Even as we’ve looked at the passages that address wine/alcohol in the Bible, we haven’t finished with searching Scripture. There are several additional texts that offer insights that need to be considered when discussion the Christian and alcohol. Let’s look at a few today and a few tomorrow:

• “’All things are lawful for me,’ but not all things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful for me,’ but I will not be enslaved by anything.” (1 Corinthians 6:12) It’s possible that the Corinthians had been quoting Paul when they said “All things are lawful for me,” but Paul wants them to know that they are missing the point of that statement. (He quotes the same phrase again in Chapter 10). A Christian’s freedom is to be tempered by the thought of what is edifying and by the thought of avoiding letting something control us. That idea of not being controlled is very important in this discussion. On one hand, it rules out allowing ourselves to be dominated by an addiction. On the other hand, it should be a caution to not reach a point to where we lose control, where we are being dominated by something that we have ingested.
• The entire discussion of 1 Corinthians 8-10 also speaks powerfully to this issue. Paul warns in these chapters that a Christian must be willing to give up his rights for the good of the Kingdom, for the good of his brothers. Specifically, the discussion has to do with eating food sacrificed to idols, but the principles presented add to our discussion. (There is a similar passage in Romans 14)
• Let me throw in one passage that should have been included in the last post on this subject. The famous verse from 1 Timothy 5:23 about “drinking a little wine.” I’m not an expert on the original languages, so I’ll merely pass this on. Let me quote something that Barry Traver wrote in a comment:
  

  In light of this fact, it has been suggested that 1 Timothy 5:23 should be interpreted thus:
  “Stop drinking only water [i.e. water alone, with nothing added to it], but use WITH a little wine [added to the water] for your stomach’s sake and your frequent infirmities.”
  (In the original Greek, a “little wine” is in the dative case, suggesting the addition of the word “with.”)

Tomorrow we’ll look at some other passages that should be considered when talking about the Christian and alcohol. Keep studying until then!

[I’m largely refraining from commenting on comments, trying to present my thoughts bit by bit. Toward the end of the series, I’ll try and be more interactive.]

Previous posts in this series:
The Christian and Alcohol (Alcohol abuse)
The Christian and Alcohol, Part 2 (Alcohol in the history of the U.S.)
The Christian and Alcohol, Part 3 (Seeing what the Bible says about alcohol)
The Christian and Alcohol, Part 4 (What the Pentateuch says about alcohol)
The Christian and Alcohol, Part 5 (What the rest of the Old Testament says about alcohol)
The Christian and Alcohol, Part 6 (What Proverbs and Ecclesiastes say about alcohol)
The Christian and Alcohol, Part 7 (What the gospels say about alcohol)
The Christian and Alcohol, Part 8 (What the rest of the New Testament says about alcohol)