Here we are at episode number 200 in the Ask Pastor John podcast series, and what grace and kindness from the Lord to have shown us such favor on this little podcast. And in episode number 200, "It's Appropriately Epic," is a question that we get all the time, weekly, from listeners who send us emails.

And here it is, Pastor John. "Is drinking alcohol a sin?" Let me start by putting my biases on the table, okay? My background, my biases, because everybody's influenced, right, by their family and experiences they've had. I'm a default, default teetotaler. And what that means is, if I have my choice, I don't drink alcohol.

But I might, to be a good guest. In other words, that's my little experience of freedom in Christ. In Germany, I'm not gonna make a pain in myself. They put something on the table. I'm gonna do my best to manage it for their, to honor them as my guest.

I want to let love be the guide, and love inclines me away from alcohol in our day. But here's the nuanced answer, and a little bit of why I've chosen this path for myself, and don't make it a requirement for everybody. The first answer is, that I would give, "Is it a sin to drink alcohol?" is the same answer I'd give to, "Is it a sin to drink water?" And the answer is, it could be.

Drinking water when you should be giving a glass to someone else in need, that's sin. Drinking water when you should be paying more reverence to the preaching of God's Word, that's a sin. Drinking water when someone just warned you it's contaminated, it might kill you, that's sin. So drinking water can be sin, and presumably then alcohol could be sin.

But it may not be. I mean, Jesus made wine for the marriage at Cana, and I presume he made it because he expected people to drink it, and he didn't want to participate in their sin. Paul told Timothy to drink it medicinally. The church leaders are not to be enslaved to it, which I think implies a moderate use of it.

And Psalm 104 15 says, "It's a gift from God. Wine is to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine." So I don't think anybody can make a case from Scripture that teetotalism is required. If you choose not to drink alcohol, like I do, as a kind of default way of life, it's got to be based on some kind of principle other than what the Bible requires of us.

So what might that be? And it is remarkable how many warnings there are in the Bible about alcohol. I'll just bullet a few here. Don't get drunk with wine, Ephesians 5 18, or Romans 14. It's good not to drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.

Hosea 4 11, "Beware of wine and new wine which take away the understanding." Ezekiel 44 21, "No priest shall drink wine when he enters the inner court." Proverbs 20, "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler. Whoever is led astray by it is not wise." Proverbs 21, "He who loves wine and oil will not be rich." And the most extended statement in Proverbs goes like this in verse 23, I mean, chapter 23, "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 will utter perverse things. You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies on the top of a mast." What a great image.

"They struck me, you will say, but I was not hurt. They beat me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake? I must have another drink." That's Proverbs 23, 30, 35. So, I mean, do not look at wine when it's red. I don't know what that means, except maybe there's a kind of drink that's just a little too dangerous.

It's not, here's another one from Proverbs 31, "It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine or for rulers to take strong drink, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of the afflicted." Or Deuteronomy 29, "You have not drunk wine or strong drink that you may know that I am the Lord." The reason they didn't drink any wine in the wilderness is evidently so that it would be an asset to their coming to know God fully.

So, you get the impression that even though wine was permitted and was a blessing, that it was fraught with dangers. And I would add to those, the situation in which I live in America is why I feel zero incentive to try to like and enjoy alcoholic beverages. I'm very content without them, and here's what I have in mind.

I did my ministry for 30 years at Bethlehem, just a few blocks away from Teen Challenge, and every Saturday night, virtually, some of those guys who were in there to be set free from their addiction to alcohol would show up and they would come forward for prayer, and their stories were simply tragic, and I was thrilled with them to get free.

So, I watched it destroy lives, and I watched the lives being rebuilt minus alcohol. I looked on Google yesterday. $200 billion a year, according to the Center for Disease Control Prevention, it costs Americans, that's $750 per American in health costs and work production costs because of alcohol. One-third of all traffic fatalities owing to alcohol involvement, and so on, with most of the ills of our culture.

You can read statistics on divorce and abuse, and so on. Not to mention that it makes people babbling fools on airplanes, so that they get very, very annoying. So, given the fact that I'm not commanded to drink, and by the way, nowhere in the New Testament is the communion drink called wine.

Now, it probably was. I'm not arguing it wasn't. It probably was, but isn't it interesting that nowhere is communion called wine. It's called the cup, usually, or it's called the fruit of the vine. So, nobody can can insist that we are commanded to drink wine by being commanded to drink the Lord's Supper.

And given the fact that the Bible is mainly cautious about it, and given the fact that I don't have any desire for it, and God has given many other drinks that don't have the same kind of addictive and destructive side effects, what I like to say is, "I'm saving the best for last." I'm saving the best for when I can handle it, and I know I'm an addictive personality, man.

I buy a pack of gum, and I chew the whole thing within five minutes. So, knowing myself, knowing this culture that's being destroyed in measure by it, I find little incentive myself for pursuing something I have no desire to pursue. And let me end by just saying, I do not condemn those who make other choices.

It's just not on my agenda to go on a crusade to get other people to join me in this. I'm just explaining where I'm coming from. Very good. Thank you, Pastor John. And thank you for listening to this podcast, episode number 200. We plan to keep going, so please email your questions to us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org.

You can visit us online at DesiringGod.org to find thousands of books, articles, sermons, and other resources from John Piper, all free of charge. I'm your host Tony Rehnke. Thanks for listening. (Session concluded at 4pm)