drinking alcohol
What does the Bible say about drinking alcohol? These are the passages readers found most helpful — tap any citation to read it in context.
16 passages · most helpful first
1It is a luxurious thing, wine, and inebriation is tumultuous. Anyone who is delighted by this will not be wise.
18And do not choose to be inebriated by wine, for this is self-indulgence. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,
23Do not continue to drink only water, but make use of a little wine, for the sake of your stomach and your frequent infirmities.
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.
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.
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.
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.
22Woe to you who are powerful at drinking wine, who are strong men in contriving inebriation!
7So then, go and eat your bread with rejoicing, and drink your wine with gladness. For your works are pleasing to God.
19Now the works of the flesh are manifest; they are: fornication, lust, homosexuality, self-indulgence, 20the serving of idols, drug use, hostility, contentiousness, jealousy, wrath, quarrels, dissensions, divisions, 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.
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.
8Similarly, deacons must be chaste, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not pursuing tainted profit,
20Do not be willing to be in the feasts of great drinkers, nor in the carousings of those who gather to feed on flesh. 21For those who waste time drinking, and who surrender themselves to symbols, will be consumed. And those who sleep will be clothed in rags.
9“You shall not drink wine, nor anything that is able to inebriate you or your sons, when you enter into the tabernacle of the testimony, lest you die. For it is an everlasting precept in your generations.
14producing grass for cattle and herbs for the service of men. So may you draw bread from the earth, 15and wine, in order to cheer the heart of man. Then he may gladden his face with oil, and bread will confirm the heart of man.