It is not a sin to drink it "in moderation" and "for good reasons" (e.g. to warm your own body in winter).
1 Peter 4:3 Peter speaks of drinking in three varying degrees from excessive to moderate to small amount and condemns all three within the context. Christians are told to be sober (nepho) 1 Peter 5:8; 1 Peter 4:7; 1 Peter 1:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:6; etc where nepho means physical abstinence with "ne" a negative meaning no or not and "pho" meaning drink. So nepho literally means "not drink" and is used literally in the verses cited.
Can you please give a link to your source for the etymology of "νήφω", because it sounds like absolute rubbish.1 Peter 4:3 Peter speaks of drinking in three varying degrees from excessive to moderate to small amount and condemns all three within the context. Christians are told to be sober (nepho) 1 Peter 5:8; 1 Peter 4:7; 1 Peter 1:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:6; etc where nepho means physical abstinence with "ne" a negative meaning no or not and "pho" meaning drink. So nepho literally means "not drink" and is used literally in the verses cited.
One of things that I have noticed when it comes to the subject of alcohol is that your own culture or subculture greatly influences how you view alcohol, which is something that is even brought up in this thread. This question is not of concern to most Christians in the world, in fact, for most of the history of the United States, total abstinence from alcohol was very rarely advocated for or practiced until the 1830s when the Temperance movement began to grow. In other words, for the first 1800 years of Christianity, consumed alcohol as apart of everyday life and nobody except for a few rare people expressed views otherwise. John Wesley was the first predominant Christian to oppose alcoholic consumption, and even then it was only distilled beverage such as whiskey and rum. The widespread movement of complete abstinence in Christiandom from all alcohol started in England in the 1830s.
It was during this time that these movement grew on a more notable scale United States, England, Australia, and New Zealand. These movements gained widespread traction by supporting things like coffee houses (called coffee palaces at the time) and other such places that would replace the functions of bars and hubs, focus on the negative aspects of alcohol, and very much dispense propaganda against alcohol. This is one of the reasons behind public water fountains in the United States being so widespread. These groups, mostly led by the Woman's Christian Temperance Movement the 1879, the head of the Salvation Army noted that "almost every [Protestant] Christian minister has become an abstainer". The United States is where this movement was more popular and most successful. A prohibition law was voted upon, but overwhelmingly shot down in the British parliament in the 1850s, never quite gained full traction, and ultimately by seeing what Prohibition did in the US, the movement died. New Zealand and Australia, which also did not have as much traction in the United States, tried to ease into prohibition through controlling bar hours, but ultimately the movement started to decline when how prohibition failed in the United States.
Prohibition in the United States was a failed experiment from the start, though it did lower alcohol consumption rates. However, the effects of prohibition on culture are still felt to this day, but are slowly dying out. The Temperance Movements and Prohibition changed the way that many Americans viewed drinking as something bad, something more of a vice than just another beverage like coffee or tea. Even after the passing of the 21st amendment, as many as 1/3 of all Americans still favored prohibition, and was still present at the state level until 1966 when Mississippi dropped their laws.
These movements were much more successful and longer lasting in the United States, there was a different drinking culture that developed here and different views on alcohol. It was really only a major phenomenon in America, and most specifically American Protestantism. However, I think the view and culture surrounding alcohol in the United States is slowly changing. People roughly my age are two generations separated from prohibition (our grandparents were likely born after the repeal of it) and much more likely to have gone to see other cultures where alcohol is viewed differently. In many ways, most of us don't really see it as different than coffee or tea, and like most things in life, moderation is everything.
Can you please give a link to your source for the etymology of "νήφω", because it sounds like absolute rubbish.
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