Drinking Intoxicating Beverages (Part IV)

Drinking Intoxicating Beverages - Part 4
By Allan E. McNabb

This week we continue our study on intoxicating beverages. Since teenagers originally asked me about drinking alcohol, I’ve tried to make these points meaningful to them.

Review
In the first article, we learned it’s a sin to be intoxicated, concluding we shouldn’t participate in drinking to any degree.

“Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness” (2 Cor. 6:14)?
“Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them” (Eph. 5:11).
“Abstain from every form of evil” (1 Th. 5:22).

In the second article, we learned it’s a sin to go to drinking parties, whether we drink or not.

“For 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, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries” (1 Pet. 4:3).

Then we learned that drinking alcohol (ethanol) is sinful, because it harms our bodies.

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:19-20).

In the third article, we learned that first century wine was significantly diluted with water, after which it had about the same alcoholic content of non-alcoholic wine today.

Jesus Turned Water To Wine
Some people argue that it’s okay to drink alcoholic beverages, based on the fact that Jesus made wine at a marriage feast in Cana (John 2:1-11).

Other people believe Jesus wouldn’t have made alcoholic wine, because it would be a sin to contribute to drunkenness. They believe Jesus made grape juice, rather than alcoholic wine. But the fact is, we don’t know whether the wine was fermented or unfermented, or whether it had alcohol.

For the sake of argument, let’s say the wine (Greek, oinos) Jesus made was naturally fermented for at least forty days, according to tradition:

If it was fermented wine with an alcohol content, it would be mixed with water, as we’ve already learned. Notice that Jesus had the servants take the wine to the headwaiter (Jn. 2:8), whose traditional job was to taste the wine and mix it with the appropriate amount of water before serving it.
If it was fermented wine, mixed with water, it would have an alcohol content of about 1%, making it comparable to our non-alcoholic wine today.

From Jesus turning water to wine, twenty-first century Christians can conclude it’s lawful to drink grape juice or non-alcoholic wine. We can’t conclude it’s lawful to drink what’s considered to be alcoholic wine, or any other alcoholic beverage.

Use A Little Wine For Your Stomach’s Sake
In Paul’s first epistle to Timothy, he says, “No longer drink water exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments” (1 Tim. 5:23).

Remember, wine was mixed with water.

Some people use this passage to justify drinking twenty-first century alcoholic wine, and other alcoholic beverages. But when we examine this Scripture, we see that such conclusions are unfounded.

Here are a few things we learn from the context of 1 Timothy 5:23:

Timothy wasn’t drinking wine at the time of Paul’s writing.
Remember, wine was mixed with water.
Paul told him to “use” wine. Timothy’s use of wine was not recreational, but for the specific purpose of relieving his “frequent ailments.”
The use of wine was on par with medicine, to relieve ailments.
Paul told him to use a “little wine,” not a lot of wine
Traditionally, a very small amount of wine was mixed with water, “only one-third or one-fourth of the total mixture being wine” (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia).
In Revelation 14:10, John uses a phrase associated with mixing wine with water, as we’ve already discussed.

Now let’s apply the principles of 1 Timothy 5:23 to twenty-first century Christians:

We should avoid drinking wine.
We have good water quality and readily accessible medicine in the USA. There is no need to “use” wine for “frequent ailments.”
If people in a particular area of the world need to “use” wine as medicine because of poor water or their infirmities, a small amount of low-alcohol wine could be used to relieve their “ailments.”
The wine Timothy drank, which was mixed with water, had the alcoholic content of twenty-first century non-alcoholic wine.

Paul’s command to Timothy does not authorize Christians to drink alcoholic wine, as we think of it in the twenty-first century. At most, it authorizes Christians to drink grape juice and non-alcoholic wine.

To be continued.