alcohol abuse

²⁹Who has woe? Whose father has woe? Who has quarrels? Who falls into pits? Who has wounds without cause? Who has watery eyes? ³⁰Is it not those who linger over wine, and who strive to be drinking from their cups? ³¹Do not gaze into the wine when it turns gold, when its color shines in the glass. It enters pleasantly, ³²but in the end, it will bite like a snake, and it will spread poison like a king of snakes. ³³Your eyes will see women who are outsiders, and your heart will utter perversities. ³⁴And you will be like someone sleeping in the middle of the sea, and like a pilot, fast asleep, who has lost his hold on the helm.

⁸Be sober and vigilant. For your adversary, the devil, is like a roaring lion, traveling around and seeking those whom he might devour.

¹⁸And do not choose to be inebriated by wine, for this is self-indulgence. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,

¹It is a luxurious thing, wine, and inebriation is tumultuous. Anyone who is delighted by this will not be wise.

¹⁰nor the effeminate, nor males who sleep with males, nor thieves, nor the avaricious, nor the inebriated, nor slanderers, nor the rapacious shall possess the kingdom of God.

²¹envy, murder, inebriation, carousing, and similar things. About these things, I continue to preach to you, as I have preached to you: that those who act in this way shall not obtain the kingdom of God.

²²Woe to you who are powerful at drinking wine, who are strong men in contriving inebriation!

¹¹Woe to you who rise up in the morning to pursue drunkenness, and to drink even until evening, so as to be inflamed with wine.

¹⁷But if anyone violates the Temple of God, God will destroy him. For the Temple of God is holy, and you are that Temple.

¹³Let us walk honestly, as in the daylight, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and sexual immorality, not in contention and envy.

¹¹But now I have written to you: do not associate with anyone who is called a brother and yet is a fornicator, or greedy, or a servant of idolatry, or a slanderer, or inebriated, or a robber. With such a one as this, do not even take food.

³Old women, similarly, should be in holy attire, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teaching well,

¹⁹Or do you not know that your bodies are the Temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? ²⁰For you have been bought at a great price. Glorify and carry God in your body.

³⁴But be attentive to yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts may be weighed down by self-indulgence and inebriation and the cares of this life. And then that day may overwhelm you suddenly.

²¹It is good to refrain from eating meat and from drinking wine, and from anything by which your brother is offended, or led astray, or weakened.

¹⁷Whoever loves a feast will be in deprivation. Whoever loves wine and fatness will not be enriched.

¹⁷A merciful man benefits his own soul. But whoever is cruel casts out even his close relatives.

¹Woe to the crown of arrogance, to the inebriated of Ephraim, and to the falling flower, the glory of his exultation, to those who were at the top of the very fat valley, staggering from wine.

⁹Do you not know that the iniquitous will not possess the kingdom of God? Do not choose to wander astray. For neither fornicators, nor servants of idolatry, nor adulterers, ¹⁰nor the effeminate, nor males who sleep with males, nor thieves, nor the avaricious, nor the inebriated, nor slanderers, nor the rapacious shall possess the kingdom of God.

⁷Yet truly, these also have been ignorant due to wine, and they have gone astray due to inebriation. The priest and the prophet have been ignorant because of inebriation. They have been absorbed by wine. They have staggered in drunkenness. They have not known the One who sees. They have been ignorant of judgment.

⁸Similarly, deacons must be chaste, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not pursuing tainted profit,

²³Do not continue to drink only water, but make use of a little wine, for the sake of your stomach and your frequent infirmities.