Why I Quit Drinking Wine

Even before I was saved, I started losing interest in drinking alcoholic beverages. After I graduated from college, I occasionally drank, but not very often. After I made my commitment to follow the Lord, I quit drinking. I knew from the Bible that drunkenness is a sin and that drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:10; Gal. 5:21). I also knew that it is not a sin to drink small amounts of wine in moderation. But I had no desire to drink, so I did not drink.

I had been walking with the Lord for two or three wineless years, and one day I decided to buy a bottle of wine at the grocery store. I was drawn to the Manischewitz wine, because it had a picture of an old bearded rabbi and some Hebrew writing on the label. It looked like the most religious wine on the shelf, so I bought it.

As a Christian, I drank very small amounts of wine, only occasionally and almost exclusively in the privacy of my home. Over the years my wine drinking was very sporadic and always in very small amounts. There were times when a year or more might go by without a single drink of wine.

After I became a Messianic believer, I discovered that most Messianics do not object to drinking wine. Therefore as a Messianic believer, I did not feel a need to limit my occasional wine drinking to just inside the privacy of my home.

Eventually I started having a small amount of wine with our dinner every Friday evening at the start of the Sabbath. And by “a small amount” I mean less than half a cup. (No exaggeration; I measured it.)

For the past several years, this small amount of wine with our Sabbath dinner has been about the only wine drinking I have done. But some months ago, my wife and I decided to stop all wine drinking, even on the Sabbath. Now we have grape juice with our Sabbath dinner. I think it tastes just as good as wine, and I can drink as much of it as I want.

My main reason for making this decision is because I keep hearing about more and more believers who have drinking problems. I have heard from various reliable sources about Messianic believers getting drunk at Feast of Tabernacles gatherings and at Messianic conferences. I have also heard about Christians with drinking problems in mainstream Sunday churches.

This is a very serious problem, because drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. I realize that drinking to excess just one time does not necessarily make a person a drunkard. But every drunkard starts out by drinking to excess one time, then a second time, then a third time, and eventually becomes a slave to drunkenness.

I do not want my liberty to drink wine to embolden other people to drink to excess. I do not want weaker believers to say “Daniel Botkin drinks wine,” and then use that as an excuse for their drunkenness. If my abstinence from wine can help weaker brothers and sisters to not fall into the sin of drunkenness, I can live without wine.

I am not making a vow nor stating a formal declaration that I will never again drink wine. If I need it for medicinal purposes someday, I might take a little wine for my health’s sake, like Paul instructed Timothy to do. But other than that, I do not foresee myself drinking wine just for the purpose of pleasure. Grape juice will suffice for me.

I also want to state that I am not offended if people drink wine in my presence. I do not condemn nor criticize believers who drink in moderation. You have the liberty to do that. “But take heed lest this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak” (1 Cor. 8:9). This principle applies to drinking as well as to other things. If you are going to drink, be discreet. Remember that there are weaker brothers and sisters who cannot drink in moderation. If they drink at all, they end up drinking to excess.

Also consider how drinking might affect your testimony to the world. I once knew a Christian minister who told me a true story about how drinking just one beer with just two other people came back to haunt him. I will refer to this brother as “John Doe.”

John Doe and another man, Ed, were working in a field for a farmer one summer day. At break time, the farmer brought them each a can of cold beer. As a Christian, John normally did not drink. But he was hot and thirsty, and no one but these two men would ever know that he drank a beer. So he drank it.

John finished Bible school, became a minister, and got married. John’s wife got pregnant and they went to a Lamaze class with other couples to help prepare them for the birth of their baby. The woman conducting the class told everyone to introduce themselves to the couple next to them, talk to them, and learn something about them.

John and his wife happened to be sitting next to Ed, the man who had worked with John a few years earlier. “John!” Ed said. “What are you doing now?”

“I finished Bible school and I’m a minister now,” John said.

After a few minutes of chatting, the woman conducting the class said, “Now let’s go around the room and have each of you introduce your neighbor to the class, and then tell us something that you learned about them.”

When it was Ed’s turn, he announced to the class, “This is John Doe. I learned that he’s a Christian minister. And he drinks beer!”

That was how drinking just one beer came back to haunt John.

| DB