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.
Earnestly contending for the faith
54-0404M §10
...it? That's right. It's the greatest song. Oh, some Kentuckians ought to say "Amen" somewhere. Old Kentucky Home. I'm telling you, it's famous everywhere. And I was out here not long ago to the old The Kentucky Home. A little nurse here in the city (It's out here.) at the hospital ---St. Joseph's---and she was a good friend of mine. My wife and all of us, we went out to see the Old Kentucky Home. I was leaning over that little desk where Stephen Foster received inspiration to write that song. And after they passed t...
Questions and Answers
59-0628E §38
Don't come in ... because in another Scripture here, they were bringing in meat, and so much drink, and stuff like that, till they were making the Lord's house just a place of a feast, and getting drunk at the Lord's table. You remember that in the book of Corinthians here. They got drunk at the Lord's table. But Paul said here: ...if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that you come not together unto condemnation. And the rest I will set in order when I come. (See.)
Communion
65-1212 §27
Now, "After the same manner also," twenty-fifth verse: After the same manner also he took the cup, and when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as oft [remember, now] For as oft as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew forth the Lord's death till he come. [How long? Until He comes, see], Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and the blood o...
We would see Jesus
58-0612 §61
...e American song writer Steven Foster? He wrote the best folk songs we ever had: "Old Black Joe" and "Suwannee River." What would he do when the inspiration struck him? He'd get in that inspiration; when he'd come out of it, he'd get drunk. And finally he called a servant, and took a razor and committed suicide. Look at William Cowper. I stood by his grave with Brother Lindsay, in London, England, not long ago. I wept at his grave. He wrote that famous song, "There is a Fountain Filled With Blood, drawn from Emmanue...
Elijah and Elisha
54-0304 §17
Oh, their morals there are so far beyond ours, till ours is not even in the shadow of them. That's right. We have... The biggest divorce root in the world is in America. Said, "You want to teach us how to divorce our wives and call it Christianity? How to have whiskey stores on every corner, get drunk and carry on? You call that Christianity? Well, we're better off as Mohammedans." Morally speaking, they are; morally speaking. When Christianity is the most cleanest, holiest thing there is this side of heaven. But i...