and drink it moderately, it gives good cheer; but if you overstep the bounds, it brings violence. Mix it half and half, and you get madness; unmixed, bodily collapse.
From an early Christian volume called The Apostolic Tradition we learn that the early church followed the custom of using only such mixed wine, whether made from a syrup or from the unmixed liquid.
Naturally fermented wine has an alcoholic content of from nine to eleven percent. For an alcoholic beverage such as brandy to have a higher content, it must be artificially fortified by distilling already–fermented wine. The unmixed wine of the ancients therefore had a maximum alcohol content of eleven percent. Even mixed half and half (a mixture which Mnesitheus said would bring madness), the wine would have had less than five percent alcohol. Since the strongest wine normally drunk was mixed at least with three parts water to one of wine, its alcohol content would have been in a range no higher than 2.25–2.75 percent—well below the 3.2 percent that today is generally considered necessary to classify a beverage as alcoholic.
It is clear, therefore, that whether the yayin or oinos mentioned in Scripture refers to the thick syrup itself, to a mixture of water and syrup, or to a mixture of water and pure wine, the wine was either nonalcoholic or only slightly alcoholic. To get drunk with mixed wine (oinos) would have required consuming a large quantity—as is suggested in other New Testament passages. “Addicted to wine” (1 Tim. 3:3; Titus 1:7) translates one Greek word (paroinos) and literally means “at, or beside, wine;” and carries the idea of sitting beside the wine cup for an extended period of time.
The answer to the first question is clearly no. The wine of Bible times was not the same as the unmixed wine of our own day. Even the more civilized pagans of Bible times would have considered the drinking of modern wines to be barbaric and irresponsible.
IS IT NECESSARY?
The second question that helps us determine whether or not a believer today should drink wine is, “Is drinking wine necessary for me?” In Bible times, as in many parts of the world today, good drinking water either did not exist or was scarce. The safest drink was wine, and wine that had alcoholic content was especially safe because of the antiseptic effect of the alcohol. It actually purified the water.
Yet it seems hard to believe that the wine Jesus miraculously made at the wedding feast in Cana or that He served at the Lord’s Supper and on other occasions was fermented. How could He have made or served that which had even the potential for making a person drunk? When He made the wine at Cana, He first instructed the servants to fill the jars with water, as if to testify that the wine He was about to create was obviously mixed. The wedding guests commented on the high quality of the wine (John 2:10), and because they called it oinos, it obviously was like the mild drink they were accustomed to making by adding water to boiled–down syrup.
Even though circumstances often required or made advisable the drinking of wine that contained alcohol, the preferred wine even in Bible times had little or none. Modern believers therefore cannot appeal to the biblical practice to justify their own drinking, because so many alternatives are now readily and cheaply available. Drinking alcoholic beverages today is an extremely rare necessity; most often it is simply a matter of preference.
Nor is drinking necessary in order to prevent embarrassing or offending friends, acquaintances, or business associates. A Christian’s witness is sometimes resented and costly, but most people are inclined to respect our abstinence when it is done out of honest conviction and is not flaunted self–righteously or judgmentally. The argument of not wanting to offend others is more likely to be based on concern for our own image and popularity than on genuine concern for their feelings and welfare. Some feel that drinking is sometimes necessary for the sake of establishing a relationship with an unsaved person with a view to bringing him to saving faith. But such a view of evangelism fails miserably in understanding the sovereign work of God and the power of the gospel apart from human devices.
IS IT THE BEST CHOICE?
Because drinking of wine is not specifically and totally forbidden in Scripture and because it is not a necessity for believers in most parts of the world today, the drinking of it is a matter of choice. The next question is therefore, Is it the best choice?
Throughout the history of God’s people He has given higher standards for those in positions of greater responsibility. Under the sacrificial system instituted under Moses and described in Leviticus 4–5, the ordinary person was required to give a female goat or a lamb as a sin offering—or two pigeons or two doves (5:7), or even a meal (grain) offering (5:11), if he was very poor. But a ruler had to offer a male goat, and the congregation as a whole or the high priest had to offer a bull.
Aaron and all succeeding high priests were also given higher personal standards by which to live. They were commanded, “Do not drink wine or strong drink, neither you nor your sons with you, when you come into the tent of meeting, so that you may not die—it is a perpetual statute throughout your generations” (Lev. 10:9). Because the high priest was called apart to a higher office, he was also called to a higher commitment to God and to a higher quality of living. Whether their drink restriction pertained to their total living or only to the time while they were actually serving in the Tabernacle or Temple, their ministry for the Lord was to be marked by total abstinence from all alcoholic beverage. Their minds and bodies were to be clear, pure, and fully functional when they ministered in the Lord’s name. There was to be no risk of moral or spiritual compromise in sacred ministry.
The same high standard applied to rulers in Israel. “It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to desire strong drink, lest they drink and forget what is ordered, and pervert the rights of all the afflicted” (Prov. 31:4–5). Their judgment was not to be clouded even by the amount of alcohol found in wine (yayin), much less by the much higher amount in strong drink (shēkār). Strong drink was to be given only “to him who is perishing,” as a sedative to ease his pain (v. 6). Any other use of it was not condoned. Normal mixed wine could be given for enjoyment “to him whose life is bitter. Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his trouble no more” (vv. 6–7) But the high priests and the rulers of the people were to drink neither yayin nor shekar.
Any person in Israel could choose to set himself apart for God in a special way by taking the Nazirite vow. “When a man or woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to dedicate himself to the Lord, he shall abstain from wine and strong drink; he shall drink no vinegar, whether made from wine or strong drink, neither shall he drink any grape juice, nor eat fresh or dried grapes. All the days of his separation he shall not eat anything that is produced by the grape vine, from the seeds even to the skin” (Num. 6:2–4). A Nazirite also vowed not to shave his head or to ceremonially contaminate himself by touching a dead body as long as his vow was in effect (vv. 5–7).
The name Nazirite comes from the Hebrew nāzîr, which means “separated, or consecrated.” Such separation was voluntary and could last from 30 days to a lifetime. But while the person, man or woman, was set apart in that way for special service to the Lord, his life was to be marked by special purity, including abstention from anything even associated with alcoholic drink. The Nazirite was, in a sense, stepping up to the level of a ruler or high priest by his act of special consecration and separation.
Scripture names only three men who were Nazirites for life—Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist. All three were set apart as Nazirites before they were born, Samuel by his mother (1 Sam. 1:11) and Samson and John the Baptist by the Lord Himself (Judg. 13:3–5; Luke 1:15). The mothers of both Samson and Samuel also abstained from wine and strong drink (Judg. 13:4; 1 Sam. 1:15), Samson’s mother by the direct command of the angel.
Though we do not know their identities, many other Nazirites lived in Israel and served the Lord through their specially consecrated lives (see Lam. 4:7, AV , but see also NASB ; Amos 2:11). Unfortunately, many of them were forcibly corrupted by their fellow Israelites, who “made the Nazirites drink wine” (Amos 2:12; cf. Lam. 4:8). The world resents those whose high standards are a rebuke to low living. Instead of trying to attain a higher level for themselves, people who are worldly and freshly—including worldly and carnal Christians—seek to bring those who live purely down to their own corrupt level.
In Jeremiah’s day the entire clan of the Rechabites had taken a vow not to drink wine, and had remained faithful to that vow. Because of their faithfulness, the Lord had Jeremiah set them up as a standard of righteous living, in contrast to the corrupt unfaithfulness of Judah, on whom He was about to bring judgment (Jer. 35:1–19).
The most outstanding Nazirite was John the Baptist, of whom Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater” (Matt. 11:11). Before John was born, the angel said of him, “He will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he will drink no wine (oinos) or liquor (sikera); and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, while yet in his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15).
Yet Jesus went on to say in regard to John the Baptist that “he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Matt. 11:11). In Jesus Christ, every believer is on the spiritual level of a high priest, a ruler, and a Nazirite. Christ loves us and has “released us from our sins by His blood, and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father” (Rev. 1:5–6). Christians are a “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession” (1 Pet. 2:9; cf. v. 5). Every Christian is specially set apart for God, and ever), Christian is to be separated from everything that is unclean (2 Cor. 6:17). “Therefore, having these promises, beloved,” Paul continued, “let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (7:1).
God did not lower His standards for New Testament saints, who are greater, Jesus said, even than John the Baptist. In both the Old and New Testaments drinking wine or strong drink disqualified a person from the leadership of God’s people. Christian leaders, like those of the Old Testament, are held to specially high standards. Overseers, or bishops, who are the same as elders and pastors, must not be “addicted to wine,” which, as mentioned above, translates one word (paroinos) and literally means “at, or by, wine.” A leader in the church is not even to be beside wine. “Must” (1 Tim. 3:2) is from the Greek particle dei, and carries the meaning of logical necessity rather than moral ought. Paul is therefore saying that leaders in the church of Jesus Christ not only ought but “must be … not addicted to wine” (vv. 2–3).
James said, “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we shall incur a stricter judgment” (James 3:1), and Jesus said, “From everyone who has been given much shall much be required” (Luke 12:48). If Old Testament high priests, Nazirites, kings, judges, and other rulers of the people were to be clear–minded at all times, the Lord surely does not have lower standards for leaders in the church, which is the present incarnate Body of His own Son, Jesus Christ. For deacons, whose responsibility is to serve rather than to give leadership, the standard is Jess stringent. They are allowed to drink wine but are not to be “addicted,” which is from a different Greek word (prosechontas), meaning “to be occupied with.” Such allowance still forbids drunkenness, and it reflects the distinct place of the elder, pastor, bishop, who should totally avoid any possibility of having his thinking clouded. The thrust of Paul’s message here seems to be that, because of the need for clear minds and pure example, the decision–making leaders of the church, are to be held to the highest possible standards of conduct, including abstinence from all alcoholic beverages, and that deacons, who are not in such critical roles, are allowed to drink wine in moderation.
That Paul advised Timothy to “no longer drink water exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments” (1 Tim. 5:23) indicates that, consistent with his leadership abstinence, Timothy previously had drunk no wine at all and that Paul’s recommendation to start drinking “a little wine” was purely for medicinal purposes. Every believer is to present his body “a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God”(Rom. 12:1), in total consecration to Him.
IS IT HABIT FORMING?
A fourth area of concern for believers should be the matter of addiction. Many things become habitual, and many of the habits we form are beneficial. On the other hand, many other habits are harmful and are difficult to break.
Paul’s principle that though all things for him were lawful, he would “not be mastered by anything” (1 Cor. 6:12) clearly applies to the danger of alcohol addiction. Alcohol easily produces overpowering dependency. In addition to the alcohol’s direct clouding of the brain and disruption of bodily functions, the dependency itself distracts the attention and interferes with the judgment of the one who is addicted.
A Christian not only must avoid sin but must avoid the potential for sin. We should not allow ourselves to get under the influence or control of anyone or anything that leads us away from the things of God even to a small extent. The safest and wisest choice for a Christian is to avoid even the potential for wrong influence.
Even when something is not habit–forming for us, it may be for someone who is looking at and following our example. Because alcohol is universally acknowledged to be highly addictive, a Christian’s drinking unnecessarily creates the potential for the alcohol addiction of someone else.
IS IT POTENTIALLY DESTRUCTIVE?
A fifth concern should be for alcohol’s potential destructiveness. The pagan writer Mnesitheus, already quoted, spoke of wine mixed with half water as causing madness and of unmixed wine’s bringing bodily collapse. The mental, physical, and social destructiveness of alcohol is too evident to need much documentation.
Over 40 percent of all violent deaths are alcohol related, and at least 50 percent of all traffic fatalities involve drinking drivers. It is estimated that at least one fourth of all hospitalized psychiatric patients have a problem with alcohol. Heavy consumption of alcohol causes cirrhosis of the liver and countless other physical disorders. Alcohol–related problems cost billions of dollars each year in lost income to employers and employees, in settlements by insurance companies and in higher premiums for their customers, and in many other less direct ways.
Dissipation, to which drunkenness inevitably leads, is from asōtia, which literally means “that which is unable to be saved.” It was used of a person who was hopelessly and incurably sick and also was used of loose, profligate living, as in that of the prodigal son (Luke 15:13). Dissipation is therefore a form of self–destruction.
As mentioned earlier in the chapter, the Old Testament gives many vivid accounts of the close association of heavy drinking with immorality, rebellion, incest, disobedience to parents, and corrupt living of every sort. Violence is a natural companion of strong drink (Prov. 4:17), and “wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler” (20:1).
The prophet Joel cried, “Awake, drunkards, and weep; and wail, all you wine drinkers, on account of the sweet wine that is cut off from your mouth” (Joel 1:5). Later in his message he said, “They have also cast lots for My people, traded a boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine that they may drink” (3:3). Habakkuk warned, “Woe to you who make your neighbors drink, who mix in your venom even to make them drunk so as to look on their nakedness! You will be filled with disgrace rather than honor. Now you yourself drink and expose your own nakedness. The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, and utter disgrace will come upon your glory” (Hab. 2:15–16).
The Christian must ask himself if it is wise for him to have any part of something that has such great potential for destruction and sin.
WILL IT OFFEND OTHER CHRISTIANS?
In speaking of food sacrificed to idols, Paul said, “We know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. … However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled. But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat. But take care lest this liberty of yours somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. … For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died” (1 Cor. 8:4, 7–9, 11).
A Christian who himself is perfectly able to drink in moderation is not able to guarantee that his example will not cause a weaker fellow Christian to try drinking and become addicted. Not only that, but just as in Paul’s day, a former drunk who becomes a Christian will often associate many immoral and corrupt activities with drinking, and to see a fellow Christian drink is likely to offend his conscience. Our freedom in Christ stops where it begins to harm others, especially fellow believers. We have no right to “destroy with [our] food [or drink] him for whom Christ died” (Rom. 14:15). We cannot be absolutely certain even of our own ability to always drink in moderation, and even less certain that our example will not cause others—including our children—to drink beyond moderation. “Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food,” Paul continued. “All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles” (vv. 20–21). Our own freedom in Christ should not be cherished above the welfare of even one other believer. We are to do those things “which make for peace and the building up of one another” (v. 19).
WILL IT HARM MY CHRISTIAN TESTIMONY?
To exercise our liberty in a way that might harm a brother in Christ cannot possibly enhance our testimony to unbelievers. Drinking might make us more acceptable in some circles, but our lack of concern for fellow Christians would work against any positive witness we might give. It would also hinder our testimony before many other Christians, who, though they might not be concerned about our influence hindering their own living for the Lord, would nevertheless be concerned about how it might harmfully influence other Christians.
Paul’s standard given to the Corinthians indicates that the best testimony is to refuse a pagan host so as not to offend a brother: “If one of the unbelievers invites you, and you wish to go, eat anything that is set before you, without asking questions for conscience’ sake. But if anyone should say to you, ‘This is meat sacrificed to idols,’ do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for conscience’ sake; I mean not your own conscience, but the other man’s; for why is my freedom judged by another’s conscience?” (1 Cor. 10:27–29). The witness is most effective if the pagan host can see how much you love and care for your Christian brother.
“Not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom. 14:7–8). Because everything a Christian is and has is the Lord’s, the apostle also said, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God; just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of the many, that they may be saved” (1 Cor. 10:31–33).
If we want to reach people who are not saved, as well as give an encouraging example to those who are, we will not exercise our liberty to drink or to do anything else that would cause them to be spiritually offended or misled.
IS IT RIGHT?
In light of all the above questions, the Christian should finally ask, Is it right for me to drink at all? We have seen that the answer to the first question is clearly no—the wine drunk in Bible times is not the same as contemporary wine. The answers to the second and third questions are also no for the majority of believers today—it is generally unnecessary to drink wine and is seldom the best choice. The answer to the next four questions is yes in at least some degree. Drinking is clearly habit forming and potentially destructive, and it is likely to offend other Christians and could harm our testimony before unbelievers.
A man once said to me, “I have a beer with the boys sometimes. Is that wrong?” I replied, “What do you think about it?” “Well, I don’t think it’s wrong; but it bothers me.” “Do you like being bothered?” I asked. “No, I don’t,” he said. “You know how to stop being bothered don’t you?” I continued, to which he gave the obvious answer, “Yes. Stop drinking.”
Paul explicitly said, “He who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23). Even if we believe that something is not sinful in itself, if we cannot do it with a completely free conscience, we sin because we do it against our conscience. Going against our conscience will push us into serf–condemnation and self–imposed guilt. Conscience is a God–given alarm to guard against sin, and whenever we go against it we weaken it and make it less sensitive and less reliable, thereby training ourselves to reject it. To continually go against conscience is to cause it to become “seared … as with a branding iron” (1 Tim. 4:2) and to become silent When that happens, we lose a very powerful agent God has given to lead us (cf. 1 Tim. 1:5, 19).
As we ask ourselves questions about drinking, the final one is the most important: Can I do it before others and before God in total faith and confidence that it is right?