Mt. Olive Baptist Church | 11/20/22
Ephesians 5:18
Do Not Be Drunk With Wine
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The wine that is mentioned in the Bible is not equivalent to the wine that is sold and drank today.
There are three different terms for wine in the Bible: “strong drink” (shekar), “new wine” (gleukos), and “wine” (oinos).
When we read in the New Testament that they drank wine, it was a wine that was diluted down with water to be a low alcoholic content, for the purpose that it would not intoxicate through normal use.
Ancient records to show the diluting of wine with water: The Jewish Mishnah, Aristotle, Roman historian Pliny, Poet Horace, The Odyssey.
Even the secular Greeks and Romans saw the problem of not diluting wine with water. And that is what the Bible supports.
The issue is not the label on the drink, but how much alcoholic content it has.
We have to look at what the definition of “drunk” is.
Our minds are to only be controlled by the Holy Spirit, and we are to avoid anything that would compete with that.
