Follow-up to sermon on miracle of turning water to wine

In this sermon on John 2:1-11 we dealt briefly with what the Bible says about wine and drinking.  Jesus clearly performed a miracle in John 2:1-11 wherein He turned water - six pots of water - into wine.  I am very concerned that we be clear on what our understanding is of wine and drinking from a Biblical standpoint.

I would like to restate what I taught on Sunday to ensure I am clear on what we see the Bible saying about this topic:

The four points I emphasized in the sermon:

1. The Bible does not prohibit drinking of wine.

2. The Bible does prohibit being drunk (Eph 5:18 and other verses)

3. If you desire to be strong in Christ and a mature Christian believer then you will significantly limit your wine or alcohol consumption – 1 Tim 3 talks of elders being ‘not addicted to wine’.  Proverbs 20:1 says this, ‘Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.’ The more we mature the more we should set aside any and all things that may impede our walk with Christ.  It should be our desire to be fully controlled by the H.S. and choose to be extra careful not to, even inadvertently, allow anything else to control us – including wine. 
If you choose to drink then you need to be extra careful for Scripture makes it clear you are to be fully controlled by God’s Spirit and not by anything else.  Drinking can easily cause you to lose your own judgment, self-discipline, self-control, morals and modesty.  So wisdom says – if your desire is to be Christ-like and to honor and serve Him then extreme moderation (or better abstinence) is the call.  It is clear that Jesus never got drunk for He never sinned and it is clear He never got even a little tipsy for He was always in full and total control before God and men – so why not live like Him?

4. Finally, you need to consider if your drinking of wine may cause others to stumble. Romans 14:21 says, ‘It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.’  Now by weaker brother Paul doesn’t mean having a glass of wine may anger or irritate a long-time Christian religious person so don’t drink – they are not a weaker brother – this passage doesn’t deal with them.  A weaker brother in this passage is one who is a new Christian and has been saved out of a life of indulgence and addiction and Paul says, to consider if by exercising an area of freedom you may cause them temptation – and if so give up your freedom for their benefit.

I did state that my personal belief and strong exhortation to all Christians would be that for the sake of your children and others including new believers you need to seriously consider when, where, how much and why you would participate in wine.  Personally we don’t drink – it is an area of freedom we have decided to basically give up just in case any should see us and think it is good to do this when they might not have self control.  We believe that the wide spread destruction and pain associated with alcohol abuse and the damage it assaults families, marriages, individuals and society with should scream at all of us to not participate.  We cannot understand why any would and would call all to pursue the place of not getting close to anything which might lead one into any sort of bondage, loss of control, sinful activities and which may cause others to stumble. 

For those who wish to look into this a little more here are a couple of good resources I would recommend:

• First a full discussion of what the Bible says about drinking by Pastor John MacArthur.  This is a copy of some of his treatment of Ephesians 5:18 from his commentary on Ephesians.  John does a good job of distinguishing between today’s version of wine or alcohol and that if the Bible and how it was a much more watered down version.  And yet as the later part of this document shows – it was still sufficient to get one drunk and so there was more of a water flavored by the wine drink but there was also wine which was alcoholic even if less potent than ours today. 
  
  This was one of the points I made on Sunday.  The word in our passage translated wine is the Greek word “oinou” which is also the word used in Eph 5:18, 1 Tim 3:8, 5:23, Titus 2:3, Luke 7:33 and has the same root as the word translated ‘drunkenness’ in 1 Peter 4:3.  So although it was not as potent as our wines it still had the danger of resulting in being drunk – so it was wine – not just juice.
  
  Click HERE to read MacArthur’s thoughts.
  
  
• And HERE is a practical explanation by Pastor John Piper as to why he does not drink and why he is strongly recommending those in his church not drink either.  

Finally, here is a good summary of another pastor’s thoughts on this which I think represent my views well …

“Though I cannot in biblical conscience or with biblical grounds say that taking a drink of alcohol is categorically a sin, I think there is clear, firm, and significant biblical evidence for why Christians should absolutely abstain from drinking.  I agree with John MacArthur when he says, “Can I say that it is always a sin to take a drink? No.  Can I say it is almost always ill-advised?  Yes, because it violates the biblical principles of wisdom and witness.”

I would also encourage those who do not drink to avoid being spiritually arrogant towards those who do, as though you are somehow spiritually superior.  Such arrogance is no different that the arrogance of Christian liberty mentioned above.