Is getting drunk a sin?

One of the common sins of mankind. We read of it as early as Noah. Gen. 9:21. Its grave character is shown in the N.T. by the drunkard being classed along with fornicators, thieves, idolaters, etc., and the declaration that no drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God. 1 Cor. 5:11; 1 Cor. 6:10.

"Now the works of the flesh are manifest" — there was no difficulty to discern them — "adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like." Thus you have human corruption and human violence. You have idolatry and witchcraft brought in, and on the other hand, seditions and heresies, which refer to the party-spirit that might be at work even under a christian profession. A child of God might slip into any of these evil things for a time; but there is a solemn sentence pronounced upon them — "Of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in times past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." He warns them now, as he had while he was with them, "that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Whatever the difficulty may be, let us never doubt, but most firmly receive it as from God, that Christ is the power of God to every one that believes. He is the power of God not merely to justification, but to salvation; and salvation, while it includes justification, goes far beyond it, because it takes in all the course of a christian man till he is actually in the resurrection state along with Christ. This is the meaning of the verse, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" — not your own forgiveness, but your own salvation. It is said to those who were already forgiven. Thus, salvation, in the sense spoken of there, implies the whole conflict with the power of evil we are passing through. We know that we have to do with the common enemy; but God is at work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. We know the deep concern and regard which God feels for us, as committed to this conflict. We are fighting under His orders — doing His will in that thing as well as in others. So far is God from leaving us in any way, that He assures our soul He is pledged to see us through to the end; but He will have a solemn sense of the war with Satan in which we are engaged.

Failure in faith and hope too, I must repeat, will soon be found to involve failure in love. "Ye do wrong and defraud, and this, brethren." All through from first to last, it was a direct dishonour to God, and a false testimony to their relationship to Him, if indeed they were born of God. His sense of their failure as Christians does not lessen his horror at the dishonesty or other wrong which provoked the law-suits. "Know ye not that unjust [men] shall not inherit God's kingdom? Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor abusers of themselves as women, nor abusers of themselves with men, nor rapacious, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit God's kingdom." (Vers. 9, 10.) It is clear that the apostle, without confining himself to the actual case, is exposing severely the habits so common at Corinth — corruption much more than violence. He is speaking for profit and for solemn warning as the Holy Ghost always does, if He touches sin at all. He is not beating the air, nor denouncing sins only found elsewhere. Fleshly and worldly licence would surely end, if unjudged, in revolting excesses. Tampering with a little evil is the straight road to more and worse, and in none so certainly as the professing Christian. To indulge in any evil is in works to deny Christ. The business of a Christian is to manifest Him. The Corinthian saints were in danger of slipping back into the vilest ways of human corruption.

The Christian reads the Old Testament. He finds that wine intoxicated Noah and Lot, (Gen. 9, 19) and that it afterwards afforded occasion for frequent and solemn remonstrance. (Prov. 20; 23 Isa. 5; 28, etc.) Again, he finds wine brought as a natural comfort to Abraham and Isaac, (Gen. 1; 27) and often so treated, literally as well as figuratively. (Deut. 14, Ps. 104. Prov. 9; 31:6. Cant. passim, etc.) He sees in the New Testament neither contradiction nor difficulty. The Lord commenced His miracles by making water into wine, (John 2) was invidiously compared with His forerunner because He abstained not, (Luke 7) and made bread and wine (which John the Baptist never used)* to be the chosen, constant memorial of His dying love till He come again, the symbol also of our communion with each other. Finally, the Holy Ghost more than once dwells on the end of the drunkard, (1 Cor. 6, Gal. 5) corrects the unhallowed licence of the Corinthian church at the Lord's Supper, (1 Cor. 11) and warns believers, especially such as were prominent, against excess in daily life. (Eph. 5, 1 Tim. 3 Titus 2) At the same time, He takes pains (1 Tim. 5:23.) to remove the scrupulousness of a devoted young servant of Christ, and enjoins the use of a little wine, rather than water, for his stomach's sake and often infirmities. So graciously does God deign to interest Himself even in the bodily weakness and wants of those who love Him! The conclusion is irresistible. Total abstinence, as a general rule, has not, nor ever had, divine sanction. It is a device at issue with the plain facts and doctrine of Scripture, and this as to Christians no less than as to Jews. In the Old Testament yayin and in the New Testament οἶνος — that is, the ordinary words for "wine" in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures — are used both in a good and in a bad connection; because the moral evil lay not in the thing itself, nor in its use, but in its abuse. There were different kinds of wine then, (Neh. 5:18,) as there are now. But not a single text intimates a particular sort of yayin which could not inebriate. Nay, more: what Scripture does say, disproves the fancy, as the sequel abundantly shows. Thus, Num. 6:3 plainly marks off yayin as fermented grape-juice, and that in the vinous as distinguished from the acetous stage; excluding other fermented drinks, vinegar, unfermented grape-liquors, as well as the solid fruit of the vine. We who adhere to the regular sense of the word are not bound to produce specific proofs; we are entitled to take it in the same sense everywhere, unless positive cause be shown to the contrary. But those who affirm that in certain places the word has a different meaning, are, in each instance, bound to give Scriptural reasons adequate to produce conviction. This they can never do. We deny their affirmation: upon them falls the burden of proof.†

There are several Hebrew words translated wine, and though various expressions are attached to it as 'sweet,' 'new,' 'strong,' 'good,' 'mixed,' 'spiced,' 'on the lees,' all are wine; and the wine was intoxicating, as seen already in the days of Noah. Gen. 9:21. Intemperance is the abuse of it, and against such abuse there are abundant protests and warnings in the scripture. Wine is mentioned with corn and oil, among the good gifts wherewith God would bless His earthly people. Deut. 7:13; Ps. 104:15. It was daily offered in the temple as a drink offering. Num. 28:7.

Wine was created by the Lord in His first recorded miracle. John 2:3-10. He was blasphemously spoken of as a wine-bibber; and He said at the last Passover, "I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God." Mark 14:25. He also instituted the Lord's Supper with the cup of wine. Paul recommended Timothy to take a little wine for his frequent sickness; and a bishop must not be given to much wine. There is therefore adequate evidence that wine is regarded as a beneficent gift of God, of which man may make a moderate use. If, however, a man has no power over his appetite, doubtless he had better abstain from wine altogether. Drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 1 Cor. 6:10.

Sixth, the use of wine when specially required is apostolically recommended to the servant of the Lord in I Tim. 5:23, and that, notwithstanding that the abuse of wine was not unknown in the Christian community in which he was (see chap. 3:3, 8).

Seventh, though there are abundant references to wine in the New Testament, it is in no case prohibited. Excess is denounced: but even in the detailed qualifications for bishops and deacons, while wine is mentioned, its abuse only is deprecated. The proper use of wine is, in the New Testament, not even discountenanced.

If one called a Christian acts fraudulently, serious questions are raised in view of the fact that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. The first question we ask is — Is he a true Christian after all? God alone knows. We stand in doubt of him. A true believer may fall into any of the terrible evils enumerated in verses 9 and 10, but he is not characterized by any of them, and through repentance he is eventually restored. Those characterized by these things have no part in the kingdom of God, either here or hereafter. They are consequently clean outside the fellowship of the assembly of God.

The works of the flesh are solemnly and fully enumerated, and in such a manner as to mark the holy hand of the Spirit of God. "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are [these; adultery], fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God" (v. 19-21). Who but the Spirit of God would have given the unholy list thus? Who but He would have placed wrath, variance, etc. in the same category with such notoriously vile offences as fornication, murders, and drunkenness? Man would have classified them, arranging them in the order in which they appeared heinous in his sight. Offences that are lesser, in human judgment, would have been placed in one class, and bolder sins in another. But not so the Holy Spirit. He traces all to the one root. Whether it be murder or strife, sect-making (for such is the meaning of "heresies"), or emulations (which may even happen among brethren), all comes from the flesh, which is incurably evil, whether in the saint or the unregenerate sinner. In like manner the Lord Jesus exposed the heart of man to His disciples in Matt. 15:19. All evil flows thence. The spring being impure, all that flows from it is offensive to God.

Let every believer watch himself with earnest godly care. Flesh must be treated as a dead and judged thing, and then all is well; but if it be allowed to work, though but for a moment, any evil may follow. Those who persist in an evil course the apostle repudiates altogether here. He presses it in this place on the Galatians, as elsewhere on the Ephesians (Eph. 5:5), that those also who live thus shall not inherit God's kingdom. The truest believer may, through unwatchfulness, fall into the gravest sins; but such cannot be said to live in them — they do not characterise their lives. The believer, through the action of the Spirit of God on his conscience, owns and confesses his sin, and gets forgiveness and cleansing. Such statements are not intended to encourage doubts in the hearts of saints, but to test and sift profession. There is much of it in this day. On every hand there is boastful profession of Christianity; but in how many cases is the fruit lacking which God looks for! 2 Tim. 3:1-5 may well be pondered in this connection.

If we are filled with the Spirit, we shall not be drunk with wine. All the sophistry of those who declaim against its use, is exposed (to the simple soul who bows to God's word) by the simple and telling fact that our Lord made wine (John 2) — the "use" of which was not therefore prohibited, and yet in excess it is intoxicating, or we should not be told to be not drunk with it; and as the writer of the article points out, it is the "abuse" against which we are warned. And if it be to any of us a snare it clearly ought to be avoided. "Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." What greater safeguard can there be than this?

A correspondent has applied to us for an opinion on the subject of the use of fermented liquor in the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. We desire to treat with respect the conscience that feels a difficulty in this matter, though we cannot say that the question has ever troubled us. We simply use the wine appointed for the purpose, asking no question for conscience' sake. But we are thankful for the communication just now, and we deem it right to avail ourselves of it, for the purpose of addressing our readers on the very important subject of the use of wine and other stimulants in a general way. We feel bound to speak plainly on this or any other question which may come before us; and in acquitting our conscience in the matter, we must candidly confess that we have recently witnessed much and heard much to alarm us in reference to the use of stimulants. We do not want to startle our readers, or create any sensation. Far from it. We merely want to raise a warning voice against what we are convinced is a very great evil — namely, the abuse of stimulants. We do not presume to lay down rules, or to dictate to others; each one must judge, as in the fear of God, whether he really requires to "use a little wine:" but we have no hesitation in saying that the Lord has been dishonoured, His Spirit grieved, His cause injured, the testimony marred, and souls stumbled, by professing Christians indulging in the use of strong drink. We are aware that 1 Timothy 5:23 will be referred to as divine authority for the use of wine on medical grounds; and most assuredly, had we only to do with self-denying Timothys, there would be little fear of their abusing a divine prescription, and therefore little need for us to write these lines. But, alas! alas! self-denial is, now-a-days, the exception, self-indulgence the rule. We fear that many who are not in Timothy's state, either as to soul or body, draw a plea from this passage for a practice which they really love, and for which there is no real need. Drunkenness prevails to such an extent that it really becomes Christians to bear a decided testimony in their personal habits. We know, on divine authority, that every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused; but we know, on the same authority, that "it is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbles, or is offended, or is made weak." (Rom. 14:21) We are not now writing in defence of what is called total abstinence; nor do we mean to advocate the principle of vows and resolutions. We merely wish to call the attention of Christians to this one question; namely, is it right, is it spiritual, is it Christ-like, all things considered, to indulge in the use of intoxicating drink? Would it not be better, in every way, to abstain from that which is productive of such misery and moral degradation? Self-denial is good. It is a great thing to keep the body in subjection. The Christian should never suffer himself to become the slave of a habit. How much better it would be, in every respect, if all that is spent on alcohol and tobacco were devoted to the work of the Lord, or to the poor. May the Lord lead us to lay these things to heart!