What Does the Bible Say About Drinking?

Ephesians 5:18 ESV / 54 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 20:1 ESV / 35 helpful votes

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

Galatians 5:21 ESV / 31 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.

1 Peter 5:8 ESV / 24 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 23:29-35 ESV / 19 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. ...

Hebrews 10:26 ESV / 18 helpful votes

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,

Proverbs 31:6-7 ESV / 18 helpful votes

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.

Titus 2:3 ESV / 15 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 Corinthians 6:10 ESV / 14 helpful votes

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

Romans 14:21 ESV / 13 helpful votes

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

1 Timothy 5:23 ESV / 12 helpful votes

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

1 Peter 4:3 ESV / 11 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.

Luke 21:34 ESV / 7 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.

Deuteronomy 14:26 ESV / 7 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 13:13 ESV / 6 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.

John 2:1-11 ESV / 6 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.” ...

Isaiah 5:22 ESV / 6 helpful votes

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

James 4:17 ESV / 5 helpful votes

So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

Isaiah 28:7 ESV / 5 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 Timothy 3:8 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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

Luke 15:1-32 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. ...

Habakkuk 2:15 ESV / 4 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!

Isaiah 65:8 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Thus says the Lord: “As the new wine is found in the cluster, and they say, ‘Do not destroy it, for there is a blessing in it,’ so I will do for my servants' sake, and not destroy them all.

1 Kings 1:1-53 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Now King David was old and advanced in years. And although they covered him with clothes, he could not get warm. Therefore his servants said to him, “Let a young woman be sought for my lord the king, and let her wait on the king and be in his service. Let her lie in your arms, that my lord the king may be warm.” So they sought for a beautiful young woman throughout all the territory of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king. The young woman was very beautiful, and she was of service to the king and attended to him, but the king knew her not. Now Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, “I will be king.” And he prepared for himself chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him. ...

Leviticus 10:9 ESV / 4 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.

Ephesians 5:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.

Luke 1:15 ESV / 3 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.

Matthew 24:49 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards,

Isaiah 16:10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful field, and in the vineyards no songs are sung, no cheers are raised; no treader treads out wine in the presses; I have put an end to the shouting.

Proverbs 23:31 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 5:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.

Romans 12:1 ESV / 1 helpful vote

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.

32 Bible Verses about Drinking