QUESTION ABOUT WINE (ALCOHOL) From: Brother D. Z. M.

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Eric Aboadwe
February 8 ·

QUESTION ABOUNT WINE (ALCOHOL)

From: Brother D. Z. M.

QUESTION:

Hello Brother,could You please explain to me "Drink no longer water, but use a little WINE for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities." (1 Timothy 5:23).

ANSWER:

O.K. Brother, thanks for your question. If the Apostle Paul tells Timothy to drink “WINE” for his stomach “infirmities,” then it is obvious that “WINE” has some medicinal properties and for that matter it has some health benefits.

WINE or ALCOHOL for example is not actually bad in itself, but taking too much of it is what makes it harmful and bad. Some are STRONG drinks, and they can make you intoxicated (booze), loose control, and it can also induce you to speak and do abnormal things. It can actually destroy one’s liver when he drinks it profusely (too much) and continuously.

Therefore when Paul told Timothy to use a little “WINE” for his “stomach's” sake and for his “infirmities,” it shows that “WINE” can strengthen a loosed stomach depending on the type of “WINE”. When one has a loosed stomach or a running stomach, he can become weakened when he passes a lot of stool (faeces). But a little “WINE” (not too much) could strengthen a person who is suffering from “infirmities” as a result of a loosed stomach.

Let me also add that there are many Christians who think that when they stay away from “WINE” or ALCOHOL consumption, they are “RIGHTEOUS,” but those who drink it are “SINNERS.” However, human beings are not “SINNERS” just because they drank ALCOHOL, and neither can anyone become “RIGHTEOUS” just by staying away from ALCOHOL. Human beings are “SINNERS” because they were born with it (Psalm 51:5).

When the LAW of God tells us to abstain from certain things, it is for our own good. That's why the Apostle Paul said that "Therefore the LAW is holy, and the COMMANDMENT holy and just and GOOD" (Romans 7:12). But the reason why humans cannot obey the written code is because they were already born SINNERS by nature. And so we can only become RIGHTEOUS when we are born again of the water and the Spirit of JESUS CHRIST (John 3:5), and not because we are able to abstain from WINE or ALCOHOL.

The Apostle Paul said that, “All things are LAWFUL for me, but all things are not HELPFUL. All things are LAWFUL for me, but I will NOT be brought under the POWER of any” (I Corinthians 6:12). Therefore even though drinking WINE or ALCOHOL is not what makes a born again person a SINNER, he or she should not be “brought under the POWER of” any WINE or ALCOHOLIC beverage to the extent that he or she cannot control himself.

It is all about the state of mind by which somebody drinks it. That’s why the Apostle Paul once again wrote that, “Do you have FAITH? Have it to yourself before God. HAPPY is he who does not CONDEMN himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is CONDEMNED if he eats, because he does not eat from FAITH; for whatever is not from FAITH is SIN” (Romans 14:22-23). This also applies to drinks. But it does not mean that if one has “FAITH” and he believes that he can eat anything or drink 10 bottles of WINE, then he can do so.

Paul was actually speaking about conscience. That’s why he said that for him, he is “CONVINCED that there is nothing unclean of itself; but to him who considers anything to be UNCLEAN, to him it is UNCLEAN” (Romans 14:14). Somebody may desist or refrain from WINE for good reasons, and somebody may also take WINE for good reasons.

For example, when God told the Nazarites to abstain from WINE (Numbers 6:3), it was for a good reason, and when JESUS turned water into WINE for the attendants of the wedding in Cana of Galilee to drink (John 2:1-10), it was also for a good reason. However, the problem is that human beings are abusers, and so they abuse things in an improper way and in an excessive use.

All these is due to the SINFUL NATURE of man. And so all humans are the same, but SELF-RIGHTEOUS people judge others by their own human standards according to do’s and don’ts. However the human criterion of judging SIN according to one’sown standard is even a SIN in itself. This because God says His WAYS are higher than our ways, and His THOUGHTS are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9).

But there are too many Christians who have subjected themselves to so many regulations for the WRONG reasons (judging others). But the Scriptures tells us that, “So let no one JUDGE you in FOOD or DRINK, or regarding a festival or a new moon or SABBATHS, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of CHRIST” (Colossians 2:16). So here the Bible says that you must no allow anyone to “JUDGE” you in food or “DRINK.” What matters most before God is our “FAITH” in being born again of His water and the Spirit (John 3:5).

The Scriptures even goes further to encourage us in our spiritual FAITH. Therefore it says, “Therefore, if you DIED with CHRIST from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you SUBJECT yourselves to REGULATIONS – “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” which PERISH with the using – according to the COMMANDMENTS and DOCTRINES of men?” (Colossians 2:20-21).

Therefore those who claim that if you stay away from WINE or ALCOHOL, and you “SUBJECT” yourself to “REGULATIONS” are nothing more than RELIGIONS bodies who seek the approbation (approval) of God through their own “WORKS”. That’s why the Apostle Paul added in the same chapter of Colossians by saying that, “These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed RELIGION, false HUMILITY, and neglect of the body, but are of NO VALUE against the indulgence of the FLESH” (Colossians 2:23).

Here when Paul says that “self imposed RELIGION” which is full of regulations have “NO VALUE” against the “indulgences” of the human “FLESH.” So Paul was saying that “the FLESH profits nothing” as our Lord told us (John 6:63). Therefore Paul made another statement that, “Food does not COMMEND us to God; for neither if we EAT are we BETTER, nor if we do not eat are we the WORSE. But BEWARE lest somehow this LIBERTY of yours become a stumbling block to those who are WEAK” (1 Corinthians 8:8-9).

From the above passage, Paul was saying that we don’t have to use our “LIBERTY” in the gospel of His “RIGHTEOUSNESS” to do things which makes others feel morally offensive or stumble for “conscience” sake. But it also does not mean that we must live to PLEASE others by enslaving ourselves. That’s why the LORD said, “Woe to you when all men speak WELL of you, for so did their fathers to the prophets” (Luke 6:26).

So that is how it is my Brother.

Remain BLESSED