Many people recognize the immense societal problem caused by alcohol and drug abuse. However, in order to understand not only the societal but also the spiritual dimensions of the problem, one must investigate the teaching of the Word of God on the subject. Though the Bible does not specifically condemn, by name, such things as marijuana, heroin, cocaine, “acid,” or other drugs in modern use, it does condemn them in principle. In other words, when “drunkenness” is condemned in the Scriptures that principle is understood to extend to all mind altering, addictive drugs. Therefore, the child of God should abstain from all social, recreational, and entertainment use of alcohol and other drugs to any degree and in any amount. Accordingly, though most of this article is directed toward drinking alcohol, it is intended to include, by implication, the recreational use of all mind-altering, addictive drugs by whatever names they may be called.
Virtually no one challenges the idea that drunkenness is condemned in the Scriptures (Luke 21:34; Romans 13:13; 1 Corinthians 6:10; Galatians 5:21; 1 Peter 4:3). However, some think God condemns certain things just because He wants to take all the “fun” out of life, or because He wants to condemn things for no other purpose than to make people wonder why He condemns them. Nothing could be further from the truth! God has very good reasons for condemning the practice of certain things, especially drunkenness. Simply stated, drunkenness is condemned because it involves a series of consequences which are detrimental to righteous and godly living.
Even though this passage was written 2700 years ago, it still holds true today. People who indulge in alcoholic beverages “stumble in judgment.” W. D. Jeffcoat, author of The Bible and “Social” Drinking, says: “. . every increase of alcohol in the blood progressively suppresses the operation of those areas of the brain on which persons depend for clear insights and rational decisions” (p. 90). Undoubtedly, “clear insights and rational decisions” is another way of describing “judgment.” Jeffcoat also says it is that area of the brain where clear insights and rational decisions originate which is first affected by alcohol, long before the more obvious signs of drunkenness, such as slurred speech and loss of balance, occur (p. 86-92). In other words, a drinker of alcohol actually “stumbles in judgment” before he begins to “stumble in walking.” Therefore, he does not have to be “stone drunk” to come under the same condemnation as the wayward priests and prophets of Isaiah’s day.
The Bible teaches that judgment is a characteristic to be cultivated, not compromised. Notice the words of Paul in Philippians 1:9: “And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment.” The word “judgment” here means “perception, discernment” (Vine, p. 622). Notice that Christians, by increasing in the knowledge of God’s will, are urged to develop and cultivate this attribute. Paul enjoins a similar idea in Hebrews 5:12. He says that Christians are to advance to “full age” by using the “strong meat” of the Word. Those who so do, he says, will “have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” The word “discern” is defined as “a distinguishing, a clear discrimination, discerning, judging” (Vine, p. 317).
Although it is true that the terms “judgment” and “discernment” are used in the Bible in a broader sense than merely the absence of alcohol intoxication, there is no doubt consumption of alcohol involves a compromise of these principles. In fact, the decision to take that first drink or experiment with drugs for the first time, indicates a lack of judgment and discernment, in the biblical sense of the terms, to begin with’ The individual who ignores the Bible’s condemnation of intoxicants in order to indulge in alcohol or any other drug shows a critical weakness in the biblical attributes of sound judgment and discernment The actual consumption, then, only serves to further weaken and finally destroy one’s “right mind”
Second, drunkenness is wrong because it steals away the drinker’s self-control Again, Jeffcoat says, the desire for alcohol increases with “indulgence” (p 90) In other words, the more alcohol one drinks, the more one desires to drink, and thus the virtue of self-control is weakened along with judgment In 2 Peter 1:5-6,Peter wrote, “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance” The apostle says that Christians must make “temperance” a part of their character. It is important to note that the word temperance in this passage does not refer to moderate “social drinking.” Rather, it literally means “self-control” and is so translated in the American Standard Version (Vine, p 1137). To say the least, it is sinful to indulge in the consumption of a substance which has the inherent ability to weaken or compromise this virtue!
Again, to make the decision to take the first drink or to experiment with drugs indicates a weakness in self-control to start with. In other words, to argue that drunkenness is wrong because it steals away the drinker’s self-control is not to say this virtue remains completely in tact right up to the moment the alcohol begins to take affect Actually, self- control in the biblical sense of the term is already lacking in the person who makes the decision to indulge. Then to follow through with that decision and begin partaking of mind altering substances only serves to further deteriorate and finally destroy self-control.
Third, after self-control is destroyed, the drinker is defenseless against other sins. Proverbs 25 28 says, “Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control” (NW). The principle here is based on the ancient practice of building cities surrounded by high fortified walls The purpose of this practice was to protect the inhabitants of the city from thieves, wild animals, and armies of the enemy. If somehow the walls were broken down, the city was vulnerable to plunder and destruction. The lesson is that a man without self-control is like that city. He has nothing to protect him against the attacks of the enemy of righteousness --- the Devil.
No doubt, the effect of alcohol consumption is to erode the “walls” of self control. How many fights and brawls, acts of fornication, adultery child abuse, and sometimes even murder, have been committed by people under the influence of alcohol or drugs who otherwise would have never dreamed of doing such things? Countless lives have been ruined when some foolish act was committed while judgment and rational thinking were destroyed and the “walls of self-control” were broken down by just one night of “good times.”
Fourth, prolonged indulgence (in some cases only brief indulgence) leads to addiction. No one starts drinking with the ambition of becoming an alcoholic, yet 200,000 people per year become just that (McGuiggan, p.26). In the United States, according to the National Council on Alcoholism, there are nearly ten million alcoholics (Strack, p. 40). The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism estimates that 19 percent of adolescents or 3.3 million young people ages 14-17, are problem drinkers (p. 43). The fact that alcohol is highly addictive, socially acceptable, and legally approved in America makes it unlikely that these frightening statistics will change much in the near future (McGuiggan, p. 26-27).
However, the Apostle Paul said in Romans 6:12, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.” He also said he would not be “brought under the power [or control—DGI]of any” substance (1 Corinthians 6:12). Without question, drugs and alcohol “reign over” many of those who use them. Addictive substances have the ability to bring people “under their power.” Therefore, one should never even begin to experiment with that which has enslaved so many people.
Fifth, alcohol and drugs have led countless millions to physical and spiritual ruin. Proverbs 23:29 says, “Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.” The writer of Proverbs describes the deplorable and lamentable condition of chronic users of alcohol. Modem research has shown that prolonged alcohol abuse is linked with cirrhosis of the liver, brain damage, nerve damage, pancreas damage, impairment of resistance to infection, as well as other life threatening diseases (Strack, p. 44). In fact, Dr. Parran, a former Surgeon General of the United States, said, “Alcohol is the major cause of insanity, and poisoning from it causes more deaths than from all our most infectious diseases” (McGuiggan, p. 31).
However, modern research is not the first to discover that alcohol works as a poison upon its users. More than three thousand years ago, Moses said in Deuteronomy 32:32, “Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.” No one in their right mind would deliberately, knowingly drink a cup of rattlesnake venom. Yet, every day millions of people imbibe alcoholic beverages, which have been shown time and again to have consequences at least as bad as, and sometimes even worse than, drinking the “venom of asps”!
Nevertheless, spiritual ruin is the most devastating of all caused by alcohol and drug abuse. The apostle Paul said in Galatians 5:21 that those who participate in “drunkenness. . . shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” As one would expect, this spiritual ruin is never mentioned by people in the secular community who are fighting the current “war on drugs.” To illustrate, a few years ago a former First Lady of the United States, began the “Just say ‘No’ to Drugs” campaign. This campaign was designed to urge young and old alike to abstain from the use of drugs. Since then, many organizations, led by concerned and well-meaning people, have used the slogan for the same purpose. They encourage people to abstain from drugs by educating them concerning all of the terrible things that can happen to people who use them. However, such organizations focus entirely on the temporal, earthly consequences of abuse, as if there were no eternal, spiritual consequences. That is why the church of our Lord must resound the words of the apostle that those who do such things “shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Indeed, no greater ruin can be imagined than spiritual ruin, the eternal loss of the soul!
Interestingly, alcohol is the only drug with which people use this kind of reasoning. For example, it is not commonplace to hear someone say, “It is all right to smoke marijuana, or to use cocaine, acid, or heroin, as long as you don’t use too much and get high.” This statement sounds ridiculous to most people, even to those who frequently use such drugs. Yet strangely, the statement, “It is all right to drink alcoholic beverages as long as you don’t get drunk” is widely accepted. In fact, even a member of the church of Christ, a leader and teacher in the congregation of which he was a part, (a congregation not in fellowship with the author) was heard to say on one occasion that he believed it was acceptable to drink socially as long as one doesn’t reach the point of drunkenness.
However, the idea of drinking “socially” without drunkenness is at variance with the Scriptures. In Ephesians 5:18, the Apostle Paul said, “Be not drunk with wine.” The Holy Spirit here directed Paul to use a verb (methusko) translated “drunk” in the King James Version, which is defined by W. E. Vine as follows: “to make drunk, or to grow drunk (an inceptive verb, marking the process of the state expressed in methuo [drunkenness]), to become intoxicated” (p. 343, emphasis mine—DC). Thus, according to this definition drunkenness is a “process,” a matter of degree, and not merely a “state.” This point is important because most social drinkers argue that a person is not really drunk until he or she reaches the stage of excessive drunkenness where slurred speech and loss of equilibrium occur. Such people reason that a person can drink any amount of alcoholic beverage socially, as long as they don’t reach the “falling down drunk” stage. But as previously shown, a drinker is under the influence of alcohol and is thus “drunk” through the impairment of sober judgment and sound reasoning long before the more progressive stages of drunkenness are manifested.
To illustrate further, even modern English dictionaries reflect the idea that drunkenness involves a whole range of progressive stages. Notice the following definition of the word “intoxicate”: “1. To induce, esp. by the effect of ingested alcohol, any of a series of progressively deteriorating states, ranging from exhilaration to stupefaction” (The American Heritage Dictionary, p. 673, emphasis mine—DC). Thus, the words “drunk” and “intoxicate” refer to a “series of progressively deteriorating states,” ranging from the very earliest to the most advanced stages of drunkenness, and not merely to an extreme state reached only after a person has gone “over the edge” by consuming a large quantity of alcohol. Clearly, the affects of alcohol begin when consumption begins, rather than “slipping up” on the drinker all at once after an extended period of imbibing.
One might object this argument because the logical conclusion of it would prove that a person is drunk after swallowing only one mouthful of beer. This objection has been raised by many people. However, such questions as to whether or not a person will be condemned for drinking one swallow of beer is beside the issue. (Realistically, how many social drinking situations are there in which a person will drink only one swallow of beer anyway?) Rather, the salient point to be gathered from the above argument is that drunkenness involves a process, and thus the child of Cod should avoid that which sets the process into motion! Since drinking alcoholic beverages is that which sets the process into motion, it follows that the child of Cod should abstain from drinking alcoholic beverages for merely social and recreational purposes to any degree and in any amount! (For a more complete definition of drunkenness, see “Drunkenness: A Bible Definition” by Ron Courter in the 1990 Preachers’ Study Notes).
One reason for rejecting the “water to wine” argument is that it assumes “wine” in the Bible always refers to a fermented, alcoholic beverage. This assumption is untrue and easily refuted. Though twentieth century English speaking people generally use the word wine in the qualified sense of alcoholic wine, the Bible uses the word in a more general sense, including many different products from grapes. To illustrate, Nehemiah 5:18 makes reference to “all sorts of wine.” This statement indicates there is more than one type of substance in the Bible which comes under the heading of “wine.” Other passages teach that at least one of the “sorts of wine” in the Bible is, in fact, the unfermented juice of the grape. For example, Isaiah 65:8 says, “the new wine is found in the cluster.” Notice that the juice in the cluster was called “wine.” Fermented wine, however, has never been found already made inside of grapes (Patton, p.17). Yet this passage speaks of a substance inside the cluster, and that substance is called by the word “wine.” Therefore, the word wine does not in every instance refer to the intoxicating variety (though it often does refer to that), because it can refer to unfermented grape juice as well.
That “wine” can refer to either an intoxicating beverage or unfermented grape juice is further supported by the fact that sometimes in the Bible it is spoken of as a blessing and sometimes as a curse. Notice Proverbs 23:31: “Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.” In this passage, the writer of Proverbs speaks of a wine that should not even be looked upon, much less drunk. The wine here referred to is obviously alcoholic wine. On the other hand, Deuteronomy 7:13 speaks of “wine” as a blessing which God promised to the children of Israel: “And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee; He will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land; thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil; the increase of thy kine and the flock of thy sheep, in the land which He sware unto thy fathers to give thee.” Obviously, when wine is spoken of as a curse in one passage and is described as a blessing from God in another passage, two different kinds of wine are under consideration — one which intoxicates, and the other the “pure blood of the grape.” Accordingly, the context must always determine the kind of wine referred to in any given passage. To put it another way, the student of the Bible, when coming upon the word “wine” in the course of study, should not automatically assume that it refers to intoxicating, fermented wine.
In John 2, then, where Jesus turned water into wine, the context demands that the wine was unfermented grape juice. This assertion is supported by the fact that Jesus committed no sin and performed no act, especially by His miraculous power, that would be out of harmony with the will of God. Notice, Jesus was the divine Son of God. The Scriptures describe Him as “holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners”; one “who did no sin,” was “without no sin,” and did always those things that pleased the Father (Hebrews 4:15; 7:26; 1 Peter 2:22; John 8:29). In addition, He was obviously well acquainted with the Old Testament Scriptures. When He was at the young age of twelve, He confounded the people in Jerusalem with His knowledge of the Bible (Luke 2:47). Moreover, throughout His ministry He constantly quoted the Old Testament Sculptures from memory (Matthew 4:4, 7, 10, Mark 7:6-7). It is beyond all doubt, therefore, that at the time of the events at the wedding feast in Cana, Jesus was familiar with the teaching of such passages as Habakkuk 2:15: “Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest the bottle to him, and makest him drunk.” Who can doubt that if Jesus had supplied intoxicating wine to the people at the wedding feast, it would have been a violation of the principle in this passage? Who then can believe that Jesus would have violated that principle? Indeed, it is difficult to believe!
Therefore, knowledge of the fact that “wine” in the Bible can and often does refer to unfermented grape juice, combined with the understanding that Jesus was without sin and was’ well, acquainted with the teaching of the Old Testament Scriptures on the evils of intoxicants, yields the conclusion that the “wine” He made for the wedding guests at Cana was “the pure blood of the grape”! It is unthinkable that He would have used His miraculous power, the purpose of which was to confirm the message of the saving gospel, to produce a substance which has been the cause of immeasurable physical, moral, and spiritual loss. Consequently, the miracle performed by our Lord in John 2 must not be used as a justification for the practice of modern social drinking.
In conclusion, the passages in the Bible that condemn drunkenness apply to excessive alcohol intoxication, social drinking, and also to the recreational use of any other drugs that impair judgment, rational thinking, and responsible behavior. Without question, therefore, the Christian is forbidden to participate. Nevertheless, even after learning the Bible’s warnings on the subject, some people will choose to ignore them. Those who make this choice have a much deeper problem than merely “proving it wrong” will solve. Such people need to be renewed in the spirit of their mind, repent of sin, and turn to God with their whole heart. The pentitent person will then have no doubt about the view that should be taken on this or any other moral issue, having determined to abandon sin and walk in the light of God’s truth!
deceived thereby is not wise”
Proverbs 20:11
The American Heritage Dictionary. Second College Edition (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1985)
Journal of the American Medical Association. “Tobacco, Alcohol, and Other Drug Use Among High School Students—United States, 1991.” 268 (October 1992): pp. 1841-1842.
Jeffcoat, William Dawson. The Bible and “Social” Drinking. (Corinth, Ms.: Robinson Typesetting, 1987)
Mccuiggan, Jim. The Bible, the Saint, and the Liquor Industry. (Lubbock, Tx.: International Bible Resources Inc., 1977)
Patton, William. Bible Wines. (Fort Worth, Texas: Star Publishers, 1976)
Strack, Jay. Drugs and Drinking. (New York: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1985)
Vine, W. E. Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words. (McLean, Virginia Mac Donald Publishing)
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Copyright December 1993
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