One of the questions we’ve all been faced with in our walk with the Lord is whether it is right for us as believers to partake in alcoholic beverages. I have been told many times by other Christians who like to have a glass of wine or a beer that, as long as I do not become intoxicated, that God allows it. “After all,” they say, “Didn’t Jesus Himself drink wine and even turned water into wine for guests to drink at a wedding in Cana of Galilee” (see John 2:1-10). Well, the answer to both of those questions is “Yes, Jesus did drink wine and his first miracle was indeed turning water into wine at a wedding.” And there was even an occasion where Jesus’ enemies tried to classify Him as a ‘winebibber’ (a wino – see Luke 7:34). Well the truth is that the Bible does not prohibit the use of wine and sometimes even encourages its use, such as when Paul instructed Timothy to “Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for the stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.” (I Timothy 5:25). So I am in agreement with my Christian friends that say that as long as one does not get inebriated, the Bible does not prohibit the drinking of wine.
But drunkenness is another issue as it is consistently condemned in both the Old and the New Testament, and even listed among the sins of those who will not inherit the Kingdom of God engage in (see I Corinthians 6:10, Galatians 5:21). So, what do we do if we have been guilty of committing this sin? Well it is like any other sin that a Christian might commit, that “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9). Of course, that doesn’t mean that we can continue in that sin and it becomes the pattern of our lives. For those, it almost certainly means he is not born of the Spirit. But the question that anyone truly interested in knowing the will of God must ask themselves is this, “What did Jesus really do?” Remember, we are supposed to be His followers, people who mimic His behavior. So, here are the facts.
In Scripture there are 3 words in both the Old and the New Testament that are translated ‘wine’. In the Old Testament the Hebrew word ‘shekar’ is used 22 times and is translated as ‘strong drink’, and its New Testament equivalent is the word ‘sikera’ which is used only once. These two words refer to intoxicating beverages like the wines or other liquors sold today. There is almost no instance in Scripture where partaking in this kind of beverage is allowed. We see it used in Proverbs 20:1 that says, “Wine is a mocker, strong drink (shekar) is a raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.” The only place it is used in the New Testament is in Luke 1:15, where it says that John the Baptist was to drink no wine or strong drink, as he was being separated unto God.
The next words used in Scripture that are translated “wine” are, in the Old Testament ‘tirosh’ (38 times) and in the New, ‘gluekos’ (once) and they refer to ‘new wine,’ being from grapes freshly picked.
The last, and by far the most translated Hebrew and Greek words into ‘wine’ in the Bible are ‘yayin’ (OT – 133 times) and ‘oinos’ (NT – 33 times). Oinos is the Greek word used when Jesus turned water into wine. So what is the difference, you might ask? Well, the wine from the word ‘oinos’ and ‘yayin’ aways referred to wine that was either mixed and had almost no alcoholic content in it. In studying both Barnes Notes and John MacArthur’s commentary, it is obvious that this was the kind of wine used almost exclusively by Christ and by His followers. This is substantiated in an early Christian work called “The Apostolic Tradition.” The sweet wine was almost always mixed down to a point where the alcohol content was no higher than 2.25-2.75%, well below the 3.2% that is considered an alcoholic beverage today. The other wine (oinos) was usually taken from grapes that had been boiled into a syrup and stored, then mixed with water, as this was healthier than the water by itself in that day and it was completely non-intoxicating.
The only other problem is our witness to others. So, even if one is able to drink so moderately that it has no effect on him, if you influence others to drink and they wind up an alcoholic, you have played a part in their sin, which is something no Christian should want to do. But either way, if you do decide to partake of the bubbly, don’t try to justify it by saying that this is what Jesus did, because based on Scriptural usage, the wine He drank was not the same beverage that is being sold in grocery stores today.
For God’s glory and His alone,
Pastor Terry.