Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy
stomach's sake and thine often infirmities.
Paul addresses an illness of Timothy’s directly, but also provides for
us a very important reminder: drinking wine is not a sin. For just think about
this one point: Scripture says that drunkenness, not drinking a glass of wine,
is sin (Gal. 5:19-21). Likewise Jesus turned water to wine; He most certainly
would not have done this if it were a sin. Plus, there is not Scriptural
evidence to support that Jesus was a Nazarite who never cut his hair or drank
wine. Instead, we see Jesus turning water into fine wine and passing around the
wine cup to His 12 disciples and saying taking and eat for this is my blood
poured out for the remission of sins. He would not have done this if it was a
sin to take a drink of wine.
Proverbs does say in chapter 31
that it is not good for a ruler to drink wine and thus in a drunken state
pervert justice and earlier in 1 Timothy that an elder and deacon should not be
given to much wine; however, a drink of wine is never expressly forbidden. Back
then, wine was as common a drink as coffee or soda today. We would do well to
look at the Scriptural emphasis on abstaining from addiction and the loss of
one’s faculties and not on legalistic rules made by well meaning men (that’s
what the Pharisees did).
24 Some
men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men
they follow after.
The sins of some are seen clearly before they die and they are judged;
however, there are others whose sins remain hidden. These may think that they
have gotten away with their sin, but that is not true. No, their sins follow
them into eternity where they are judged for their sins. Scriptures teaches
that there are degrees of punishment in Hellfire; however, there is no lesser
punishment or refining process such as purgatory. All who go to Hell are
eternally in torment, but the judgment each receives is proportionate to the amount
of one’s transgressions of Law of God. Therefore, let us not sorrow when the
wicked seem to thrive and their sins are glossed over by the world, for God is
a just God and unless they come to repentance and glorious redemption in
Christ, they will be punished according to the measure of their transgression.
1 Tim 5:23-24 (KJV)
