Alcohol and Sin
Alcohol from the moment it touches the lips, affects the body.
Alcohol is a device Satan uses to deceitfully destroy the lives and souls of many people. Over 1/3rd of Americans drink, meaning that, 10 billion is spent on liquor every year. Thus, it is sad to consider that while people are losing their jobs and homes, they still refuse to remove the pacifier of alcohol from their mouths. Alas, people continue to drink despite the fact that 20-50% of hospital beds are occupied by people whose illness is associated with alcohol use. People drink alcohol despite that over 50% of all arrest are due to alcohol and that over 50 % of seventh graders and nearly 90% of high school seniors have tried alcohol. Alcohol is further consumed despite the fact that alcohol is the leading cause of death among 15-24 year olds and despite that 40 – 60% of all fatal crashes involving a young driver who had been drinking. When is it enough to realize alcohol is a problem?
Well, God has always known. It should be no mystery to anyone that drunkenness is included among the works of the flesh which will not allow an individual to inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:21). In addition, the use of alcohol impairs the qualities one must possess to be pleasing to God such as self-control, reason, and sound judgment (1Peter 1:6; 4:7; Galatians 5:23). Now, it is difficult at times to live and act properly before God when one is sober, let alone while under the influence of alcohol.
However, some ask, “If drinking is wrong then why did Jesus turn the water into wine in John 2? Surely Jesus would not provide for some what He condemns for others.” Jesus did not make alcoholic wine, but fruit of the vine. That which was not fermented. Besides this, it is a fact of history that what was drunk at the table in the ancient world was not the intoxicating wine of today. Not only the Greeks, but the Hebrews and Romans alike cut their wine with 3 and 4 parts water to drink as a beverage. Now, wine that was not deluded and was not the fruit of the vine, was referred to as strong drink, which the Bible so clearly warns against. Every product that anyone would drink as a social drink today, such as beer, wine, or liquor, has alcohol content classifying it as strong drink.
Now, some defend social drinking by stating, “I can control my drinking, I don’t get drunk.” Well, drunk by whose standards: yours or God’s? Besides, you should know that the very example that drinking sets before others condemns it before God (1Timothy 4:12). So, could anyone who defends social drinking be willing to say: (1) That they believe they could convincingly have a righteous influence on others with a drink in their hand? (2) That they would want others, especially children to follow their example? (3) That when Jesus comes in judgment they would be perfectly comfortable meeting Him with a drink in their hand?
Sadly, billions of dollars are spent to advertise the use of alcohol as fun and glamorous. To drink, we are told, is to “go for the gusto,” “the high life.” We are told that when you drink “it just doesn’t get any better than this” and that when you drink, “life is good.” You must know that Satan never gives the true picture. Satan disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). Never do the alcohol commercials show the guy in the gutter in his own vomit. Never do they show hungry children where some mom or dad drank up the paycheck. Never do they show the dead and mangled bodies in a pile of twisted metal where a drunk has hit a car head on. Neither do they mention God’s displeasure with it all. Make no mistake, sin is deceitful (Hebrews 3:12-13).