Do not get drunk with wine

As I type, I am drinking a glass of a rather nice Rioja which was on offer in the Co-op. I do this from time to time; I buy a bottle of wine which would otherwise have been quite expensive (my Biology teacher at school advised me never to buy a bottle of wine under £5.00 - his lessons were always at least as much about Good Living as Biology), some of it goes into my bolognese, and I drink the rest over the ensuing days (actually, I often end up drinking only some of the rest, as the remainder usually turns into something approximating vinegar in the time it takes me to get through the bottle). This has led me to think about the question of when Christians should say to themselves, “I’ve had enough to drink now. I’m going to stop.” (I leave aside questions of situations in which it may or may not be appropriate to drink, issues of leading Christian brothers and sisters into sin, and issues of evangelism, which I have dealt with previously, although my thinking in how they apply has evolved since then…)

Now, the Bible has much that is good to say about wine. As something created by God, it is good and to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth (1 Timothy 4.3-4). Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding at Cana (John 2) and he himself ate and drank, even being labelled a glutton and a drunkard (Matthew 11.19). The meal he instituted to be celebrated in remembrance of himself was a meal of bread and wine. One of the blessings of the new creation will be an abundance of fine wine (e.g. Amos 9.13). Paul’s medical advice to Timothy “to use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments” holds true today: a glass of red wine a day is protective against cardiovascular disease. Wine is good.

Equally, though, drunkeness is condemned in the Bible. We are not to “get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery.” Rather, we are to “be filled with the Spirit.” (Ephesians 5.18). It belongs to the life of the world, not the life of the church: “The time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry,” writes Peter (1 Peter 4.3). It is perhaps something that is overlooked, but habitual drunkenness disqualifies men from the presbyterate, and from other offices of service in the church: “An overseer must be… not a drunkard… Deacons likewise must be… not addicted to much wine.” (1 Timothy 3.2-3, 8). There are all sorts of reasons why drunkenness is wrong. Aside from the fact that God has said it (which should be reason enough), the drunken person is under the control of something other than God, his intoxication makes him more vulnerable to other temptations and more likely to commit other sins, and his behaviour is more likely to make him harm others and himself. In Proverbs 20.1, we learn that “wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler,” and in Proverbs 23.29-35, we have an extended poetic description of the trouble that wine can cause:

Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
Who has strife? Who has complaining?
Who has wounds without cause?
Who has redness of eyes?
Those who tarry long over wine;
those who go to try mixed wine.
Do not look at wine when it is red,
when it sparkles in the cup
and goes down smoothly.
In the end it bites like a serpent
and stings like an adder.
Your eyes will see strange things,
and your heart utter perverse things.
You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea,
like one who lies on the top of a mast.
“They struck me,” you will say, “but I was not hurt;
they beat me, but I did not feel it.
When shall I awake?
I must have another drink.”

It has also been pointed out to me in the past that drunkenness is completely inappropriate for the Christian, saved from God’s wrath by Christ’s death in their place on the cross, because, through the patterns of behaviour it induces, drunkenness is a picture of God’s judgment on the impenitent and unbelieving. So Jeremiah writes:

Thus the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among them.” …

Then you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink, be drunk and vomit, fall and rise no more, because of the sword that I am sending among you.”

- Jeremiah 25.15-16, 27

The Psalmists say a similar thing (Psalm 60.3, 75.8), Isaiah says it (Isaiah 51.17), Habakkuk says it (Habakkuk 2.16) and the angels in heaven say it (Revelation 14.10).

And so the question of where we set our limits is an important one for Christian discipleship and witness. (I do not need to point out that the absolute answer (in terms of units drunk) will, of course, vary from person to person.) Alcohol is a drug and whatever you drink will have an effect on your physiology. It is this that enables wine to fulfil the task for which God created it:

You cause the grass to grow for the livestock
and plants for man to cultivate
that he may bring forth food from the earth
and wine to gladden the heart of man. - Psalm 104.14-15

But at what point does wine’s effect on us cease to be that for which God intended it, and become sinful? In other words, how do we define drunkeness, Biblically? We might go some way to answering that question by thinking of those aspects of behaviour which the Bible portrays negatively in association with alcohol intake. This list is not earth-shattering:

• a lack of awareness of what is going on around us
• inappropriate comments, inappropriate language
• aggressive language and behaviour
• vomiting
• staggering and falling down
• behaving in a way that brings shame upon oneself
• mental instability

(How we can tell with some of these in certain people is of course another issue!)

Does anyone have any other ideas?

Christians and Alcohol

I am aware that this may be a controversial topic. Let me state for the record that I am not opposed to alcohol in and of itself. It is a good gift of God and may be received with thanksgiving (1 Timothy 4.3-4).

This was something that I briefly discussed whilst on Beach Mission with other brothers in Christ and I’d like to share a few thoughts. It seems to me at the moment that in practice, a Christian probably ought not to go to public houses for the purpose of drinking or drink at mixed gatherings (e.g. a formal meal with believers and unbelievers present) or indeed at gatherings of Christians except those small gatherings where one knows everyone present well.

I think there are three reasons for this:

1. Personal holiness
2. The effect on the weak Christian
3. The effect on witness to unbelievers

Regarding the personal holiness issue, drinking alcohol does immediately open up the door to temptation. Drunkeness is a sin. Given the call on the Christian believer not to sin and to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect, to put oneself in that situation is unwise. That might even be a justification for complete abstinence.

Regarding the second point, I’m thinking along the lines of 1 Corinthians 8-9 here. It is not wrong to drink alcohol in and of itself. Yet weaker brothers and sisters may see one drinking or going into or leaving a pub, assume that one is just doing what the world around one is doing (i.e drinking and getting drunk) and so do it themselves, thinking it acceptable. Or, they could have doubts, but one’s example might cause them to act in a way that wounds their conscience and make them stumble.

There is of course the issue of alcoholics who have been converted. Exposure to a culture in which Christians regularly drink alcohol, however moderately, may encourage them to drink and lead them down the road of alcoholism again.

Concerning the third point, I can see the argument that says that going into a pub and even drinking alcohol is a good witness because it shows that one is normal, that one can have a good time without falling into excess, and actually, it’s a good way of building friendships to share the gospel.

Point one notwithstanding, I would like to question that reasoning. If one goes to the pub, do non-Christians (friends or not) actually notice that one is not drinking or, if one is, that one isn’t getting drunk. In many cases, I guess not. In the eyes of the world one is just going along with the crowd and doing whet everyone else is doing, i.e. drinking and even getting slightly drunk. This can be to the serious detriment of Christian witness: where then is the distinctive Christian life, and the transformation that the gospel, however gradually, produces in one’s life. Besides which, there are plenty of other ways one can get to know non-Christians, and there are other methods of evangelism than friendship evangelism.

Just a few further comments: I think going to pubs for a meal is different, though one still has to be careful. In that instance, it is essentially a restaurant and does not carry with it the assumptions of the lounge bar.

Whatever the Biblical testimony is, we have to remember that distillation techniques haven’t remained stationary for the past two millennia or more. Our alcohol is considerably stronger than the alcohol they drank in Biblical times. I don’t want to push that as far as some Christian groups have, though.

Finally, why do we feel the need to drink alcohol now? Can’t we just wait? Amos 9.13ff, pointing forward to the New Creation, says:

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD,
“when the ploughman shall overtake the reaper
and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed;
the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
and all the hills shall flow with it.
I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,
and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,
and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.
I will plant them on their land,
and they shall never again be uprooted
out of the land that I have given them,”
says the LORD your God.