(This continues a series that may be found on our web site) John 2:1-11 is a passage that is often used in defense of social drinking.  It is claimed that since Jesus Himself provided wine for the wedding goers then certainly it would be justified for man to drink in moderation at special times, that is socially.  They say further that such is justified because Jesus could not have erred in making the wine since He did no sin (I Peter 2:22), and He could not have made a substance that would have led others to sin since being God in the flesh He could not tempt man with evil (James 1:13).  There are at least three ways to approach this defense of social drinking; we will notice three.
    First, it would have been sin for Jesus to give his fellow Jews anything alcoholic.   Habakkuk 2:15 reads, “Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!”
    Second, as the former verse indicates it would be wrong to make “him drunken also.”  Consider how much wine Jesus made:  6 stone jars.  Each jar would have contained 2-3 measures (about 8 gallons per measure).  Add all that up and you could have a figure that ranged from roughly 100 to 150 gallons of wine.  That is a lot of wine!  John 2:10 indicates that the Jews there had been drinking a great deal before, and now that they had “well drunk” Jesus was bringing out the good wine.  “And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.”  The implication is that if this wine was alcoholic these men were not drinking in moderation!  The only reasonable conclusion based on the textual evidence is that Jesus was sinning if that was alcoholic wine!
    Finally, wine did not always mean wine in the sense that we use the word today.  It could mean intoxicating drink (Genesis 9:21; 19:33; 5:18), but it could also mean simply grape juice (“outflow of the press”).  Numbers 18:12 and Proverbs 3:10 are examples of times when wine simply refers to the grape’s juice.  As is Matthew 9:17 when the Bible speaks of “new wine,” that is wine that has not fermented.
    The use of alcohol socially is not condoned in this passage, neither is it condoned anywhere else in the Bible.  In fact often when alcohol consumption is referred to there is the mention of sin.  Next week we will look at I Timothy 5:23 and see in Paul encouraged Timothy to sin.