What Does the Bible Say About Consuming Alcohol?

1 Timothy 5:23 ESV / 10 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 20:1 ESV / 6 helpful votes

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

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.

Ephesians 5:18 ESV / 5 helpful votes

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

Judges 13:7 ESV / 5 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.’”

1 Peter 5:8 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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

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,

Deuteronomy 14:26 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And spend the money for whatever you desire—oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves. And you shall eat there before the Lord your God and rejoice, you and your household.

Romans 14:1-23 ESV / 3 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. ...

Acts 2:13 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”

John 2:1-25 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.

Proverbs 31:4-7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted. Give strong drink to the one who is perishing, and wine to those in bitter distress; let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.

Proverbs 31:1-31 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The words of King Lemuel. An oracle that his mother taught him: What are you doing, my son? What are you doing, son of my womb? What are you doing, son of my vows? Do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings. It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted. ...

Proverbs 23:1-35 ESV / 3 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. ...

Genesis 27:28 ESV / 3 helpful votes

May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine.

Revelation 1:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

1 Peter 4:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

1 Peter 1:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Titus 3:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work,

1 Timothy 3:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

1 Timothy 3:1-16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? ...

1 Thessalonians 5:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.

Ephesians 5:1-33 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. ...

Galatians 5:22-23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 ESV / 2 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.

1 Corinthians 3:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?

Romans 14:21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

Romans 14:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.

Romans 12:1-2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 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.

Romans 10:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Romans 8:29 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

John 7:46 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!”

John 3:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Luke 22:20 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

Luke 12:1-59 ESV / 2 helpful votes

In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops. “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! ...

Luke 7:34 ESV / 2 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!’

Luke 7:33 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

Luke 1:1-80 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. ...

Mark 2:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”

Matthew 18:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

Matthew 18:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire.

Habakkuk 2:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink— you pour out your wrath and make them drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness!

Daniel 1:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Test your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink.

Jeremiah 35:5-8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Then I set before the Rechabites pitchers full of wine, and cups, and I said to them, “Drink wine.” But they answered, “We will drink no wine, for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, ‘You shall not drink wine, neither you nor your sons forever. You shall not build a house; you shall not sow seed; you shall not plant or have a vineyard; but you shall live in tents all your days, that you may live many days in the land where you sojourn.’ We have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, to drink no wine all our days, ourselves, our wives, our sons, or our daughters,

Isaiah 28:7 ESV / 2 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.

Isaiah 28:1 ESV / 2 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!

Isaiah 22:1-25 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The oracle concerning the valley of vision. What do you mean that you have gone up, all of you, to the housetops, you who are full of shoutings, tumultuous city, exultant town? Your slain are not slain with the sword or dead in battle. All your leaders have fled together; without the bow they were captured. All of you who were found were captured, though they had fled far away. Therefore I said: “Look away from me; let me weep bitter tears; do not labor to comfort me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people.” For the Lord God of hosts has a day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the valley of vision, a battering down of walls and a shouting to the mountains. ...

Isaiah 5:11 ESV / 2 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!

Isaiah 1:1-31 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. ...

Proverbs 31:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 23:31 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly.

Proverbs 23:21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags.

Proverbs 20:1-30 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise. The terror of a king is like the growling of a lion; whoever provokes him to anger forfeits his life. It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife, but every fool will be quarreling. The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing. The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out. ...

Deuteronomy 33:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes

So Israel lived in safety, Jacob lived alone, in a land of grain and wine, whose heavens drop down dew.

Deuteronomy 21:20-21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

Numbers 28:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Its drink offering shall be a quarter of a hin for each lamb. In the Holy Place you shall pour out a drink offering of strong drink to the Lord.

Numbers 6:3 ESV / 2 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.

Leviticus 11:1-47 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying to them, “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, These are the living things that you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth. Whatever parts the hoof and is cloven-footed and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat. Nevertheless, among those that chew the cud or part the hoof, you shall not eat these: The camel, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you. And the rock badger, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you. ...

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.

Leviticus 10:8-11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And the Lord spoke to Aaron, saying, “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. You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean, and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the Lord has spoken to them by Moses.”

Exodus 12:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover.

Genesis 9:21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

63 Bible Verses about Consuming Alcohol