Question
My friend came to me, and asked if a glass of wine every now and then was wrong,
I gave her some Scriptures from Proverbs. But some things Paul and others
said bother me. Is drinking wine right or wrong?
Answer
I believe the best answer to your question comes from John MacArthur.
It is an excerpt from his sermon titled "The Qualifications for a Pastor."
It was transcribed from the tape, GC 56-8, and a copy of the tape can be
obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412
or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. Copyright 1993, by John F. MacArthur,
Jr. All rights reserved.
The message is speaking about the qualifications for leaders in the church not
being addicted to wine. A key fact to remember while reading this file is
that the Pastor, the Elders, and the Deacons are all given by God as
"examples" to the church on how we are supposed to live. They
are not to be an elite group of Christians living at a higher level than the
rest of the congregation. We all must try to live the standard that God is
demonstrating
through the leadership.
"Not addicted to wine," which translates (Greek word: paroinos),
literally having the idea, the word "oinos" is a word for wine;
"para" to be along side wine. This requirement, by the way, is
also given in 1 Timothy 3:3, there it says basically the same thing, "not
being along side wine." You'll notice in chapter 2, of Titus, verse
3, older women are not to be enslaved to much wine. Back in 1 Timothy it
talks about deacons not being given to much wine as well.
So we find that not only those in leadership, but even those in the church as
such, indicated by these "older women" in Titus, chapter 2, are not to
be the
kind of people who are associated with wine.
Now, what does he mean by this? Well it's important for us to understand
it. We could broaden our concept a little bit if we remember that in 1 Timothy
3,
we also have another requirement which is the word "temperate" (Greek:
nephalios). It originally meant that he was to abstain from wine. A
temperate
person was an abstainer from wine. It came metamorphically to mean
"circumspect, alert, or clear-headed." But the idea is the same:
anybody in spiritual leadership is to be clear-headed; so never is he to be
given over to anything that dulls the clarity of his mind. Pastors, elders
are to be in control of their senses at all times.
Now people always ask, "Does this mean that they never drank any wine at
all?" The answer to the question is, "No." It doesn't
mean that, they did drink wine in ancient times, wine was the common drink.
To be clear about it, and I will try to summarize what I have written at great
lengths in my Ephesians Commentary on this issue.
You couldn't drink the water without running some kind of risk. Even today
in Third World countries, the first thing they tell you when you get off the
plane is, "Don't drink the water!" Water has the capability to
nurture certain things that can infect your body--bacteria, etc. So
generally speaking, water needs to be purified and that was true in ancient
times as well. As a result of that, unless it was a clear running stream
somewhere, any kind of standing water would be potentially a health hazard.
They drank the juice of various kinds of fruit. It might be a citrus
fruit, it might be something like a pear or an apple, and very commonly it was
grapes. The common drink came from these fruits.
Now, to put that into perspective, you need to understand there was no
refrigeration. So, any kind of juice standing in the heat of the Middle
East, of course, ferment. Even the new wine "glukus" as the
Greek word indicates, would ferment rather rapidly, though it was sweet at the
start it wouldn't take long for it to turn. Because of that, they took a
number of precautions.
The first of which was to mix the wine with water, as much as 8 parts of water
to 1 part of wine. This of course, acted almost as a disinfectant for the
water, rather than a drinking of wine, because mixed 8 to 1 there wasn't much
there. But, the fermented wine with its disinfectant capability would
purify the water, so the water would be then more drinkable and less potentially
harmful.
The second thing that they did was to boil it. They would take the wine
that had fermented and they went through a boiling process. This kind of
wine probably comes from the Hebrew word or is associated with the Hebrew word
"yayin," which basically refers to wine in the Old Testament, but has
the concept in the very word itself of "bubbling up," it's not the
bubbling of the bubbly in the wine, it's the bubbling of the boiling process.
And what they did was simply boil down the wine which evaporated all of the
alcohol content, and evaporated all the liquid, and they ended up with a paste.
A thick paste which, by the way, they would even spread on bread to use like a
jam as we do today.
Now this thick paste could be contained in skins and kept that way, and at some
point in time (it's a thick syrup) could be squeezed out and remixed in its
concentrated form with water, and at that point would not have the property to
ferment. So that kind of wine, from paste mixed with water, would be
non-alcoholic, wouldn't have any alcohol content. The other kind as I
mentioned would be that which was mixed with water, the alcohol content being
diluted significantly so that you couldn't get drunk on it because your stomach
couldn't hold what it would take to get you drunk, because there was so much
water mixed with it.
So they took some serious precautions. Now wine today is not like that.
Wine today comes straight out of the fruit, particularly the grapes as most wine
comes from that, and as it comes it is purposely fermented, that's the whole
point of it, to make it somehow intoxicating to one level or another, and it is
consumed that way. To mix wine with water would be a cardinal sin today,
anybody who is "into wine" would tell you that, that's what I have
been told (I certainly don't know it first hand). Today you don't make
wine out of concentrate; you make orange juice and grape juice in your kitchen
out of it because you buy the little concentrated stuff and you mix it, and
that's what we do today. But the kind of wine that we call
"wine" today, rather than grape juice or fruit juice, the kind of wine
that we have today is not the same as the kind that would normally be consumed
in Biblical times.
So what then does it mean here when it says, "This person is to be
'meparoinos' (Greek) not along side wine." It really does mean, I
think, what the NAS has translated, "not addicted to it."
"Para" (Greek), means "to be along side," not someone who is
always along side the wine. Not someone who hangs around the wine.
The intent of that concept here is a person who has some kind of an addiction to
this or some kind of need to indulge himself in this to some degree of
incapacitation (I'll put it that way).
He's not just drinking the mixed wine for the sake of quenching thirst.
Now remember that the climate in Israel is very much like Southern California, in
fact they are almost identical parallels. It is hot and it is very dry
there; it's a arid or semi-arid area, and there was a great amount of fluid
needed, because the body would lose it's fluid. They didn't have air
conditioning for the homes or any thing like that as you would well know. And
consequently they put in a lot of fluids to just maintain the fluid level in
their body. It would be easy if they were drinking actually fermented wine
. . . all of them would be inebriated all the time, particularly in the Summer.
And so they would normally have this mixture, and they would use it for the
quenching of thirst, or they would use this concentrate which couldn't ferment
then when mixed with water and they would drink that.
In either case, the idea was to quench thirst and to provide some refreshment
and enjoyment without bringing about some intoxication, quite the contrary
to what people use wine for today, which is somehow, to one degree or another to
make them feel a little abnormal.
Now, he says basically here, that anybody who is a spiritual leader can't be
involved in any of this kind of behavior, any kind of addiction to wine, any
kind of coming along side wine, and any lingering around wine. The
implication being, you are hanging around it, you are not just drinking it for
the sake of quenching your thirst or the sake of the refreshment of it. You're
hanging around it, you're along side of it, it's a major part of life and it has
some impact on your thinking.
The idea could be one who is a drinker; one who goes to the feast and hangs
around the wine; one who goes to the tavern or the inn or the bar, places
associated with drinking, where there's potential for drunkenness, where there
is potential for indiscretion, where there is a potential for losing control of
yourself to the degree that you say things or do things that are inappropriate.
Where there is obviously the association with those who are drunkards, and those
who are sinners. Everybody knows that taverns and inns and bars, things
like that in ancient times, were places of debauchery and iniquity.
No man who has any of that kind of stuff in his life is fit to be a pastor or an
elder. When you bring that down into today's world it's still true. People
who frequent bars, who drink as a normal course intoxicating beverages, who hang
around it, the idea would be drink your wine and leave, don't hang around and
hang around, and keep drinking and keep drinking until you finally have
inebriated yourself. Anybody who is at all involved in that kind of thing
is unfit for ministry.
But to take it a step further, I think it is safe to say that in the early
church, that the people who knew the Lord, for the most part, would drink the
mixed wine with water and the boiled and syrupy paste kind of reconstituted with
water, and not even deal with "strong drink," which was a term for
that which was unmixed, at all. So they did everything they could to stay
free of any intoxicating level of imbibing.
Now when you look at today, we have so many other opportunities that it isn't
even necessary to get any where near alcoholic beverages. We have so many
other things. With refrigeration we can preserve every imaginable kind of
thing and not have to worry about its fermentation, so as elders here at Grace
Church and pastors through all the years that I have been here, we have all
affirmed a total abstinence position, and said, none of us would ever drink any
alcoholic beverage, anytime, under any circumstance--it's not necessary.
And because the kinds of alcoholic beverages that we have today are not
reconstituted, non-alcoholic, nor are they mixed with water sufficiently to
dilute their force, we abstain from all of that. That's been our position.
It is not necessary to drink that today so why would we do it?
Another perspective is simply this, it tends to be potentially damaging to those
who follow us. Do you understand that? Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8,
Romans 14, "I don't want to do anything that's going to cause another
believer to stumble." And you can believe one thing for sure, that if
people knew John MacArthur drank wine, they would say, "Well, certainly if
he does it then we can do it," and some of those people who say,
"Because he does it I can do it," may end up being irresponsible, out
of control, and who knows, may even become alcoholics.
So I don't ever want to be in a position of setting a standard that is going to
cause another brother to stumble; to fall into iniquity. And so Paul says,
"If I eat meat and it makes my brother offend, I won't eat meat. And
if I drink a certain thing and it offends somebody, I won't drink."
And there are those weaker brothers, also an issue in those same texts who would
be offended by that and so we have taken the position that is something that we
do not do at all. Now there may be an occasions when you are in a Third
World country somewhere and you are having a communion service, and they serve
real wine, that you make take a bit of it there because that's the necessary
thing to do in that environment. That would be the exception, obviously.
But what Paul is saying is, "No man who is at all irresponsible with regard
to those things which could potentiate drunkenness has any business being in
spiritual leadership." Now, let me elevate this thing a little bit
more. In Leviticus, chapter 10, verse 9, it was instructed that Aaron and all
the high priests stay away from any alcoholic beverages. In Proverbs,
chapter 31, verses 4 and 5, we are told explicitly that alcoholic beverages were
not for kings and not for princes or rulers. The point being this: anybody
who's a priest; anybody who is a king; anybody who is a ruler, is in a position
where they are making very significant decisions that have implications for a
wide range of people and they don't want to be operating without full
comprehension.
I am confident that doesn't happen in our government, very confident. One
can only wonder what goes on after they have done things at the end of a long
luncheon in which they have imbibed and come up with some of the things that
they have come up with. Aaron and the high priests, the kings and the
princes, the rulers, were to abstain from anything that could in anyway dull
their senses. And then there was that very wonderful and unique vow in the
Old Testament, according to Numbers, chapter 6, verses 2 through 4, called the
Nazarite Vow. The Nazarite Vow is associated with people like Samson, and
Samuel, and John the Baptist, but there were many, many Jews who took a Nazarite
Vow.
It was basically a vow of devotion or commitment to God that said, that I want
to live at the highest level of self-denial. I will be unconcerned about
what I wear; I will be unconcerned about my looks, my hair, and all of that.
I will touch neither wine nor strong drink. In other words, I am cutting
myself off from the celebrating kind of life. I want to live in the pure
and simple and straight forward and disciplined devotion to God. John the
Baptist was such a one, you can read about him in Luke 15, who totally abstained
from anything that would in any way potentiate alcohol disability, and he stayed
away from wine and strong drink altogether to be sure that he was living at the
highest level. That Nazarite vow, as I said, was probably taken by many,
many Jews who chose to live at the highest level of dedication.
Then there is the interesting mention of Timothy, in 1 Timothy 5:23, where Paul
says, "Take a little wine for your stomach's sake." It certainly
seems to me that the fact that Paul had to tell Timothy to do that, meant that
it was against the grain of what Timothy's normal behavior was like. He
had to say, "Take a little wine" for medicinal purposes; most likely
because Timothy normally wouldn't take any. If the Nazarites lived at that
level, then certainly those who were leaders in the church would live at that
level.
So the man who is in spiritual leadership is not a man who is given to wine.
Not a man given to lingering beside his wine; being addicted to his wine, and
all that goes with that. As you compare the other scriptures as well the
same statement is made with some differences: the deacons are not to be near the
much wine, and the older women here in Titus. But I think the spirit of
all of that is the same, whether you are an elder or a deacon, or a person in
the congregation, you avoid that which can intoxicate you.
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "Tony Capoccia's Questions and
Answers" by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
Box 314
Columbus, New Jersey, USA, 08022
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Email: tony@biblebb.com
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