Red Red Wine

Daily writing prompt

What is your favorite drink?

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In fact, I was reading an article a couple of days ago on LinkedIn from the University of Limerick (Four foods that can help improve your cholesterol and boost heart health), and it mentioned red wine in moderation as one of the foods for heart health.

Some Christians who I know abstain from alcohol completely. In fact, growing up as a Roman Catholic in Ireland, we were encouraged to make a pledge not to drink alcohol. And when I was 18, I became an evangelical Christian, and I would think that most people that I knew in evangelical circles avoided alcohol altogether. Perhaps seeing so many people who overindulged and its consequences was a big factor in that.

Scripture discourages drunkenness, but it doesn’t advocate total abstinence. Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding feast of Cana. Wine was a central part of the Last Supper, representing the new covenant and the blood of Jesus than cleanses from every sin. And Paul told Timothy to take a little wine to help him to cope with stomach issues.

You’ll find verses in the Bible that both sides of the total-abstinence debate use. Here’s an example of a verse that seems to be negative towards wine, and a song on the same theme. But my view is that this has in mind people who overindulge and abuse alcohol.

Proverbs 20:1
Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise.

1 Peter 4:3
³ For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.

And here are some verses that portray wine in a positive light:

Psalm 104:14-15
14 He makes grass grow for the cattle,
and plants for people to cultivate—
bringing forth food from the earth:
15 wine that gladdens human hearts,
oil to make their faces shine,
and bread that sustains their hearts.

Ecclesiastes 9:7
⁷ Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do.

And wine is frequently used in illustrations. The coming of Jesus and the message of the gospel is compared to new wine because it’s something fresh, active, transformative. And it required new wineskins. Old wineskins, which meant rigid traditions, legalism, and the Pharisees’ system, couldn’t stretch to accommodate what Jesus was bringing.

And at times in church history, when the Holy Spirit was at work, new movements arose because existing churches were slow to accept change. Of course, it’s always a matter of debate whether it is the Holy Spirit or merely fresh human thinking. But you’ll often find that the people in new movements have a great appetite to know God and to spread his word, even if there are sometimes silly or sinister elements among new movements. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, I often heard the term new wine being associated with the charismatic movement. And there was the New Wine movement, Founded in 1989 by Anglican leader David Pytches.

Here are some Christian songs that use wine as an analogy.

Ephesians 5:18
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,