‘Wine’-Through the eyes of BIBLE.

Wine, the utmost essential need of humanity, as everyone have it with enjoyment. Although very few are aware of the fact that it is the same drink which starts with a single cup and ends with getting drunk as it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly but have you ever thought, is it right to consume alcoholic beverages ?

When questioned, people do say what is wrong in having it? Yes! It is true that nobody feels that it is wrong or it is a sin in itself.

Now, this is the reason and query of many people including Christians as, ‘Does BIBLE really says to avoid alcohol? Since, these days many non-Christians can find Christians consuming alcoholic beverages. My answer to them,

“Do not judge Christianity by Christians instead judge Christianity through BIBLE”

And so my topic isn’t “Wine”-through the eyes of Christians instead it is,

‘WINE’-Through the eyes of BIBLE.

I have many friends from school, colleges and university who more often say Bible does not condemn consumption of wine which is what made me think about it. Also, many people try to misquote scriptures not knowing half knowledge is dangerous. One of them is from EPHESIANS: 05:18 which states,

“Do not get drunk on wine”

Here, Bible clearly says do not get drunk on wine but people who need an excuse or a reason to drink, misread it. There is a thin line of difference between the words ‘DRINK’ and ‘DRUNK’. Drink means to have a cup of wine and the word Drunk means to get high or to have many cup of wines. So, many people including Christians now-a-days conclude it as, we can drink wine but we cannot get drunk over it.

I would like to quote some scriptures from HOLY BIBLE regarding condemnation of wine and the very first scripture from,

PROVERB: 23:31 which reads as;

“DO NOT GAZE WINE WHEN IT IS RED,

WHEN IT SPARKLES IN THE CUP”

And just to make it more informative the word GAZE means ‘To look steadily and intently, especially in admiration’ So, when bible says, do not gaze wine it clearly tells us to not even have a look at it intently or in admiration.

Another scripture from Bible,

PROVERB: 20:01 which goes like this,

“WINE IS A MOCKER AND BEER IS A BRAWLER;

WHOEVER IS LED ASTRAY BY THEM IS NOT WISE”

This scripture tells us that the one who drinks wine or beer is not wise. Oh wait! If not wise then what? The antonym to wise is fool. The reality is, alcohol leads people astray. Hence, the bible clearly says that if a person is led astray by drinking of wine or beer is a fool.

 

Another scripture which is beautiful in its own way,

PROVERBS: 23: 29-35 which quotes as,

WHO HAS WOE? WHO HAS SORROWS?

WHO HAS STRIFE? WHO HAS COMPLAINTS?

WHO HAS NEEDLESS BRUISES? WHO HAS BLOODSHOT EYES?

THOSE WHO LINGER OVER WINE,

WHO GO TO SAMPLE BOWLS OF MIXED WINE?

DO NOT GAZE AT WINE WHEN IT IS RED,

WHEN IT SPARKLES IN THE CUP,

WHEN IT GOES DOWN SMOOTHLY!

IN THE END IT BITES LIKE A SNAKE

AND POISONS LIKE A VIPER

YOUR EYES WILL SEE STRANGE SIGHTS,

AND YOUR MIND WILL IMAGINE CONFUSING THINGS

YOU WILL BE LIKE ONE SLEEPING ON THE HIGH SEAS,

LYING ON TOP OF THE RIGGING.

“THEY WILL HIT ME, YOU WILL SAY,”BUT I AM NOT HURT”

THEY BEAT ME, BUT I DON’T FEEL IT!

WHEN WILL I WAKE UP,

SO I CAN FIND ANOTHER DRINK?”

How true is it?! Alcohol’s main purpose is to begin a circle of addiction that will never end. People drink the whole night, sleep late, wake up early with a headache, then drink some more alcohol to ease the headache, and the whole process goes on endlessly. As the last line of the scripture mentioned above reads as,

“WHEN WILL I WAKE UP,

SO I CAN FIND ANOTHER DRINK?”

This is the life of a drunkard. A statistic has revealed, it is the alcohol that has caused a lot of young women to lose their virginity to guys that they never ever loved and a very high number of divorces have been caused directly or indirectly by alcohol because alcohol brings confusing things or it makes people to imagine confusing things as mentioned in,

PROVERB 23: 33,

“YOUR MIND WILL IMAGINE CONFUSING THINGS”

Now, time to clear the doubts of many as these days many people including Christians come up with a scripture in bible which actually says drink wine. Below is a scripture from the holy bible,

1 TIMOTHY: 5: 23 which reads,

“STOP DRINKING ONLY WATER AND USE A LITTLE WINE

BECAUSE OF YOUR STOMACH AND YOUR FREQUENT ILLNESS.”

I would like to explain this scripture briefly rather than a short explanation.

Years ago, there lived a man called PAUL and he was an apostle of god and he was in a city called Ephesus for some days and there he build a church and since he was an apostle he later moved to a place called Macedonia appointing TIMOTHY in charge at Ephesus and later when Paul wasn’t able to return back he writes several letters to timothy to encourage him in his absence and one of the letter is 1 timothy. So, you must understand this, the book of timothy is a person to person contact. Since, it is the Apostle Paul’s letter to timothy and this letter was written approximately at 64-65 AD and now, timothy is in the city of Ephesus and Ephesus was an ancient and decaying city. Its harbor were silting up which created sewage problems that poisoned some of the underground water supplies and so later timothy was afflicted with a stomach ailment, the nature of which is not precisely known. It was a sickness that came and went, but apparently more often “came” than otherwise, the apostle Paul suspects ‘bad water’ as the source of the Timothy’s problem and those days use of wine was a widely recognized remedy for such  illness among both Jews and Greeks.

(Source: Hebrew Talmud, keener and the writing of Hippocrates) Wine was often helpful in settling stomachs and preventing dysentery  and so, the apostle Paul writes to timothy that the reason of your stomach ailment and your frequent illness is the water that you are using and so stop drinking only water and use a little wine with it as it is a good remedy for such illness but Timothy was a man of god who knows that consuming wine is an abomination against god and he does knows that a leader should not be a drinker of wine and he also know that “WINE TAKES AWAY THE HEART” and so in spite of his health problems Timothy did not consume wine, he had refrained even from the medical use of wine.

So, this passage was written by a person to another person in a form of letter and this specific scripture mentioned above was said to the concerned person and it has got nothing to do with us and it doesn’t mean that we can drink wine.

Now, we can be very sure that the scripture which is used here is not for you and me as it was said to timothy, to use little wine as an medical purpose. Even though timothy knows that using of little wine will give him some comfort he never used it. Since, timothy knows that consuming wine is a sin against god and we cannot give excuses to have it.

Thus, last but not the least, a scripture from the bible which very clearly says,

1 CORINTHIANS: 6 : 10

“NO DRUNKARDS WILL INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD”

Here, in 1 CORINTHIANS: 6: 09-10

There is a small list which mentions the people who cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Let me quote that for you,

“OR DO YOU NOT KNOW THAT WRONGDOERS WILL

NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD?

DO NOT BE DECEIVED; NEITHER THE SEXUALLY IMMORTAL

NOR IDOLATERS NOR ADULTERERS

NOR MEN WHO HAVE SEX WITH MEN.

NOR THEIVES NOR THE GREEDY NOR DRUNKARDS

NOR SLANDERERS NOR SWINDLERS WILL INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD”

Now, It is very clear and evident enough through the eyes of Bible that if you consume alcohol then you can be very sure you’ll straightaway go to hell after death and there is no Christian source or scripture which encourages consuming wine rather there are n number of scriptures which warns against the same. So, do not be under the wrong impression that drinking wines isn’t a sin. The only way to heaven now (If you’re already into it) is to repent from your habit as it is an abomination to God.

 

(NOTE : WINE ISN’T SERVED IN CHURCH AT COMMUNION SERVICE,IT’S GRAPE JUICE.)