Alcohol and Christian Living

Often we, as Christians, are told that the consumption of alcohol is bad and that we ought not do itthat it is not Christian behavior. This can be confusing to some people because the scriptures say Jesus Himself drank wine. Adding that one of the most familiar of Jesus' miracles is the turning of water into wine makes the allegation that drinking alcohol is a sin seem like an imposing contradiction. The purpose of this article is explore the scripture concerning alcohol and test it against some commonly held beliefs. Additionally, we will examine the possibility that labeling all alcohol consumption as sinful can be harmful to our ministry as followers of Jesus Christ.

Is drinking a sin?

A logical first step in our search for the truth about alcohol is to establish whether or not drinking an alcoholic beverage is a sin. There are people who claim that the Bible explicitly states that Christians are to abstain completely from alcohol. Commonly, these people will try to solidify their claims by citing verses that warn against drunkenness or discuss our call as Christians to lead exemplary lives.

We will begin with the confusion between drinking an alcoholic beverage and drunkenness. To say that the excess, inappropriate timing, or abuse of a thing is the same as that thing is obviously false. Lets try this kind of reasoning:

Too much rain causes flooding.
Flooding is bad.
Therefore, rain is bad.

We can also show by scriptural example that the logic used to say that these two things, drinking and drunkenness, are the same does not make sense in other contexts and therefore does not make sense in this context either.

Take the following scripture from the book of Proverbs: "Do not be with heavy drinkers of wine, Or with gluttonous eaters of meat;"- Proverbs 23:20 (NAS)

It is obvious from reading the verse that heavy drinking of wine is not a wholesome thing because we are told to stay away from the people doing it. It is the amount of wine being consumed that is the problem, not the drinking of wine itself. To use a verse like this, which shows us that drinking too much wine is bad, to say that drinking any wine is bad is illogical. This can be observed by applying the same logic to the second half of the verse above: Gluttonous eating of meat is bad, therefore eating meat is bad.

A quote from C.S. Lewis will wrap up the thoughts above nicely:

"One great piece of mischief has been done by the modern restriction

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