You’re a newly converted Christian who is going through the process of making changes in your life in order to live according to the doctrine of Christ.  You go out to eat with some old friends and the waitress goes around the table taking orders for drinks.  “I’ll have a Bud Light”, “I’ll have a glass of Chardonnay”, “I’d like a glass of Merlot”.  She gets to you and you have to make a choice.  Everyone else at the table is indulging in an alcoholic beverage.  You remember from a recent Bible study class that in Ephesians 5:18, Paul instructed the church at Ephesus, “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit.” Would ordering an alcoholic beverage be displeasing to God? Would it make the situation with my friends awkward and uncomfortable if I order something else when they’ve known me to drink with them in the past?

This is a very common struggle that Christians face today.  What is the Christian to do in this scenario?  The more people you ask that question, the wider the variety of answers you will get on the topic.  Even in some Bible commentaries, they say things such as, “Well, the Bible doesn’t condemn the use of wine, just the abuse of it.”  Is that true?  One thing we must remember is that as Christians, we are to look at the scriptures on the whole.  Earlier in the Ephesian letter, chapter 4 verse 27 states, “nor give place to the devil”.  The Christian should not provide an invitation for Satan to enter in and work.  So, if we decide to drink wine, even without the intent of becoming intoxicated, are we not inviting Satan in to work his deceit? There are various other scriptures that tell us to be sober and always aware.

Albert Barnes makes a very good point in his commentary: “All intoxication is prohibited in the Scriptures-no matter by what means it is produced.  There is, in fact, but one thing that produces intoxication.  It is “alcohol”- the poisonous substance produced by fermentation.  This substance is neither created nor changed, increased nor diminished, by distillation.  It exists in the cider, the beer, and the wine, after they are fermented, and the whole process of distillation consists in driving it off by heat, and collecting it in a concentrated form, and so that it may be preserved.  But distilling does not “make” it, nor change it.  Alcohol is precisely the same thing in the wine that it is in the brandy after it is distilled; in the cider or the beer that it is in the whisky or the rum; and why is it right to become intoxicated on it in one form rather than in another?  Since therefore there is danger of intoxication in the use of wine, as well as in the use of ardent spirits, why should we not abstain from one as well as the other?  How can a man prove that it is right for him to drink alcohol in the form of wine, and that it is wrong for me to drink it in the form of brandy or rum?”  It’s true, alcohol is alcohol no matter what form it is in, and it is best for the Christian to abstain from using it in any way.

And it’s not even just the use of it.  Christians are encouraged to walk worthy of our calling, so everything that we say or do reflects Christ.  If our neighbors see us in the liquor aisle at the grocery store, are they going to see Christ in us?  Sometimes we forget that people judge our character based on the places we go and the things we do.

The apostle Paul says that in being intoxicated there is dissipation.  In other translations, the ASV uses the word riot, the ESV uses debauchery, the KJV uses excess.  So what is the general idea that he’s getting at?  He’s stating the fact that all of this riotous, debauchery, abandonment of civility that gives way to sensuality and lust, all of this follows the use of alcohol.  It’s something that we’ve all witnessed.  I enjoy baseball, and if you attend a minor league or major league game, there’s a really good chance you will witness someone who has had a bit too much to drink during the game and making a fool of themselves.  Intoxication causes one to lose their inhibitions, and all of this wild and reckless behavior soon follows.  Paul likely had in mind the pagan worship of Bacchus while he was writing this to the Ephesians.  Bacchus was the “god of wine”, and during those orgies and festivals, men and women regarded it as an acceptable act of worship to become intoxicated, and with wild songs and cries to run through the streets, and fields, and vineyards.  You can imagine the chaos that ensued!

In stark contrast to such debauchery, Paul encourages those at Ephesus and us today, to be filled with the Spirit.  What does that mean?  It simply means submitting yourself to the will of God.  It’s putting away sinful pleasures of this world and continually renewing your mind, putting the word of God, given through the Holy Spirit, to work in your life.  Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and should not be tarnished by intoxicating drink. No one ever became a better Christian by filling themselves with wine.  Submission to the Spirit should instead be the Christian’s desire!