If a Believer Takes Wine Moderately, Does Not Get Drunk and Does Not Weaken His Brothers Conscience nor Hurt His Testimony, Has He Sinned?
1) Direct answer
No—if he truly remains sober, is not under its power, does not wound a weaker conscience, and his own heart is clear before God, he has not sinned. But the higher, cleaner way is abstinence.
2) Scriptural explanation
- The Bible shows real wine existed and could be used without sin in proper measure: Jesus made wine at Cana (John 2:10), and Timothy was told, “use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake” (1 Timothy 5:23).
- Drunkenness and being influenced by drink are condemned: “Be not drunk with wine” (Ephesians 5:18); drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom (1 Corinthians 6:10; Galatians 5:21).
- Liberty is judged by love and conscience: “It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth” (Romans 14:21). “Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth… whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Romans 14:22–23).
- Wisdom warns of its snare: “Wine is a mocker” (Proverbs 20:1); “Look not thou upon the wine… at the last it biteth like a serpent” (Proverbs 23:31–32).
3) Simple clarifying logic
- The sin is not in the mere existence of wine, but in loss of sobriety, bondage, and harmful influence.
- If there is no drunkenness, no offense, and no self-condemnation, there is no sin in that act. Yet the safest testimony and the strongest walk is to abstain, to avoid the snare, and to be filled with the Spirit rather than influenced by wine (Ephesians 5:18).
4) Reinforcing statement
You see, the Bible does not command drunkenness; it commands sobriety. But love chooses the higher road. Abstinence keeps the vessel clean and the witness bright.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
The unpardonable sin
54-1024 §52
But if you'd get your head stuck up, say, "I don't believe it! I just tell you, I don't believe!" That shows right then there is something wrong with you. That's wrong. There is something wrong. You can't stand correction. You know what I mean. The Scripture says, "Mark those," too. That's right, You can't stand correction. You can't stand in order. You can't stand in the things of God, then you pull off. Paul said, "They went out from us because they wasn't of us." That's right. And he said, "All these teachings,...
The way of a true prophet of God
62-0513M §101
...we join... We, Pentecostals? Sure, we joined the World Council of Churches, because in there we have fellowship. We'll win them over." Like a woman going to the barroom to get drunk with her husband to win him to God. More like the husband going with the wife, these days, to the barroom to get drunk to win her to God. Nonsense! Stay off the devil's ground. When anything denies that Word, I'm against it. And that makes me against every organization, because it's against the Word. It ought to make every believer fee...
The Deep calling to the deep
56-0415 §12
But did you notice, Mr. Stephen Foster, he would go up into inspiration and when he was in the inspiration, he'd write a song. Then when he come out of the inspiration, he'd get drunk, see. He just lost himself. There's something like being up, it ain't bad while you're there, not while you're here, it's in between them places, that gets you. And finally after Mr. Foster (you know his history), after writing all those songs, he got carried away in the inspiration; when he come out, he called a servant, and took a r...
Presuming
62-0408 §31
Now notice. Now all that will happen on Easter morning, there'll be thousands and millions of dollars will be spent on Easter flowers to put on the altar, just like Cain did, see. The altar wasn't made for flowers. Cain tried it. It didn't work. The altar's made for human souls. God don't want your flower; He wants you on the altar. You're trying to make a substitute. You're the person belongs there---me and you. We're the one belongs on the altar. But we presume that's all right. God accepts it, we say. It's all r...
Hebrews, Chapter 3
57-0901M §56
...ked; made... The reason they did it, they disbelieved. They never went out and got to shooting craps, now, and things like that. They never run around with somebody else's wife, and went out and told lies. That wasn't what they were doing. But that's not sin to begin with. Living in adultery is not sin. Smoking, chewing, drinking, gambling, cursing, swearing and so forth---that's not sin. That's the attributes of unbelief. You do that because you're an unbeliever. If you are a believer, you don't do that. That's th...