To Drink or Not To Drink

“It is good neither to eat meat, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby your brother stumbles, or is offended, or is made weak.” Romans 14:21 “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” Matthew 18:6 “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2

I want to make a case for Christian abstinence. My argument will be that consuming alcoholic beverages, beer, or wine, or any alcoholic drink is wrong for a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Two arguments or Biblical presentations will be made. Both are correct in my opinion. The first one you may reject. The second one you cannot reject.

The first Biblical presentation is that the drinking of alcoholic beverages is forbidden in Scripture. A full discussion of this argument is presented in the book Rooted and Grounded in the Word, Chapter VII, and is on this website. Proverbs 23:31 says, “Look not upon the wine when it is red (fermented).” The Bible forbids drinking fermented or intoxicating wine. “Wine” in Scripture can be fermented or unfermented depending on the context. Isaiah 65:8 even calls cluster grapes on the vine as “wine.”

Jesus did not drink intoxicating or fermented wine. The wine at the first miracle in Cana of Galilee was not intoxicating but the most wonderful drink ever created on earth, without alcohol, leaven, or fermentation. Habakkuk 2:15 pronounces a curse on anyone who offers an alcoholic drink to his neighbor. The sinless Son of God would never offer an alcoholic beverage to anyone.

The word “wine” is never used in the New Testament as a Lord’s Supper drink. The words are “fruit of the vine.” The Lord’s Supper drink was unfermented and unleavened just as the bread was unleavened. Alcoholic content wine was not used in the New Testament Lord’s Supper but rather the fruit of the vine, true grape juice.

Both Old and New Testament forbids a believer to drink alcoholic beverages or to give alcoholic beverages to another.

While you may disagree with this first argument against drinking, you cannot disagree with the next.

Drinking for a Christian is wrong because it will cause a weaker brother to stumble. If, if, if, (and I do not for one moment concede the argument), but if the Bible does not forbid consuming alcohol, the principle of Love of Neighbor does forbid it.

Alcohol is an addictive chemical drug. Alcohol destroys lives, health, home, marriages, business, and even nations. Belshazzar the King of Babylon was holding a drunken feast of wine in his palace when God’s “handwriting on the wall” pronounced the judgment of the doom of the King and Babylon.

Many people cannot take just one drink. They cannot drink moderately. If they drink they will become alcoholics. More than one recovering alcoholic has said that if others around them did not drink, they could stop. The moderate Christian drinker causes the alcoholic to stumble. Jesus says it would be better to have a millstone put on your neck and to be cast into the middle of the sea than to cause your brother to stumble.

Perhaps you are a person who can drink without becoming an alcoholic (I have never heard a “social drinker” declare they have never been drunk or to promise they will never get drunk). But, Christian friend, if you drink you will lead others to drink!! Romans 14:21 says it is better not to eat or drink at all than to mar your witness for Christ and cause a weaker brother to stumble.

The Bible is clear on both arguments. The Bible forbids drinking alcoholic beverages. The Bible’s highest principle of Love of Neighbor will surely lead the Christian to set aside the consumption of alcohol.

“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” I Corinthians 10:31