What Does the Bible Say About Alcohol Abuse?

1 Corinthians 6:10 ESV / 25 helpful votes

Nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Ephesians 5:18 ESV / 21 helpful votes

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,

Proverbs 20:1 ESV / 20 helpful votes

Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.

Romans 13:13 ESV / 15 helpful votes

Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.

Proverbs 23:29-35 ESV / 15 helpful votes

Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who tarry long over wine; those who go to try mixed wine. Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly. In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder. Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart utter perverse things. ...

Isaiah 5:22 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink,

Isaiah 5:11 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them!

1 Peter 5:8 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

1 Corinthians 3:17 ESV / 12 helpful votes

If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

Galatians 5:21 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Isaiah 28:7 ESV / 10 helpful votes

These also reel with wine and stagger with strong drink; the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, they are swallowed by wine, they stagger with strong drink, they reel in vision, they stumble in giving judgment.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Romans 14:21 ESV / 8 helpful votes

It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.

Luke 21:34 ESV / 8 helpful votes

“But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Isaiah 28:1 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Ah, the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with wine!

Proverbs 21:17 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man; he who loves wine and oil will not be rich.

1 Corinthians 5:11 ESV / 6 helpful votes

But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.

Luke 7:34 ESV / 6 helpful votes

The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’

Judges 13:7 ESV / 6 helpful votes

But he said to me, ‘Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. So then drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’”

Numbers 6:3 ESV / 6 helpful votes

He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. He shall drink no vinegar made from wine or strong drink and shall not drink any juice of grapes or eat grapes, fresh or dried.

1 Timothy 3:8 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain.

Luke 1:15 ESV / 5 helpful votes

For he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb.

Hosea 4:11 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Whoredom, wine, and new wine, which take away the understanding.

Proverbs 31:4 ESV / 5 helpful votes

It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink,

Titus 2:3 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good,

1 Timothy 5:23 ESV / 4 helpful votes

(No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.)

Daniel 1:8 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.

John 2:1-11 ESV / 3 helpful votes

On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” ...

Luke 10:34 ESV / 3 helpful votes

He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.

Luke 7:33 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’

Numbers 6:1-27 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When either a man or a woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the Lord, he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. He shall drink no vinegar made from wine or strong drink and shall not drink any juice of grapes or eat grapes, fresh or dried. All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the skins. “All the days of his vow of separation, no razor shall touch his head. Until the time is completed for which he separates himself to the Lord, he shall be holy. He shall let the locks of hair of his head grow long. ...

Romans 14:1-23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. ...

Romans 14:1-2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables.

Romans 12:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

John 3:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

John 2:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”

Matthew 26:27 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you,

Matthew 11:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”

Haggai 2:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

How did you fare? When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty.

Jeremiah 23:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Concerning the prophets: My heart is broken within me; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, like a man overcome by wine, because of the Lord and because of his holy words.

Proverbs 23:29 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?

Proverbs 23:1-35 ESV / 2 helpful votes

When you sit down to eat with a ruler, observe carefully what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you are given to appetite. Do not desire his delicacies, for they are deceptive food. Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven. ...

Psalm 104:14-15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man's heart.

Leviticus 10:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Drink no wine or strong drink, you or your sons with you, when you go into the tent of meeting, lest you die. It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations.

Exodus 20:1-26 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, ...

Genesis 14:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.)

Genesis 9:21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent.

1 Timothy 3:3 ESV / 1 helpful vote

Not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.

Galatians 5:1-26 ESV / 1 helpful vote

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. ...

Proverbs 23:32 ESV / 1 helpful vote

In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.

Leviticus 23:13 ESV / 1 helpful vote

And the grain offering with it shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, a food offering to the Lord with a pleasing aroma, and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, a fourth of a hin.

Exodus 12:8 ESV / 1 helpful vote

They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it.

53 Bible Verses about Alcohol Abuse