Touchy Topic: Alcohol
While most of the world has a certain comfort level with alcohol consumption, a large sector of evangelical traditions have complex negative feelings about it. Then there are the non-evangelical traditions, for whom wine is an important part of worship (Catholic, Anglican, Episcopalians, etc). But what does the Bible have to say on this topic?
I enjoy the description in Isaiah 5 of people who are “heroes at drinking wine” and “valiant men in mixing strong drink” because those two phrases encapsulate the American attitude about alcohol. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told I need wine because I have five kids—how sad that we reduce something as wholesome as wine to a mere antidote for stress and exhaustion! Proverbs 31 mentions this when comparing the way a King ought to use alcohol to how someone who is dying or depressed partakes of it. Who is more stressed and burdened with responsibility than a King? Yet, the forgetting that comes with drunkenness is not for him—rather, those in great pain seek it.
Yet wine is also a symbol of sweetness, passion, satisfaction, plenty, and joy in much of Scripture. Wine is used in similes all across the Song of Songs to describe the King’s desirable lover. Often, promises of the Day of the Lord’s redemption also include a mention of wine (Hos. 2, Zec.9, Jer. 31, Joel 3, Amos 9) probably because of Jewish cultural connections to vineyards. My favorite is in Isaiah, “The Lord…will make a feast for all peoples, a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined” (25:6).
Clearly, alcohol is not just a thing people invented to satisfy evil desires. Creating the most delicious wine ever tasted was the first miracle Jesus performed, after all! He knew what He was doing, and there was a lot more going on at that wedding than happenstance and an inaccurate head count. Because wine is so connected to Jewish promises and the salvation of God, Jesus’ creating wine out of water was symbolic, hinting at the true purpose of His incarnation.
Adults need to know how to enjoy alcohol properly. It’s one of many, many areas where a person’s character and privately held beliefs bubble to the surface. We put ourselves on full display when we either completely abstain or recklessly imbibe. Even when alcohol is consumed in a self-controlled manner, the person who drinks still has to let go of their vulnerabilities, anxieties, and desires for control. Strong drink is a bit of a status leveler. No matter how good you are at towing the line between tipsy and drunk—you’ll probably be a little less self-conscious than usual, and end up being honest for once.
As with many things, we are members of a community according to God’s good design—there are things about wine we can learn from each other. Christians can learn to be less judgmental, even when they choose to refrain from drinking. Folk outside the church might learn from non-evangelicals that there’s more to life than what goes in the body, and that physical foods and drinks can have a deeper meaning than the one we find by merely tasting them. Non-evangelicals have plenty to learn about being balanced in this area without being insensitive and arrogant about alcoholism.
In my writing, I may someday use wine symbolically. I hope that descriptions about alcohol’s effects on the body won’t cause my readers to toss out my book in disgust! Alcohol in general is an incredibly complex topic, but I don’t think it has to be a negative one.
