Dear Editor,
Sometimes you hear religious persons say that it is wrong to drink alcohol. Is that really so?
What do the scriptures teach? Proverbs 23:20 states: “Be not among winebibbers.”
Winebibbers are persons who drink too much wine. So, God condemns drinking too much wine or alcohol.
Thus, in the next verse, Proverbs 23:21, God says that the drunkard will come to poverty. But drinking a little alcohol, not getting drunk, is alright if one chooses to as proven at 1 Timothy 5:23.
God’s servant Noah drank too much wine and even got drunk as Genesis 9:21 mentions.
His getting drunk meant that the wine had alcohol. Of course, Noah did not have God’s law condemning drunkenness at that time. Deuteronomy 14:26 shows that wine and strong drinks were used by the Israelites, God’s people back then.
Later, Jesus turned water into wine at a Christian wedding.
At 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, drunkards are among the list of negative characteristics of persons who will not inherit God’s kingdom. Hence, God’s word condemns getting drunk. But it indicates clearly that a Christian and anyone else can drink a little alcohol without getting drunk. It is not a sin to drink alcohol in moderation.
– Simeon James
