Alcohol Drinking Is Not Good For Our Lives
This is one of the most common heated debates inside Christian communities. This is because there are many Christians who still drink alcoholic beverages even after several years of being a Christian.
The main issues raised were the following:
- Is alcohol drinking forbidden in the Bible?
- Is alcohol drinking an immoral practice?
- Is alcohol drinking encouraged in the Bible?
- Moderate drinking is a healthy practice as long as you do not get drunk.
Many of those Christians who used to drink uses the following issues above to defend that alcohol drinking is completely allowable and it is only “us” who forbid it to do. Plus quoting the incident in the wedding of Cana where Jesus turned water into wine.
But why is it that many Evangelical Churches forbid or at least impose a “no alcohol drinking” policy among its members?
Now, let’s go to the main discussion of the issues raised.
Is Alcohol Drinking Forbidden In The Bible?
The answer of course is no. The fact is, most people in the Bible drink at least a wine coming from grapes. One thing is clear about the limitations in drinking, and it is found in Ephesians 5:18. “Do not get drunk.” This is why most Christians that still drink alcoholic beverages hold this very strongly. As long as they don’t get drunk.
Is Alcohol Drinking An Immoral Practice?
The answer is still no. The Bible never say that alcohol drinking is an immoral practice. And there is no way that we can prove that 
drinking alcohol is an immoral act.
Is alcohol encouraged in the Bible?
The only passages that seems to be encouraging people to drink alcohol are the following:
Proverbs 31:6-7 – “6 Give beer to those who are perishing, wine to those who are in anguish; 7 let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.”
1 Timothy 5:23 – ”23Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.”
I do not know of anymore passages that encourages drinking wine aside from the passages that I mentioned. If you do, please let me know and I would gladly edit this work.
Moderate Drinking Is A Healthy Habit
As I said, most Christians that drink alcohol do not forget this reason. They always quote doctors who say that it is a healthy habit. Wine and dark beers contain anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatories which is good for our body.
Answering the Issue of Alcoholism And Drinking Moderately
Alcohol Drinking in the Bible is not prohibited, yet not encouraged. Even though the Bible did not explicitly say that it prohibit believers to drink alcohol, the Bible obviously did not encouraged it as well. What was wrong was, many Christians just stopped to one side of the issue to satisfy their desire to drink.
The Bible never encouraged people to drink alcohol. Furthermore, the Bible tells us about evil things resulted from getting drunk with wine. In the book of Genesis alone, we can see there several stories that resulted to sin due to drinking alcohol. A couple of example was one of the sons of Noah was cursed due to the negligence of Noah of getting drunk and sleeping naked. The daughters of Lot committed incest due to the negligence of Lot in getting drunk.
The second issue has been partially answered as well. However, to make it clearer, drinking alcohol is not forbidden nor an immoral act, but it can definitely lead a person who get drunk to sin and which can also lead other people to sin.
Please note what I have said, “seems to be encouraging”. This is because to get the real meaning of the passages, we need to look at the main context of these passages.
Proverbs 31 seems to be encouraging people to drink. However, looking at the passage carefully tells us that beer is to be given to those who are perishing and those who are in anguish. This is for the purpose to forget their poverty and miseries. This simply means that there is a deeper reason for drinking. To forget the anguish and their misery.
Another thing is that, the teacher in the book of Proverbs is only concern for the temporary solution for the great anguish the person suffering. Let’s accept it, drinking alcohol cannot and will not solve the problems. It can only help us to forget the problem at least for a while. But when you wake up the next morning, the problem is still there.
1 Timothy 23 is also with a reason. Please note how Paul said it, “…and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.” The thing is, there is a purpose why Paul encourages Timothy to drink wine (please also note “little”). It is mainly for health benefit of Timothy who probably is experiencing some kind of stomach problem. Mac Arthur’s study Bible explained that wine is used to kill harmful microbes in the stomach and since water is very limited in the desert.
In the book of 1 Corinthians 8 and 10, we can see there that Paul answered the issue of eating food sacrificed to idols. I already made an exegesis about this issue entitled “Biblical Teachings About Food Sacrificed To Idols”
In the article above, I explained why Christians should abstain from eating food sacrificed to idols. I strongly believe that alchohol drinking is very much related about this issue. Using the same reasons and the same principles, I strongly believe that abstaining from alcoholic beverages would do much better in our Christian lives than partaking it.
Can We Really Have Health Benefits From Drinking Alcohol?
I would say that this is one of the most abused reasons in justifying alcohol drinking. Yes, there are FEW health benefits of alcohol drinking since we have to remember that alcohol are disinfectant. Just like how Paul encouraged Timothy to drink a “little” wine.
Doctors says that wine and dark beer contains anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatory.
“The benefits related to cardiovascular health have become well-known. A study released in mid-July, for instance, found that moderate alcohol consumption reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease in women by increasing the amount of “good” cholesterol in the bloodstream and reducing blood sugar levels.
But other studies have linked a daily drink, most often wine, to reduced risk of dementia, bone loss and physical disabilities related to old age. Wine also has been found to increase life expectancy and provide potential protection against some forms of cancer, including esophageal cancer and lymphoma.” – Dennis Thompson.
While many Christians who still drink alcohol continuously quoting the health benefits of alcohol, experts with the American Cancer Society and American Heart Association says that health risks FAR out weighs its rewards even in moderate drinking.
As they explain, most of the health benefits (if not all) that you can get from drinking alcohol can be taken from eating fruits and vegetables which also have anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory. For example, the “resveratrol” which you can get from red wine is also the same element that you can get from drinking grape juice.
You can get more information about the health issues of wine in this article: “Drinking Your Way to Health? Perhaps Not”
Conclusion
The Bible is really vagued in the issue of alcoholic beverages. It does not prohibit believers to partake it. However, we can see that the Bible never say that it is good and produces a lot of benefit for our spiritual lives. In fact, the Bible say lots of evil things that can happen due to alcoholism. Not to mention that we have to consider other Christians who chose to abstain.
Concerning health issues, I think it is very clear that it is only a pure justification and is not really necessary since you can get all these benefits from eating healthy foods. Again, drinking alcohol even moderately, FAR OUT WEIGHS the risks than the benefits that you can get from it.
So the issue then is not all about the health benefits, its all about avoiding our fellow believers to sin, keeping an above reproach testimony, and avoiding to compromise with the world.
Please also read:
Biblical Teachings About Food Sacrificed To Idols
Drinking Your Way to Health? Perhaps Not
Lovely post. great tips. I like it. Thanks for sharing these information with us.
Emergent Inebriates
Some thoughts on “Pub Theology.”
By Pastor Larry DeBruyn
from: http://herescope.blogspot.com/
As he begins to rip into “a screaming guitar solo,” a band member sarcastically yells out at the audience, “Let’s go to church boys!”[1] Welcome to Pub Theology. As the reporter describes it, Pub Theology is “a Sunday night show that’s one part church and one part party.” Among other posters on the barroom walls, one alludes and adds to the final verse of the biblical chapter on love. It reads, “Faith, Hope, Love and Beer.” WARNING: The biblical text reads, “But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13, NASB).[2]
Being “shaggy-haired, body-pierced and colored with assorted body art,” members of the Sunday evening pub rock group double as members of a mega-church’s “worship team” on Sunday mornings. Confessing to love both Jesus and rock ‘n’ roll, band members will burn through a pack of cigarettes and exhort the audience to visit the bar and buy beer during Sunday night “church.” Initially skeptical about hosting Pub Theology on Sunday nights, the bar owner now admits the band has turned an otherwise dead night into a profitable evening.
Regarding this new outreach — the mega-church’s ministerial staff approve of doing Pub Theology — one of the band’s members says: “We want to be sincere and authentic and be who we really are, whether that is wearing jeans and a T-shirt or having a beer. I think that is real,” he continues, “and I don’t think it is wrong or that God is unhappy about that.” Sure . . . in contrast to “drunkenness, carousing,” one fruit of the Spirit is “self-control” (Galatians 5:21, 23).
Relates another band member: “I can drink a beer and smoke a cigarette and play some of my favorite songs and hang out with my friends and maybe meet someone and tell them about Jesus.”
Interestingly, most of the band members were raised in religious homes. In fact, two of its members are former PKS (That’s an acronym for “preacher’s kids.”). Having been a former pastor, their father has now become the band’s “roadie” (That’s a term which refers to the managers and technicians traveling with the band.). The members account for the band’s existence and approach to ministry for reason of their holier-than-thou Wesleyan upbringing — you know, “I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t go to R-rated movies, I don’t dance.”
On this point, and as a rebellious child of the ’60s who too was raised in the legalistic environment of Western Michigan, let me say that I understand and somewhat sympathize with the band members’ rejection of legalism. But all rebels ought to be cautioned that “rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry” (1 Samuel 15:23). We ought to be reminded that God doesn’t make Christians from the outside in, but rather from the inside out. Though one’s Christianity is defined by inner faith not outer works, Paul did write that Christians are God’s “workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).
Works are the issue of faith. Thus, we must not assume the opposite attitude from legalism, that of antinomianism (i.e., that God’s grace cancels out any need to obey His moral and spiritual law). For as Paul asked: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:1-2). Contradicting antinomianism, the writer of Hebrews orders us to, “Pursue . . . holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled” (Hebrews 12:14-15, NKJV).
Nevertheless, the casual and alcoholically lubricated atmosphere of Pub Theology raises an important issue, for, as the reporter asks, “Does Pub Theology produce any lasting effects, or is it just a casual encounter with church in a bar — a spiritual one-night stand?” All the band’s claims of “doing ministry” notwithstanding — they do field questions about Christianity from the audience and callers-in, give inebriated individuals rides home, and have even seen one rescued drunk baptized a few days later in their church — Pub Theology shows every symptom of being a carnal “one-night-stand.” (Note: I do not use the word spiritual.)
First, Pub Theology is not church. If it is, then where’s the reading of Scripture, the apostles’ teaching, prayer and observance of the Lord’s Table? (Acts 2:42) But on this point, we can be certain that the band will avoid any impression of being too “churchly or preachy.” But beer steins are no substitute for communion cups. In fact, to the true church the Apostle Peter announced that “the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousals, drinking parties and abominable idolatries” (1 Peter 4:3).
Second, Pub Theology is not theology. Reportedly, the band’s opening song was Joan Osborne’s one-hit wonder, “What if God was one of us?” The lyrics add, “Just a slob like one of us.”[3] Imagine . . . God being a slob like the rest of the inebriated crowd at the bar. Given such a humanizing of God, what we’re dealing with is not Pub Theology, but pub idolatry. “[T]he glory of the incorruptible God” is being exchanged “for an image in the form of corruptible man” (Romans 1:23, NASB). Do you think Joan Osborne’s lyrical questions in any way resemble or affirm the great Christological passages of the New Testament? (John 1:1 ff.; Colossians 1:15-17; Philippians 2:5-11). By the way, these cited passages are comprised of theological statements extracted from early Christian hymns. Would the pub theology band sing them? I’d think they’d estimate that the lyrics of these biblical hymns are far too dogmatic, stodgy, and preachy for the “boys” at the bar! If the song “What if God was one of us?” gives any indication, probably none of the other music the band plays includes “psalms, hymns, or spiritual songs.”
Third, Pub Theology is not Christian outreach. The Apostle Paul would not have employed carnal means to attain spiritual ends.[4] You can’t fight fire with fire. He wrote: “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5, NIV; Compare Galatians 5:21 where Paul labels “drunkenness” a work of the flesh). The Apostle also ordered the Ephesians: “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:18-19). To the Roman believers he added that, “It is good not . . . to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles” (Romans 14:21).[5]
So we conclude: Given the atmosphere surrounding Pub Theology, the description of love as it exists on a poster at “Sunday-night-church-in-a-bar” might be parodied to read: Now abide these four, “faith, hope, love, and beer,” but the greatest of these is beer!
ENDNOTES
[1] Unless otherwise noted, all quotations are taken from Robert King, “Faith, Hope, Love, Beer,” The Indianapolis Star, September 27, 2009, A1, A14. Article may be viewed online. See Faith & Values, Robert King, “Pub Theology conveys Christian message in Broad Ripple,” Indy Star.com, September 27, 2009, http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009909270384.
[2] Wisdom testifies: “Every word of God is tested . . . Do not add to His words lest He reprove you, and you be proved a liar” (Proverbs 30:5-6, NASB). Compare Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32; and Revelation 22:18-19.
[3] Lyrics online at: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/onehitwonders/ifgodwasoneofuslyrics.html.
[4] Those interested in pursuing the matter of the Christian and alcohol consumption are invited to read, “The Wrath of Grapes: The Christian and Alcohol Consumption.” Online the article is available at: http://www.frbaptist.org/bin/view/Ptp/PtpTopic20071105160759.
[5] On this point, readers are invited to check out website article, “Was Paul a Pragmatist?” Online the article may be viewed at: http://www.frbaptist.org/bin/view/Ptp/PtpTopic20080513102433 or at Herescope http://herescope.blogspot.com/2008/05/was-paul-pragmatist.html
Pastor DeBruyn is the author of the newly-released book UNSHACKLED: Breaking Away from Seductive Spirituality, available from Discernment Ministries 903-567-6423.
posted by Discernment Research Group @ 10/09/2009 09:49:00 PM
Just like deceived Eve, downfall starts with the first tasting!!!
Sow a thought, reap an action …
Sow an action, reap a habit ….
Sow a habit, reap a character …
Sow a character, reap a destiny …
Sow a destiny, reap an eternity …
All starts with the first taste ….
from:
http://www.medicinenet.com/alcohol_abuse_and_alcoholism/article.htm
What is alcoholism?
Alcoholism, also known as alcohol dependence, is a disease that includes the following four symptoms:
* Craving — A strong need, or urge, to drink.
* Loss of control — Not being able to stop
drinking once drinking has begun.
* Physical dependence—Withdrawal symptoms,
such as nausea, sweating, shakiness, and
anxiety after stopping drinking.
* Tolerance—The need to drink greater amounts
of alcohol to get “high.”
For clinical and research purposes, formal diagnostic criteria for alcoholism also have been developed. Such criteria are included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, published by the American Psychiatric Association, as well as in the International Classification Diseases, published by the World Health Organization.
Is alcoholism a disease?
Yes, alcoholism is a disease. The craving that an alcoholic feels for alcohol can be as strong as the need for food or water. An alcoholic will continue to drink despite serious family, health, or legal problems.
Like many other diseases, alcoholism is chronic, meaning that it lasts a person’s lifetime; it usually follows a predictable course; and it has symptoms. The risk for developing alcoholism is influenced both by a person’s genes and by his or her lifestyle.
Is alcoholism inherited?
Research shows that the risk for developing alcoholism does indeed run in families. The genes a person inherits partially explain this pattern, but lifestyle is also a factor. Currently, researchers are working to discover the actual genes that put people at risk for alcoholism. Your friends, the amount of stress in your life, and how readily available alcohol is also are factors that may increase your risk for alcoholism.
But remember: Risk is not destiny. Just because alcoholism tends to run in families doesn’t mean that a child of an alcoholic parent will automatically become an alcoholic too. Some people develop alcoholism even though no one in their family has a drinking problem. By the same token, not all children of alcoholic families get into trouble with alcohol. Knowing you are at risk is important, though, because then you can take steps to protect yourself from developing problems with alcohol.
Can alcoholism be cured?
No, alcoholism cannot be cured at this time. Even if an alcoholic hasn’t been drinking for a long time, he or she can still suffer a relapse. Not drinking is the safest course for most people with alcoholism.
Can alcoholism be treated?
Yes, alcoholism can be treated. Alcoholism treatment programs use both counseling and medications to help a person stop drinking. Treatment has helped many people stop drinking and rebuild their lives.
from:
http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news/Link-Between-Alcohol-and-Decrease-in-Brain-Size-2410-1/
Link Between Alcohol and Decrease in Brain Size
A new study was conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health on nearly 2,000 men and women, age 55 and older. Researchers used magnetic resonance imaging// to determine their brain size, infarcts and white matter lesions, which are changes in the brain correlated with the risk of stroke and to study if a link existed between low to moderate alcohol consumption and a decrease in brain size of middle-aged adults.
As alcohol consumption increased, the MRI identified increases in the spaces that do not contain brain tissue — an indication of brain deterioration. However, no consistent link was found between alcohol intake and infarctions or white matter lesions.
Researchers of the study, say they studied a younger, middle-aged population and found that low amounts of alcohol consumption are also associated with decreases in brain size. They say their findings do not support the hypothesis that low or moderate alcohol intake offers any protection against cerebral abnormalities or the risk of stroke in middle-aged adults.
However researchers say it is difficult to determine a casual relationship between alcohol consumption and brain atrophy because MRI measures in the brain were only conducted once during follow up.
Date:12/12/2003
from:
http://www.bio-medicine.org/inc/biomed/medicine-news.asp
http://feeds.bio-medicine.org/latest-medical-news
Alcohol Is Responsible For 60 Different Diseases
Alcohol is responsible for 60% of the diseases across the world, according to the Center for Social Research on alcohol and Drugs’ Professor // Robin Room. About 4.4% of deaths are accounted for by high blood pressure, and another 4.1% by tobacco. alcohol is also responsible for as many deaths as blood pressure and smoking, and the licensing laws have reportedly failed to take note of this fact.
The study looks at diseases, including cancers of the mouth, liver and breast, heart disease, stroke and cirrhosis, in which alcohol can play a role. It also highlights the role of alcohol in car accidents, drowning, falls and poisoning. alcohol is also linked to a proportion of self-inflicted injuries and murders.
Using data on alcohol cost and British alcohol-related mortality information, the researchers estimate that increasing the price of alcohol by 10% would produce a 7% drop in deaths from cirrhosis of the liver in men and an 8.3% drop in deaths in women.
Restricting the availability of alcohol by reducing the hours that pubs and shops can sell it would also affect the rates of alcohol-related harm, he said.
Date:1/4/2006
Alcohol shrinks brain
http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news/Alcohol-shrinks-brain-266-1/
“Heavy alcohol consumption might exaggerate brain shrinkage in social drinkers. Chronic heavy alcohol consumption should be avoided,” according to Dr. Motoo Kubota and colleagues from Chiba University in Japan report in the July issue of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.
Alcohol, among the various forms insults both physically and mentally, now turns out to potentially shrink the brain according to the studies.
Heavy alcohol consumption leads to the shrinkage of the frontal lobe, which is the center for emotions, planning and other higher forms behaviour. This is particularly noted in the elderly. The investigators measured the frontal lobe volume in about 1400 individuals using MRI scan and found that the frontal lobe had shrunk in less than 8% of individuals between 30 and 40 years old, compared with nearly 16% of those in their 40s and 38% of those in their 50s. About 61% of people in their 60s had shrunken frontal lobes.
Older individuals were nearly three times more likely to show brain shrinkage in this region than individuals in their 30s, Dr.Kubota said.
The good news is that alcoholic brain damage is partly reversible. Individuals who give up the bottle can recover brain volume and boost blood flow.
The researchers estimate that aging accounts for about 30% of brain shrinkage and heavy alcohol consumption for about 10%.
Date:7/12/2001
from: Wikipedia
Generally, liver damage from cirrhosis cannot be reversed, but treatment could stop or delay further progression and reduce complications. A healthy diet is encouraged, as cirrhosis may be an energy-consuming process. Close follow-up is often necessary. Antibiotics will be prescribed for infections, and various medications can help with itching. Laxatives, such as lactulose, decrease risk of constipation; their role in preventing encephalopathy is limited
Treating underlying causes
Alcoholic cirrhosis caused by alcohol abuse is treated by abstaining from alcohol. Treatment for hepatitis-related cirrhosis involves medications used to treat the different types of hepatitis, such as interferon for viral hepatitis and corticosteroids for autoimmune hepatitis. Cirrhosis caused by Wilson’s disease, in which copper builds up in organs, is treated with chelation therapy (e.g. penicillamine) to remove the copper.
Preventing further liver damage
Regardless of underlying cause of cirrhosis, alcohol and paracetamol, as well as other potentially damaging substances, are discouraged. Vaccination of susceptible patients should be considered for Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B.
Anything, even the good things, if in excess, can become bad or addictive. Particularly, on the enjoyment of drinking alcohol. In fact, alcoholism can lead to diseases in the body, since the alcohol can ruin the body, such as the liver, which filter all toxins in the body. Alcohol, just like any nedicine, if in high dosages, can ruin the cells in the liver, as it filters the toxins in the blood, where the alcohol is carried. After it can ruin the liver, it can lead to this disease:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cirrhosis
which can further lead to even cancer of the liver.
As believers in the words of God, our bodies are supposed to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. We reap what we sow. If we sow toxins in our body (e.g. excessive alcohol), then we will reap the consequences of the toxins ruining our body. The law of sowing and reaping is so natural, even so obvious in the agricultural realm. As believers, we are supposed to take care of our bodies, so that God can use our bodies to spread His gospel. How can He used a cirrhotic or cancerous believer, whose body is ruined by vices like excessive drinking?
from: http://www.gotquestions.org/sin-alcohol.html
Question:
“What does the Bible say about drinking alcohol/wine?
Is it a sin for a Christian to drink alcohol/wine?”
Answer:
Scripture has much to say regarding the drinking of alcohol (Leviticus 10:9; Numbers 6:3; Deuteronomy 29:6; Judges 13:4, 7, 14; Proverbs 20:1; 31:4; Isaiah 5:11, 22; 24:9; 28:7; 29:9; 56:12). However, Scripture does not necessarily forbid a Christian from drinking beer, wine, or any other drink containing alcohol. In fact, some Scriptures discuss alcohol in positive terms. Ecclesiastes 9:7 instructs, “Drink your wine with a merry heart.” Psalm 104:14-15 states that God gives wine “that makes glad the heart of men.” Amos 9:14 discusses drinking wine from your own vineyard as a sign of God’s blessing. Isaiah 55:1 encourages, “Yes, come buy wine and milk…”
What God commands Christians regarding alcohol is to avoid drunkenness (Ephesians 5:18). The Bible condemns drunkenness and its effects (Proverbs 23:29-35). Christians are also commanded to not allow their bodies to be “mastered” by anything (1 Corinthians 6:12; 2 Peter 2:19). Drinking alcohol in excess is undeniably addictive. Scripture also forbids a Christian from doing anything that might offend other Christians or encourage them to sin against their conscience (1 Corinthians 8:9-13). In light of these principles, it would be extremely difficult for any Christian to say he is drinking alcohol in excess to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).
Jesus changed water into wine. It even seems that Jesus drank wine on occasion (John 2:1-11; Matthew 26:29). In New Testament times, the water was not very clean. Without modern sanitation, the water was often filled with bacteria, viruses, and all kinds of contaminants. The same is true in many third-world countries today. As a result, people often drank wine (or grape juice) because it was far less likely to be contaminated. In 1 Timothy 5:23, Paul was instructing Timothy to stop drinking the water (which was probably causing his stomach problems) and instead drink wine. In that day, wine was fermented (containing alcohol), but not necessarily to the degree it is today. It is incorrect to say that it was grape juice, but it is also incorrect to say that it was the same thing as the wine commonly used today. Again, Scripture does not forbid Christians from drinking beer, wine, or any other drink containing alcohol. Alcohol is not, in and of itself, tainted by sin. It is drunkenness and addiction to alcohol that a Christian must absolutely refrain from (Ephesians 5:18; 1 Corinthians 6:12).
Alcohol, consumed in small quantities, is neither harmful nor addictive. In fact, some doctors advocate drinking small amounts of red wine for its health benefits, especially for the heart. Consumption of small quantities of alcohol is a matter of Christian freedom. Drunkenness and addiction are sin. However, due to the biblical concerns regarding alcohol and its effects, due to the easy temptation to consume alcohol in excess, and due to the possibility of causing offense and/or stumbling of others, it is usually best for a Christian to abstain entirely from drinking alcohol.
Recommended Resource: Moral Choices by Scott Rae.
On another text:
1 Timothy 5:23
Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.
Also, from Barne’s Notes on the New Testament:
1 Timothy 5:23
Drink no longer water—
There has been much difficulty felt in regard to the connection which this advice has with what precedes and what follows. Many have considered the difficulty to be so great that they have supposed that this verse has been displaced, and that it should be introduced in some other connection. The true connection, and the reason for the introduction of the counsel here, seems to me to be this: Paul appears to have been suddenly impressed with the thought—a thought which is very likely to come over a man who is writing on the duties of the ministry—of the arduous nature of the ministerial office. He was giving counsels in regard to an office which required a great amount of labor, care, and anxiety. The labors enjoined were such as to demand all the time; the care and anxiety incident to such a charge would be very likely to prostrate the frame, and to injure the health. Then he remembered that Timothy was yet but a youth; he recalled his feebleness of constitution and his frequent attacks of illness; he recollected the very abstemious habits which he had prescribed for himself, and, in this connection, he urges him to a careful regard for his health, and prescribes the use of a small quantity of wine, mingled with his water, as a suitable medicine in his case. Thus considered, this direction is as worthy to be given by an inspired teacher as it is to counsel a man to pay a proper regard to his health, and not needlessly to throw away his life; compare Matt. 10:23.
The phrase, “drink no longer water,” is equivalent to, “drink not water only;” see numerous instances in Wetstein. The Greek word here used does not elsewhere occur in the New Testament.
But use a little wine—
Mingled with the water—
the common method of drinking wine in the East; see Robinson’s Bibliotheca Sacra, 1:512, 513.
For thy stomach’s sake—
It was not for the pleasure to be derived from the use of wine, or because it would produce hilarity or excitement, but solely because it was regarded as necessary for the promotion of health; that is, as a medicine.
And thine often infirmities—ἀσθενείας astheneias—Weaknesses or sicknesses. The word would include all infirmities of body, but seems to refer here to some attacks of sickness to which Timothy was liable, or to some feebleness of constitution; but beyond this we have no information in regard to the nature of his maladies.
In view of this passage, and as a further explanation of it, we may make the following remarks:
(1) The use of wine, and of all intoxicating drinks, was solemnly forbidden to the priests under the Mosaic law, when engaged in the performance of their sacred duties; Lev. 10:9-10. The same was the case among the Egyptian priests. Clarke; compare notes on 1 Tim. 3:3. It is not improbable that the same thing would be regarded as proper among those who ministered in holy things under the Christian dispensation. The natural feeling would be, and not improperly, that a Christian minister should not be less holy than a Jewish priest, and especially when it is remembered that the reason of the Jewish law remained the same—“that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and clean and unclean.”
(2) it is evident from this passage that Timothy usually drank water only, or that, in modern language, he was a “tee-totaller.” He was, evidently, not in the habit of drinking wine, or he could not have been exhorted to do it.
(3) he must have been a remarkably temperate youth to have required the authority of an apostle to induce him to drink even a little wine; see Doddridge. There are few young men so temperate as to require such an authority to induce them to do it.
(4) the exhortation extended only to a very moderate use of wine. It was not to drink it freely; it was not to drink it at the tables of the rich and the great, or in the social circle; it was not even to drink it by itself; it was to use “a little,” mingled with water—for this was the usual method; see Athaeneus, Deipno. lib. 9: x. 100:7.
(5) it was not as a common drink, but the exhortation or command extends only to its use as a medicine. All the use which can be legitimately made of this injunction—whatever conclusion may be drawn from other precepts—is, that it is proper to use a small quantity of wine for medicinal purposes.
(6) there are many ministers of the gospel, now, alas! to whom under no circumstances could an apostle apply this exhortation—“Drink no longer water only.” They would ask, with surprise, what he meant? whether he intended it in irony, and for banter—for they need no apostolic command to drink wine. Or if he should address to them the exhortation, “use a little wine,” they could regard it only as a reproof for their usual habit of drinking much. To many, the exhortation would be appropriate, if they ought to use wine at all, only because they are in the habit of using so much that it would be proper to restrain them to a much smaller quantity.
(7) this whole passage is one of great value to the cause of temperance. Timothy was undoubtedly in the habit of abstaining wholly from the use of wine. Paul knew this, and he did not reprove him for it. He manifestly favored the general habit, and only asked him to depart in some small degree from it, in order that he might restore and preserve his health. So far, and no further, is it right to apply this language in regard to the use of wine; and the minister who should follow this injunction would be in no danger of disgracing his sacred profession by the debasing and demoralizing sin of intemperance.
There are many non-essential (particularly, in relation to salvation) issues that the bible is vague or silent or ambivalent, the bible does not explicitly prohibit nor encourage drinking.
It may boil down to the motive underlying drinking: Why do people drink?
If as a kind of fleshly escape of some spiritual problem, e.g., to get drunk to forget or deny the problem, then it would be a bad motive to use drinking as an escape from reality.
To be complete in the context of some texts used, let us study:
Ephesian 5:18
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
An exegesis is given in
Barnes Notes’ on the New Testament:
Ephesians 5:18
And be not drunk with wine—
A danger to which they were exposed and a vice to which those around them were much addicted. Compare notes on Luke 21:34. It is not improbable that in this verse there is an allusion to the orgies of Bacchus, or to the festivals celebrated in honor of that pagan god. He was “the god of wine,” and during those festivals, men and women regarded it as an acceptable act of worship to become intoxicated, and with wild songs and cries to run through streets, and fields, and vineyards. To these things the apostle opposes psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, as much more appropriate modes of devotion, and would have the Christian worship stand out in strong contrast with the wild and dissolute habits of the pagan. Plato says, that while those abominable ceremonies in the worship of Bacchus continued, it was difficult to find in all Attica a single sober man. Rosenmüller, Alt. u. neu. Morgenland, in loc. On the subject of wine, and the wines used by the ancients, see the notes on John 2:10-11.
We may learn from this verse:
(1) that it was not uncommon in those times to become intoxicated on wine; and,
(2) that it was positively forbidden.
All intoxication is prohibited in the Scriptures—no matter by what means it is produced. There is, in fact, but one thing that produces intoxication. It is “alcohol”—the poisonous substance produced by fermentation. This substance is neither created nor changed, increased nor diminished, by distillation. It exists in the cider, the beer, and the wine, after they are fermented, and the whole process of distillation consists in driving it off by heat, and collecting it in a concentrated form, and so that it may be preserved. But distilling does not “make” it, nor change it. Alcohol is precisely the same thing in the wine that it is in the brandy after it is distilled; in the cider or the beer that it is in the whisky or the rum; and why is it right to become intoxicated on it in one form rather than in another?
Since therefore there is danger of intoxication in the use of wine, as well as in the use of ardent spirits, why should we not abstain from one as well as the other? How can a man prove that it is right for him to drink alcohol in the form of wine, and that it is wrong for me to drink it in the form of brandy or rum?
Wherein is excess—
There has been much difference of opinion about the word rendered here as excess—ἀσωτία asōtia. It occurs only in two other places in the New Testament, where it is rendered “riot;” Tit. 1:6; 1 Pet. 4:4. The “adjective” occurs once Luke 15:13, where it is rendered riotous. The word (derived, according to Passow, from α a, the alpha privative (not), and σώζω sōzō—to save, deliver) means that which is unsafe, not to be recovered; lost beyond recovery; then that which is abandoned to sensuality and lust; dissoluteness, debauchery, revelry. The meaning here is, that all this follows the use of wine. Is it proper then for Christians to be in the habit of drinking it? “Wine is so frequently the cause of this, by the ungrateful abuse of the bounty of providence in giving it, that the enormity is represented by a very strong and beautiful “figure” as contained in the very liquor.” Doddridge.
But be filled with the Spirit—
The Holy Spirit. How much more appropriate to Christians than to be filled with the spirit of intoxication and revelry! Let Christians, when about to indulge in a glass of wine, think of this admonition. Let them remember that their bodies should be the temple of the Holy Spirit, rather than a receptacle for intoxicating drinks. Was any man ever made a better Christian by the use of wine? Was any minister ever better suited to counsel an anxious sinner, or to pray, or to preach the gospel, by the use of intoxicating drinks? Let the history of wine-drinking and intemperate clergymen answer.