Dear Christian friend,
I wanted to personally reach out to those of you who have backslidden in your hearts and returned back to drinking alcohol, or beer, or whatever type of intoxicating beverage that alters the sobriety of your mind. Back in 2023, Kadie and I were on our way to church on a Wednesday night in June. We were rear-ended by a drunk driver; the woman was heavily intoxicated, and at the moment of the crash, bottles of wine and alcohol flew out of her vehicle and ended up on the pavement. Kadie and I could have died that night due to that person’s intoxication caused by alcohol.
I hate all forms of intoxicating beverages with a passion, and it grieves my heart to see those of you who call yourselves Christians posting pictures of you consuming this devilish poison and corrupting your spirit in the body that is supposed to be reserved for the Holy Spirit’s position of influence in your life.
Did you know that drinking alcohol is condemned in the Scriptures? Did you know that God describes intoxicating beverages as devilish, poison, and perversion? Did you know that consuming that stuff will make you unwise? Who cares if other “believers” are doing it; don’t you care what God says about that stuff?
Moving forward, if you claim to be a born-again believer in Jesus Christ and believe that the Bible is the Word of God, then read the following passages. You have two choices after reading this post: either you’ll completely ignore God and continue to yield to your flesh and carnal appetites, or you’ll repent (change your mind) and ask God to deliver you from the desire of your flesh, to live a holier and perfected life.
I mean, just think about it. If we've been redeemed by the blood of the sinless Son of God, when He suffered the penalty for our sins and endured the wrath of God for our sins, why would we even consider for one moment that it would be permissible to resume filling our bodies with a substance that taints, corrupts, alters sobriety, corrupts spiritual judgment on matters of faith and practice, and most of all, stirs our heart to look upon perversion?
I too was once ignorant of the entirety of God's counsel concerning this, but after reading the Bible for myself and learning the voice of God on this act, I repented (changed my mind) and forsook consuming alcohol so that the Spirit of God would have all my attention, not just some.
This is a spiritual matter of utmost importance, dear reader. Regardless of whether your local pastor and leadership consume alcohol, or if it's endorsed by your other so-called Christian friends, read the Scriptures for yourself to be convinced by the voice of God on whether or not He approves.
Remember, at the judgment seat of Christ, we will all stand before God and give a confession of our lives after we got saved. We will not be able to claim ignorance when His word had already been revealed to you and preserved for you, to learn how to judge yourself by His judgments and commandments.
Read the following Bible passages below. You will discover how God describes and likens intoxicating beverages to poison, gall, bitterness, and perversion; and folks that pursue it more than God: drunkards, perverts, carnal, who lack judgment of spiritual matters and are unwise.
Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils. (1 Corinthians 10:21 KJV)
The Bible on drinking fermented intoxicating beverages:
- And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. (Genesis 9:21 KJV)
- Fermented grape drink Noah drank after the vineyard; the drink that produced drunkenness and the uncovering that follows.
- Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. (Genesis 19:32-33 KJV)
- Fermented drink planned as the means to take away Lot’s perception so the daughters can lie with him.
- Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations: (Leviticus 10:9 KJV)
- Intoxicating drink forbidden to Aaron and his sons while entering tabernacle service, on pain of death; a perpetual priestly statute so they can distinguish holy and unholy (vv. 10–11).
- And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD. (1 Samuel 1:15 KJV)
- Hannah denies Eli’s charge of drunkenness: her trembling is grief and prayer, not shekar.
- Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. (Proverbs 20:1 KJV)
- Personification: wine “is a mocker,” shekar “is raging,” the drink as agent that deceives. Parallelism; intoxicant — moral character of the drink.
- Proverbs 21:17 He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man: he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich.
- Love of wine and oil as a path to poverty, paired with love of pleasure.
- It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink: Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted. (Proverbs 31:4-5 KJV)
- Cf. Revelation 1, God the Father hath made us kings and priests in Christ Jesus.
- intoxicant — ruler’s restraint
- Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again. (Proverbs 23:29-35 KJV)
- Warning not to look on wine when it is red, coloured in the cup, and moving aright.
- Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them! (Isaiah 5:11 KJV)
- Woe on those who chase shekar from dawn to night until wine sets them on fire—habitual drunkenness. “Wine inflame them” is figurative heat of drunkenness. A judgment-cry over people whose whole day is organized around intoxication. They get up early in order to pursue strong drink, and they stay with it into the twilight until wine kindles them. The next verse shows the spiritual cost: harp, viol, tabret, pipe, and wine are in their feasts, “but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands” (Isaiah 5:12). Drink here is not a feast-side accompaniment; it is the day’s hunt.
- Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: (Isaiah 5:22 KJV)
- A judgment-cry over men who treat drinking capacity as valor. “Mighty” (גבורים, gibborim) and “men of strength” (אנשי חיל, ʾanshei chayil) are warrior/valor terms turned into tavern credentials: heroes at the cup, skilled at mixing shekar. The woe does not stop at the cup. Verse 23 continues the same sentence: they “justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him.” Drink-prowess here is yoked to bought justice.
- Isaiah 28:1 Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!
- Drunkards of Ephraim overcome with wine; their crown of pride fades.
- But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment. (Isaiah 28:7 KJV)
- Priest and prophet reel from shekar: they stray, are swallowed by wine, err in vision, stumble in judgment. Metaphor: “swallowed up of wine,” stumble in judgment.
- If a man walking in the spirit and falsehood do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people. (Micah 2:11 KJV)
- Irony / sarcasm: the desired prophet is a drink-preacher. A lying spirit promising “wine and strong drink” would be this people’s prophet.
- Habakkuk 2:5 Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people:
- The proud man “transgresseth by wine” — wine bound up with restless greed.
- For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. (Proverbs 23:21 KJV)
- The same sot–glutton pair as Deut 21:20, now in wisdom warning: that lifestyle ends in want. Immediate context forbids sitting “among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh” (v. 20). “Drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags” names the sloth that follows the cup.
- As a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard, so is a parable in the mouth of fools. (Proverbs 26:9 KJV)
- simile: an intoxicated man so dull or clumsy that a thorn runs into his own hand. So a fool “handles” a parable — he possesses the saying and is only wounded by it. Sense is incapacity / insensibility, not courtroom identity or poverty.
- But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. (1 Corinthians 5:11 KJV)
- A professing “brother” whose practiced character is that of a sot. Paul forbids company and table-fellowship with him — not with the world’s drunkards (vv. 9–10), but with the named brother who lives this vice.
- For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter: Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps. (Deuteronomy 32:32-33 KJV)
- noun: lethal issue (metaphor of drink); Israel’s corrupt fruit compared to a vine whose stock is Sodom and whose field is Gomorrah—poisoned vintage, not holy produce. Two uses: “their vine” and the source-vine of Sodom.
- Hosea 3:1 Then said the Lord unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.
- Israel loves “flagons of wine” = ashishe anavim, raisin-cakes of the other-god cult, not a cup-noun.
- Hosea 4:11 Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.
- Whoredom and wine (yayin) and new wine (tirosh) take away the heart.
- Hosea 7:5 In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners.
- Princes made the king sick with bottles of wine; he stretched his hand with scorners.
- Hosea 7:14 And they have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against me.
- They howl for corn and wine (tirosh) yet rebel against the LORD.
- Joel 1:5 Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.
- Drunkards must howl; drinkers of wine (yayin) because the new wine (asis) is cut off.
- Amos 2:12 But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; and commanded the prophets, saying, Prophesy not.
- They gave the Nazarites wine to drink, forcing the vow to break.
- Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness! (Habakkuk 2:15 KJV)
- A judgment-cry over predatory drink: not “I drink,” but “I make my neighbour drink.” The bottle is put to him on purpose, and the purpose is stated: “that thou mayest look on their nakedness.” Drink is a tool of humiliation and exposure. The next verse turns the cup around: “drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the Lord's right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory” (Habakkuk 2:16).
- And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst: (Deuteronomy 29:19 KJV)
- The secret apostate (the “root that beareth gall and wormwood,” v. 18) hears the covenant curse and privately blesses himself (“I shall have peace”) while walking in the stubbornness of his heart. “Drunkenness” here is not a tavern scene; it is the sated / well-watered member of an idiom: heaping full indulgence onto existing appetite (wet added to dry), so that nothing is left unconsumed. The next verse shows the Lord will not spare him.
- Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of thy sister Samaria. (Ezekiel 23:33 KJV)
- Oholibah (Jerusalem) must drink her sister Samaria’s cup (vv. 31–32). “Drunkenness” is the stupefying contents of that cup, paired at once with sorrow. The cup is named “astonishment and desolation.” She will drain it to the sherds (v. 34).
- And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. (Luke 21:34 KJV)
- A watchfulness warning before “that day.” Three weights make the heart heavy: surfeiting, drunkenness, and cares of this life, so the day arrives unawares (and as a snare, v. 35). Here drunkenness is actual intoxicating excess, listed beside dissipation and worldly anxiety as what unfits a disciple to stand before the Son of man (v. 36).
- Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. (Romans 13:13 KJV)
- Walk “honestly, as in the day.” Drunkenness belongs to the night-works being cast off (vv. 11–12), paired with rioting. Plural in Greek: repeated drinking-bouts, not a single slip. Contrasted with putting on the Lord Jesus Christ and making no provision for the flesh (v. 14).
- Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:21 KJV)
- A work of the flesh. Plural drinking-bouts stand with murders and revellings in the closing cluster of the list (vv. 19–21). “They which do such things” (practice, not a one-time fall) “shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”
It’s good, better, and holier to not drink fermented wine beverages!
- Romans 14:21 It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.
Christian men in leadership roles such as bishop, elder, deacon, pastor, or teacher are forbidden to consume alcoholic beverages that would pervert their judgment, etc.
- 1 Timothy 3:3 Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;
- Titus 1:7 For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre;
Note: This is not the same as the medical application Paul gave to Timothy in 1 Timothy 5:23. Historically speaking, we understand that access to medicine and various supplements to help the body was scarce; this type of inclusion was permitted for medical purposes only for recovery of health, not social recreation, etc.
Lastly, the famous verse of all:
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; (Ephesians 5:18 KJV)
- Antithesis: “be not drunk with wine… but be filled with the Spirit.” Two controlling influences are set against each other in parallel grammatical form.
- Metaphor: both drunkenness and filling treat the person as a vessel that can be occupied and governed by what is taken in.
- Idiom: “be filled with” describes not mere quantity but controlling influence—being taken over, directed, and expressed by that which fills.
- Symbolism: wine represents a worldly, fleshly master that produces waste; the Spirit represents the holy Master who produces worship, thanksgiving, and ordered life (vv. 19–21).
- be not: Prohibition of an ongoing or habitual state; “stop / do not continue”; present-imperative negation; not a one-time ban only, but a standing refusal.
- Drunk: drunk is the past participle of drink. To be made intoxicated; to be soaked and controlled so that reason and self-government fail. So the tense of the command is present (an ongoing prohibition).
with wine: The means of intoxication; ordinary table wine used to excess until it masters the man.
The first is a prohibition of an ongoing practice; the second is a standing command to an ongoing condition. The relative clause “wherein is excess” attaches to the whole action of being drunk with wine. The excess state of wine: that state is named ἀσωτία—“excess,” wasteful, unsaving, riotous living. μὴ μεθύσκεσθε is a present imperative with μή: do not continue, and do not make a habit of, being made drunk. πληροῦσθε is likewise a present imperative: keep on being filled. Both verbs are middle/passive in form. Drunkenness is something that happens to the drinker as he yields to the cup; filling is something that happens to the believer as he yields to the Spirit.
Case in point: Don’t drink alcohol; rather, drink the pure spiritual milk of the Word of God for your personal sanctification, growth, renewing of the mind, and perfection in the knowledge of our great God and Savior!
As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: (1 Peter 2:2 KJV)
With love, brother Carlos.
