Is it okay for Christians to drink alcohol? Did Jesus make and drink alcoholic wine?
First and most important is what does the Bible say about alcohol?
Proverbs 31:4-7- 4 It is not for kings, O Lemuel, It is not for kings to drink wine, Nor for princes intoxicating drink; 5 Lest they drink and forget the law, And pervert the justice of all the afflicted. 6 Give strong drink to him who is perishing, And wine to those who are bitter of heart. 7 Let him drink and forget his poverty, And remember his misery no more.
Proverbs 20:1 "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.
Leviticus 10:8-9 Then the LORD spoke to Aaron, saying: 9 “Do not drink wine or intoxicating drink, you, nor your sons with you, when you go into the tabernacle of meeting, lest you die. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations
Proverbs 21:17 -He who loves pleasure will be a poor man; He who loves wine and oil will not be rich.
Proverbs 23:29-30- Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? 30 Those who linger long at the wine, Those who go in search of mixed wine.
Isaiah 5:11-11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning, That they may follow intoxicating drink; Who continue until night, till wine inflames them!
Isaiah 5:22-23 -22 Woe to men mighty at drinking wine, Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink, 23 Who justify the wicked for a bribe, And take away justice from the righteous man!
Habakkuk 2:15 - 15 “Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, Pressing him to your bottle, Even to make him drunk, That you may look on his nakedness!
Romans 14:21 -21 It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak.
Ephesians 5:18 -18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit
1 Timothy 3:2-3 - 2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; 3 not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous;
1 Timothy 5:23 -23 No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach’s sake and your frequent infirmities. (actually does not refer to alcoholic wine. It says it is to be drunk for Timothy's stomach's sake. Any doctor will tell you that alcohol is not good for stomach problems)
These are only a few of the verses that speak of wine in the Bible. There are actually a ton of them. The context will always show when "wine" refers to an alcoholic beverage in scripture. Also, the word "wine" sometimes means fresh grape juice.
2 Chronicles 31:5 is similar. "The children of Israel brought in abundance the first fruits of corn, wine, and oil, and honey and of all the increase of the field." The word first fruits shows that they brought in the very first things that became ripe. Also, the verse begins with the words, "As soon as the commandment came abroad, the children of Israel brought in..." There was no time for an aging process which would turn grape juice into alcoholic wine; yet, he calls it wine.
Nehemiah 13:15 has the same meaning. "In those days saw I in Judah some treading wine presses on the sabbath." They were squeezing the juice from the grapes, yet he called it a wine press. Everyone knows that one does not get alcoholic wine from squeezing grapes.
You may also study the Hebrew and Greek meaning of the word wine in particular scriptures. For example, Yayin is a general term for every drink made from grape juice (Nehemiah 5:18). Chemer means foaming from the vat in Isaiah 16:10. Dema means Juice (literally “tears”) in Jeremiah 48:33. Sobe is juice concentrated to a syrup in Proverbs 9:2,5. Shekar is strong drink made from a variety of products, such as grapes, dates, or barley as in Proverbs 5:22 and 20:1. Tirosh is defined as grape juice in many passages as Proverbs 3:10, Isaiah 65:8, and Joel 2:24.
Thus, when defining the word wine in the Bible we must look at the context of the passage, the Hebrew and Greek definitions, and we must ensure we look at scripture in relation to other scripture so as not to take one verse alone to build a conclusion.
Jesus did not drink or make alcoholic wine
Jesus is Holy. In Hebrews 7:26, we read that the Lord Jesus is "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners." Since the Lord Jesus Christ was "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners," we may safely assume that He would not make that which is called in scripture a mocker and deceiver of man, causing untold misery.
Jesus would not contradict scripture. In Matthew 5:17-18, Christ made this clear, saying, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Christ would not have contradicted Habakkuk 2:15 as cited above. He would not have given his neighbor alcohol to drink.
Leviticus 10:9-11 commands the priest of God, "Do not drink wine nor strong drink...that you may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean; and that you may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord hath spoken..." Now, since Hebrews 2:17 calls Christ "a merciful and faithful high priest," we would expect Him to obey all scriptures pertaining to that office. If He had made or drunk alcoholic wine, He would have disobeyed these verses. This cannot be true!
In Proverbs 31:4-5 kings and princes are prohibited from drinking alcoholic wine or any other strong drink. If they had done so, their judgment would have been perverted. Christ is called the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) and the King of Kings (Revelation 19:16). No, He would not have drunk any alcoholic wine.
Christ did not come to mock or deceive people, yet Proverbs 20:1 says that wine does both. Rather than coming to mock or deceive, He came to save!
He did not come to send people to hell. Isaiah 5:11-14 teaches that hell had to be enlarged because of the drinking of alcoholic beverage. Christ did not come to send people to hell.
Romans 14:21 teaches that a person who gives another alcoholic wine causes a stumbling block…. "It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbles, or is offended, or is made weak." Everyone who has studied the problem of alcoholism has learned that some people cannot handle any amount of alcohol, while others may drink one or two "social" drinks and stop. In any given group of people, there would be several potential alcoholics. Christ would not give anything to anyone that might cause them to stumble.
In John chapter 2, the miracle of turning water into wine, does not require that it be alcoholic. Many insist that it was, on the basis of verse 10, which says, “And he said to him, Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!” John 2:10 They would say that, in those days, it was common to serve the best alcoholic wine at first, saving the worst until later, when men's taste had been dulled by much drinking. But the point is just the opposite here! These people could definitely recognize that the wine, which Jesus made, was much better than what they had been served at first. This could not have been possible, if they were already well on their way to becoming intoxicated! The fact is, neither the wine that they had at first, nor that which Christ made, was alcoholic.
The Lord Jesus Christ would not have gotten glory from making drunk people drunker. Verse 2:11 is most important when it states that, “This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.” Verse 10 indicates that the people had drunk quite a bit of whatever kind of wine they were drinking. If it had been alcoholic, they would have been intoxicated, or nearly so. Had Christ made alcoholic wine, He would have made drunk people drunker, or almost-drunk people completely drunk! Such a deed would certainly not have manifested any glory to Him!
Making drunk people drunker would not have caused his disciples to believe more strongly on him, yet verse 11 says that, as a result of what He did in turning the water into wine, "his disciples believed on him." John 1:41 shows that they had already believed on Him as Messiah; this was a deepening of their faith and a proof that they had not been wrong. Would making drunk people drunker inspire such faith?
Last, Romans 14:21 clearly teaches that Christians should totally abstain, the reason being that it is good "neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbles, or is offended, or is made weak." We have already seen that people may be potential alcoholics. By the social drinking of alcohol, one might encourage a person to start drinking, who would not be able to stop.