I believe a saint can drink today's wine and not be condemned. I believe in their ignorance, they would be saved. For Paul says you can drink anything. Granted, Paul is not telling us to tempt the LORD and drink known poisons. But see, that is just it. Alcohol is a poison and many Christians today do not realize that fact.
Alcohol is not a poison if drunk in moderation. There are various studies which describe benefits of red wine.
Coffee may not be poison, but it is a drug. Too much coffee can be very harmful - as can the caffeine in fizzy drinks.
Too much chocolate is bad for you. Too much of anything, in fact; even water.
So while it is lawful for certain Christians to drink today's wine
It is lawful for all Christians to drink. If they are recovering alcoholics, it may be very unwise; but it is lawful.
If they learn that wine is a poison (like myself) and they know it can only lead to destruction and they socially drink it (despite their conscience condemning them), they are committing sin.
I've just told you that coffee is a drug; if you drink it, knowing that, are you sinning? No.
As someone has said, gluttony is a sin; if you eat food, knowing that some people will eat too much and become fat, or ill; are you sinning? No.
Anyways, let's say you are enjoying a nice glass of wine at your local restaurant when you are approached by a fellow believer in Christ who says, "I am offended to see you drink that wine." "My brother used to look up to you for spiritual strength and now he has fallen back into alcoholism because of your public drinking here." What should you think, say or do?
If you are out for a meal with a believer whom you know is a recovering alcoholic and has a weakness, and you deliberately order a glass of wine, drink it in front of them and that believer immediately orders a whole bottle and gets drunk and ill; that would be very unwise behaviour.
Even so, the other believer is responsible for their own actions.
In the scenario you gave, you cannot be responsible for someone else's behaviour, or how they choose to act or respond to something - especially if you had no idea. If you KNOW that something would offend/cause someone else to stumble and you do, and continue to do, it in front of them - that is wrong and unfair. Paul said something similar when writing about meat offered to idols. He said that it is fine to eat meat offered to an idol, as an idol is nothing; UNLESS doing so would make a fellow believer stumble. Then you should refrain - for their sake.
And in this hypothetical scenario, you would not have MADE the person fall back into alcoholism; their body, their choice. Maybe they just wanted to find an excuse to have another drink and "well X drinks and they're a Christian", might be enough to justify it to themselves.
Also, let's say a new believer is baptized and becomes a member of your church. While an unbeliever, he continuously abused drugs and alcohol. Upon becoming a Christian, he vowed to the Lord that he would never use drugs or alcohol ever again. The church (of which he is now a member) uses wine as a part of the Lord's Supper. What happens if this person stumbles back into alcoholism because of their use of alcoholic wine in the Lord's supper?
Firstly, a number of churches that I know of use non alcoholic wine at communion.
Secondly, if they used alcoholic wine and a new believer said "I'm not coming to communion any more, alcoholic wine would lead me into temptation"; I hope the church would be concerned enough to want to make changes. They might, in any case, have a number of people on medication, who could not mix it with alcohol.
Thirdly, in my experience, people have only a tiny cup/sip of communion wine; not even enough to enjoy/quench thirst, never mind get drunk. If a person "stumbled back into alcoholism", it's very unlikely they would be able to blame the communion wine for such an action. They might try to; to shift the blame, but drinking again would have been their choice.
Fourthly, even if every single church in the country/area used alcoholic wine and poured communicants half a unit at a time, I don't believe it would be a problem. Partly because communicants only receive the wine once - you can't go to the end of the line and have 3 or 4 shots. But mostly because the wine represents the blood of Christ. No one goes to communion to have a drink, we go to celebrate Christ's death. I am certain that the Lord would not have chosen something sinful, or which could lead to sin and dependency, to celebrate such a holy event; his death.
Paul condemned the Corinthians because some of then were starting the Lord's supper early, as soon as they arrived, and were drinking so much wine that they were getting drunk. But the sin was their behaviour, not that there was alcoholic wine in the first place.
For drinking soberly and in the privacy of your own home is not the same thing as drinking openly where others could see you and potentially stumble.
But you could say that about anything.
You are walking to a meeting, don't have time for lunch and pick up a hot dog. A Christian who is on a diet sees you eating, thinks "oh, it must be ok then", buys 3 or 4 burgers and puts on weight which is harder to shift. Is that your fault for eating outside, or their fault for choosing to buy, and eat, so many burgers, knowing that they shouldn't?
On a very hot day you are trying to cool off and enjoying an ice cream. Someone comes along who is diabetic, sees you eating your ice cream, goes and orders one, or more, HUGE ice creams and becomes ill; your fault, or theirs, for knowing what they shouldn't do but doing it anyway?
You go to a shop and buy a new coat. Someone walking along thinks "that LOOKS like fur; I guess it's ok to buy these animal products after all". Or you buy a cashmere jumper and someone with an allergy to wool sees you, thinks, "if that Christian is doing it, it must be ok", buys and wears the jumper and becomes ill. Your fault for buying a new jumper, or theirs for deliberately doing something which they know will make them ill/cause them problems?
We are not to deliberately do something which will make another Christian stumble or which would be a bad witness - eg reading horoscopes in public or going to a public seance. But we can't avoid everything, just in case it offends/causes problems for other people.
So while it is lawful to drink soberly and in private, Jesus did not turn water into alcoholic wine as if he placed his seal of approval upon it for you to do the same in public.
I'm not sure that anyone would read John 2 and think, "oh, Jesus is saying that he approves of me getting drunk in public". Not unless you have an extreme approach to Scripture, or you want to find a reason for doing something that you have decided to do anyway and which, FOR YOU, would be wrong.
Jesus calls you to pick up your cross and to deny yourself in everything in your life.
Everything? Food? Money? Clothes? A job/house? Christian study? Hobbies?
No. If he told me that, I would do it. But he hasn't and there is no evidence that all Christians are called to do this.
For we are supposed to be holy and separate from the world and not be associated with the unfruitful works of darkness.
That doesn't mean living in a tent on locusts and wild honey and not mixing, or making friends with, people.
We are to dedicate our lives to Jesus in all things for our love for Him. Not out of some sense of legalism, but out of love. Love for God (Jesus) and love for your fellow brother.
And who's to say that we can't do that while enjoying a nice meal/a glass of wine/our hobbies? A Christian who works hard as a doctor, is dedicating their life, and work, to God just as much as a monk who lives in a monastery. It depends on what you are called to do.
