Photo above: New York City Deputy Police Commissioner John A. Leach (right) watching agents pour liquor into the sewer following a raid, c. 1920. New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (neg. no. LC-USZ62-123257)
Please allow me to speak from personal opinion on the matter of drinking. First, I want to state clearly: the Bible does not forbid drinking. What do you think Jesus and His disciples were drinking in the upper room? It was wine. What did Jesus choose for His first miracle? He turned water into wine and took one peasant’s wedding celebration to the next level. The Bible does not forbid drinking. Neither will I. But I will discourage it.
Although the U.S. government once prohibited it, the Bible does not prohibit drinking. Remember Prohibition? One hundred years ago, reformers won passage of a Constitutional Amendment prohibiting the sale of alcohol in all fifty states. Thirteen years later that amendment was repealed. But the Temperance movement had an impact. Churches and families once neutral about drinking took a stand against it.
Why? Because alcohol hurt families. The stereotype was all too common: fathers with drinking problems might avoid liquor for 13 days. But on day 14—payday—they would spend their entire paycheck on alcohol, drink all night long, and come home Saturday morning with no money and no food for their children.
The Bible allows drinking.
But it forbids drinking too much:
“Be not drunk with wine” Ephesians 5:18.
My favorite verse on the topic is a mother’s advice to her son who will become king:
“It is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to desire strong drink; or else they will drink and forget what has been decreed, and will pervert the rights of the afflicted. Give strong drink to one without hope, and wine to those in bitter distress; let them drink and forget their poverty, and remember their misery no more. [But you, oh king], speak up for the unfortunate and defend the afflicted and needy” Proverbs 31:4–7.
Does the king need wine? No. Why not? Because he is the king, duh! The writer says give wine to the man without hope so he can drink and forget his problems.
I think of this as a passage about self-esteem or my self-concept: Do I want to be a king or a poor man? I want to be a KING!
And even when I am poor or suffering, I know that because of Jesus, I have hope! Why do I need alcohol? My life was changed by Christ. Alcohol is the last thing I need. And I know my own obsessiveness, and I know the stories of alcoholics in the families of both my parents. Why would I play with fire? Why take those risks when I am a king and ruler (2 Timothy 2:12) through Jesus?
The Bible does not prohibit drinking. But it provides plenty of good reasons not to indulge, or to indulge carefully. As I have written elsewhere, this is a nuanced issue with plenty of gray areas and room for reasonable minds to disagree. It is helpful to know something about the history of Prohibition in the United States, because so many churches and denominations took rigid positions on one side or the other–and those positions tend to persist a century after Prohibition was repealed. My conclusion is: Jesus drank wine and miraculously provided it to others. Yet dozens of Bible passages warn of the ill effects of drinking. We must do as Paul says, “let each man have his own conviction” (Romans 14:5) and “judge not” (Matthew 7:1).
Finally, If you drink often, consider fasting often. Fasting moderates appetites, ensuring we will “Be not drunk on spirits, but filled with the Holy Spirit” Ephesians 5:18.
Fasting is the Antidote to Indulgence. Ephesians 5:18.
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