Wine Warnings.

Wine plays an important role in the whole of the Bible. Jesus uses wine, grapes and the vine as imagery throughout His ministry. This culminated in wine symbolising His blood. We drink wine in remembrance of the institution of the new covenant. We are promised that Jesus will return to drink with us of the new fruit of the vine (Matthew 26:28 & 29), whilst those who worship the enemy will drink ‘the wine of the wrath of God’ (Revelation 14:9 & 10).

Wine was presented at offerings and feasts (Numbers 15:5/John 2:1 & 2). It was recommended for certain illnesses (1 Timothy 5:23) and has been used to cheer the heart and console the perishing (Psalm 104:15/Proverbs 31:6). Jesus and His disciples consumed wine at meals and celebrations (Luke 22:17). However, we are to remember that ancient ‘wine’ was far less alcoholic than it is today (around 3% volume) and is even sometimes descriptive of unfermented grape juice. Context is essential when reading about ‘wine’ drinking in scripture. It is not comparable to our modern day, stronger equivalent and so not necessarily intoxicating in small quantities. (https://godsbreath.net/2011/05/20/did-jesus-drink-wine/)

There are many warnings regarding overconsumption of wine in the Bible, and of other ‘strong drink’.
We learn that church leaders must be temperate and sober-minded, and not be ‘given to wine’. This can be translated as ‘staying near wine’, which implies frequency of consumption or dependence. It is interesting to note that the qualities that follow temperance in these scriptures are hospitality, the ability to teach, integrity, reverence and sound speech, not violent, greedy, or quarrelsome, not slanderers but gentle, faithful and bold for Christ. This may suggest that the sins listed are more likely to follow the drunkard (Titus 3/1 Timothy 3).

In Isaiah we read a ‘woe to men mighty at drinking wine’, those for whom wine is not reserved for occasions or medicinal use, but has become a pastime, a sport. This sin seems to accompany others as they fall in with the wicked and their end is ‘rottenness’ (Isaiah 5:22-24). Drunkenness is a sin that enslaves and leads to other sins, combining in ‘a flood of dissipation’ (1 Peter 4:3 & 4).

We read how one can be taken into such captivity by alcohol, that they live to drink. Proverbs lists the miseries of those who have many wounds and sorrows from wine, yet still proclaim, ‘When can I awake but I can have another drink?’ (Proverbs 23:29-35) Alcohol is never to overtake the believer either through intoxication or dependency.

Being filled with wine is also equated with being unwise, and being sober-minded with being alert and able to stand against the devil (1 Peter 5:8). Drunkenness produces foolishness, excess and susceptibility to evil (Ephesians 5:15-19). Those who are under the influence of alcohol, forget the Lord in their merrymaking (Isaiah 5:11 & 12). Conversely, those filled with His Spirit are thankful, singing praises to God and encouraging one another (Ephesians 5:18-20).

“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full (John 15:11).

Being filled with the Holy Spirit and abiding in the ‘true vine’ produces true joy (John 15:1, 5, 8, 11). The fruit of the Spirit which is produced from abiding in the vine, is the behaviour that should mark the Christian walk. (Galatians 5:22)

Walking in the spirit, is in opposition to fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, including drunkenness. Walking in the spirit is walking in freedom, not being under the law (Galatians 5:16-21).

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17).

As believers we are gifted with a new nature as we become ambassadors for Christ and receive His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:20 & 21). We who have the first fruits of the Spirit are being conformed to the image and likeness of Jesus (Romans 8:23, 29)

Jesus was unjustly rebuked by the Pharisees, accused of being a drinker and enjoying the company of sinners (Luke 7:34). But Jesus was without sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). He compared those he spent time with to the sick, in need of a physician. He dined with those who whom He would call to repentance (Luke 5:31 & 32). Jesus treated those overtaken by sin with mercy and compassion, restoring many so that they could ‘go and sin no more’ (John 8:11). Jesus extends that same mercy and compassion today. He offers Himself, the Prince of peace (Isaiah 9:6) and the joy of His salvation to each one of us, setting us free from our craving of the world’s poor attempts at satisfaction. Ecclesiastes gives us a summary of the emptiness of a life lived looking to be fulfilled by all pleasures apart from God – ‘All was vanity and grasping for the wind’ (Ecclesiastes 2:11).

Therefore with joy you will draw water
From the wells of salvation (Isaiah 12:3)

To those who thirsty, (spiritually empty) Jesus offers rivers of living water (John 7:37-39). When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, our desires align with His. We have the freedom to partake in drinking as laid out in scripture, but for many it simply becomes unnecessary, and for others it is avoided, as we choose not to be brought under the power of anything but our God, glorifying Him in our bodies, which are now His (1Corinthians 6:12, 14, 20).

Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).