It is not a sin to drink it "in moderation" and "for good reasons" (e.g. to warm your own body in winter).
Agreed.
the Bible never says that drinking alcohol is a sin. Only that becoming intoxicated is a sin. In fact, Paul even tells Timothy to mix a little wine in his water for the sake of his stomach. Because water was not so clean in those days.
That being said, there are principles to consider before we drink.
1. the alcohol then was not the same as today. An alcoholic beverage then contained very little alcohol and there was not very much available (think about the wedding when Jesus had to make wine out of water).
You are out in the desert, you have no refrigeration. If you crush grapes and put them in a container, they are going to ferment. Think about grape juice in your fridge. After a few days, it starts to get a little "fizzy". it is fermenting.
What they would do is they would take the wine and boil it down into a paste. Kind of like a jam or a juice concentrate. Then when they were ready to drink it, they would mix it with water.
Other times they would take wine and mix it with an average of 3 parts water to 1 part wine. That would dilute the alcohol quite a bit.
This is done because they wanted to stretch it, they wanted dilute the alcohol, and they used it for cleaning the water. Ancient writers tell us that it was considered barbarian to drink wine that had not been mixed.
The point here is that, they drink wine but it contained very little alcohol. Think of all of the verses in the Bible where someone would accuse another of being drunk, and the retort would be about how early in the day it was. such as on the day of Pentecost. Or other places where they essentially say that if you wanted to be drunk in those day, you would literally have to set out to get drunk. you would have to drink unmixed wine, or drink from sunup to sundown.
---Now we ask questions about whether we should drink or not. Remember that it is not a black or white sin---
1. is it necessary? Paul told Timothy to add a bit of wine to his water for his stomach's sake. Actually it isn't the alcohol that kills the bacteria. there is an acid that is a byproduct of the fermentation process in wine that kills bacteria. So if you are in a third world country, it might be a good idea to mix some water and wine. In the United States, on the other hand.... I usually do not have a problem finding water that won't make me ill.
2&3. 1 Corinthians 6:12
Will it Bring me under its power? Will it cause me to do things (or slow me down from doing things) that are right and for the Lord? If you get drunk, you have lost control. And there is no telling what you will do.
It also has the potential to be addictive.
So before you drink, consider whether you are drinking away your conscience and whether you are bringing yourself under bondage to a substance rather than God.
3. Will it cause a weaker brother to stumble. If you have a weaker brother or sister, maybe this person used to be an alcoholic, and you drink in front of them. If that person begins to drink and falls into sin, you are guilty. It became a sin.
4. Will it hurt your witness. Not all things are sinful, but some things just don't look good. Our primary objective is to win souls. If something you do hampers your ability to that, then you shouldn't do it.
Read Romans 14
