What does the Bible say about drinking alcohol?

The Church & Christian LifeIn theological review

The short answer

The Bible condemns drunkenness plainly and repeatedly, and it also presents wine as a normal part of life in its world, including at Jesus' first miracle and in Paul's advice to Timothy. It never commands total abstinence for all believers, and it binds every believer not to cause a brother to stumble. Wisdom, self control and love for others govern what freedom may do.

The fuller answer

Hold the two strands together, because the Bible does. Drunkenness is condemned without qualification: it is listed among the works of the flesh, congregations are warned against it, and Paul commands believers not to get drunk with wine, contrasting it with being filled with the Spirit. The Proverbs picture the drunkard's end with uncomfortable realism and call wine a mocker. No honest reading can soften any of that. A pattern of drunkenness in a professing Christian is not a lifestyle question to be affirmed; in the New Testament it is a mark that something is deeply wrong and needs the church's care and correction.

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to reckless indiscretion. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.

Ephesians 5:18 (BSB)

And yet wine itself is not treated as evil. Jesus' first sign in John's Gospel is turning water into wine, in quantity, at a wedding feast, and the steward calls it the good wine. Paul advises Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach's sake. The Psalms thank God for wine that gladdens the heart, and the same Bible that condemns drunkenness uses vineyards and harvests as pictures of blessing. This is why the church through most of its history has refused to make abstinence a test of faithfulness, while many individual Christians and some churches practise it, and that choice deserves respect rather than correction.

On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and His disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother said to Him, “They have no more wine.” “Woman, what is that to you and to Me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.” Now six stone water jars had been set there for the Jewish rites of purification. Each could hold from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus told the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them to the brim. “Now draw some out,” He said, “and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not know where it was from, but the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone serves the fine wine first, and then the cheap wine after the guests are drunk. But you have saved the fine wine until now!” Jesus performed this, the first of His signs, at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.

John 2:1-11 (BSB)

Paul's conscience rules in Romans tie the strands together. Nothing is unclean in itself, he argues, yet a believer must never eat or drink in a way that destroys a brother for whom Christ died, and whatever does not proceed from faith is sin for the person doing it. So the working questions are honest ones. Can I stop, easily, every time? Does this master me, waste what my family needs, or cloud my judgement? Who is watching, and who might fall because I exercised a freedom they cannot handle? Answer those truthfully, submit them to Scripture and to people who know you, and your practice will be closer to the Bible than either licence or legalism.

Wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray by them is not wise.

Proverbs 20:1 (BSB)

The Proverbs saying is the one to carry into any honest self examination: wine mocks those who lean on it, strong drink turns people into brawlers, and whoever is led by it is not wise. Led astray is measured over time, not at a single glass, which is why the wise question is never only about tonight. It is about direction: what drinking is doing to your temper, your honesty, your family, your work, your prayers and your wallet across a year. Some people, by history or constitution, cannot drink without being led, and for them Scripture's wisdom takes the form of total abstinence, chosen freely and supported by their church.

Sources

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

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What is the church?The church is the people of God, not a building, a brand, or an audience. Jesus called it my church, promised to build it himself, and the first picture of it is a community devoted to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. If you belong to Christ, you already belong to his church. The local congregation is where that belonging takes flesh.What is faith?Faith is trusting God's word and God's Son with your whole weight. Hebrews defines it as the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see. It is not believing without evidence, and it is not mere agreement that something is true. It is the hand that receives what grace gives.What does 'in the world but not of it' mean?It means Christians live fully present in ordinary life, work, neighbourhoods and culture, while their allegiance, values and hopes are set by Christ rather than by the world around them. Jesus prayed not that his followers be taken out of the world, but that they be kept from evil while sent into the world as he was sent. Separation, in his prayer, is about loyalty, not geography.How can I be saved?By grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and not by anything you contribute. Ephesians says it outright: it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. To be saved is to turn from your sin, confess Jesus as Lord, and trust that God raised him from the dead for you. The rest of your life is learning to live from that gift.Bible Character: JesusThe Son of God, born of Mary in Bethlehem, who preached the kingdom of God, was crucified for our sins according to the Scriptures, and was raised on the third day.Bible Character: PaulThe Pharisee who persecuted the church until the risen Jesus stopped him on the Damascus road, and who became his apostle to the Gentiles, travelling the Roman world and writing many of the New Testament letters.Bible Character: TimothyPaul's true child in the faith, the young co-worker from Lystra whose sincere faith had lived first in his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice, and who received Paul's last surviving letter.