Moderation Is Not the Virtue You Think It Is
Why Gratitude, Not Moderation, Is the Christian Standard for Drinking
You must forgive me for having not written a blog in too long. Much of December was taken up by writing a Christmastide devotional for my church, which, as is tradition in these United States, was followed by the week between Christmas and the New Year being full of stupor, as I had consumed entirely too much cheese on Christmas Eve.
But now we are in the throes of the Great Icepocalypse of 2026, and I can’t leave my house, and I’ve been chewing on the contents of this blog for approximately two years. Might as well get it out now.
What else is “out now” is the four Yuenglings I left on my back deck, where they have been chilled by the air and copious amounts of sleet we’ve received. I intend to drink at least one to the glory of God before I go to bed tonight (Writer’s note: I had four beers on my back deck as of writing. As of publishing/recording, I now have one.).
That last sentence may have thrown some of you for a loop. Beer, for God’s glory? How could that be? Half of you asking that question are asking it out of genuine concern mixed with Christian liberty. Sure, the Christian can drink alcohol, but it has to be so moderated so as to not influence your mind in the slightest. The other half doesn’t drink, smoke, nor chew, and they don’t read blogs who do.
Teetotalism
Our trouble starts in earnest with the Temperance movements that started in England and the US in the 1820s or so. While steeped in pseudoscience and poor exegesis, the movements put their finger on a real problem, being that alcohol was being abused and leading to negative health outcomes, sin, and crime, such as domestic abuse.
To make a long story short, that culminated with the Eighteenth Amendment in 1920, banning “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors” in the United States. While it was pragmatically such a disaster that the Eigtheenth was repealed just 13 years later by the Twenty-first Amendment, God’s Word would prefer to use the word “judgement” as to what happened from 1920-1933 (Jeremiah 48:33, Amos 5:11).
This has led to a uniquely unhealthy way of viewing alcohol in the US, hence our ghastly combination of frat house culture and 21st birthdays serving as an excuse to go barhopping with the church largely abandoning God’s gift.
Yes, a Gift
To quickly disentangle multiple wads of bad theology, there are precisely zero instances in Scripture where the Hebrew and Greek words for wine mean anything other than wine. They never, and I mean never actually mean grape juice or unfermented wine or anything of the sort. The early English Bible translators, whether they worked on Wycliffe’s Bible, the Bishop’s Bible, or the King James, all knew this and took it for granted - tremendously ironic since so many IFB types are KJV Onlyists.
In fact, what we now call grape juice wasn’t even possible until the 1860s when Louis Pasteur developed what is creatively called pasteurization, where liquids are brought to their boiling points in order to kill microorganisms and preserve the longevity of broth, milk, and the like. Before I type too much and feel RFK’s pressure to talk up raw milk, I’ll cut to Methodist minister Thomas Welch, who applied the pasteurization process to grapes in 1869, paving the way for the bulk of the American church to turn her back on over 1800 years of using wine at Communion.
All the while, the legal drinking age in the UK when at home with a parent present is five. Yes, five, as in, half of 10. Kids born in 2021 can drink at home in the UK. We Americans chuckle, but we’re the weird ones in world history.
Poor thinking and exegesis have led us to believe the biblical standard for alcohol consumption is really zero, but if you must, then it has to be in moderation. Scripture never says this.
Psalm 104 is a glorious piece of poetry wherein the psalmist hails God’s splendor (vv1-4) before moving to His sovereignty over all of creation (vv10-13). Verses 14-23 praise God for His provision over all creation, from grass for cattle (v14) to crops and food for mankind (vv14-15). And right in between those verses of God sustaining man with food?
“And wine which makes man’s heart glad.” - Psalm 104:15a
God gave us wine, which requires cultivation and fermentation, in order to make us happy in Him. One could even call it one of His mostly kingly gifts, but many instead think it to be the queen of slime, filth, or even putrescence.
And by wine, I’m including the glories of Islay scotch, bourbon, lagers, and stouts. The Red Stripe guy had it right - Hooray beer! Except for IPAs. I’m pretty sure those are the result of the Fall. Anyway, the Bible does too, in the tithe law.
If the distance is so great for you that you are not able to bring the tithe, since the place where the Lord your God chooses to set His name is too far away from you when the Lord your God blesses you, then you shall exchange it for money, and bind the money in your hand and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses. You may spend the money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen, or sheep, or wine, or strong drink, or whatever your heart desires; and there you shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice, you and your household. - Deuteronomy 14:24-26
With no ambiguity, God commands not just wine but hard liquor to be used in worship. Even better than cracking open a cold one with the boys, the people of God had the opportunity to indulge in covenantal joy via tequila shot. I didn’t say it. God did.
And besides, how many of you have thought to buy your pastor a beer as part of your tithe?
One more brief aside. Perhaps the Muslims are so angry because in rejecting the Atonement of our Lord, they have also rejected the Old Covenant gift of wine as well as the New Covenant gift of bacon. They’re seriously missing out, but I digress.
So we have alcohol used in worship and in making our hearts glad. What should our posture be? Should our default possibly be gratitude? If Ephesians 5:20’s command to thank God always and for everything has any meaning, it also has to carry that same meaning with how we approach God’s gift of alcohol.
Ergo, the Christian standard for drinking beer, wine, liquor, and whatever Fireball counts as these days, is not moderation. It is gratitude. Are you able to thank God with a clear conscience? Bottoms up. Enjoy.
Family History
And this is much more in line with our spiritual family history. In the pre-water treatment era, monks were widely known as the best brewers around, even leading to the establishment of my favorite German brewer, Paulaner, in 1634.
Katharina von Bora, Martin Luther’s wife, was also known as a particularly skilled brewer, and Luther was widely known to quite enjoy his wife’s tinctures.
Elijah Craig, the bourbon brand, is named after the 1700s Baptist minister of the same name, widely credited with inventing bourbon. And all of Kentucky said, “Amen.”
And even before those saints, our Lord’s first miracle was creating 160 gallons of incredible wine out of thin… water (John 2), and remember, it wasn’t Welch’s.
From Promise Rings to Cognac
Our neglect and wholesale rejection of God’s gift of alcohol is not, however, the path of maturity. God has given us sharp things in the world and expects us to properly use them to His glory.
In large part, our feelings toward alcohol mirror those of the early church ascetics and the purity culture of the 90s and 2000s toward sex. Instead of receiving sexual intercourse as a gift to be enjoyed in its proper place, both the ascetics and purity culture overreacted to the sexual excesses of pre-Christian pagans and the 1980s, leading to an overemphasis on how you should never do it or even think about it, and if you do, you’re damaged goods.
On the other hand, in God’s infinite, mysterious wisdom, He gave the gift of marital intercourse as a picture of Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:31-32), and the wisdom literature would make some of you blush.
Let your fountain be blessed,
And rejoice in the wife of your youth.
As a loving hind and a graceful doe,
Let her breasts satisfy you at all times;
Be exhilarated always with her love. - Proverbs 5:18-19
And the theme continues - learning how to drive, handle a firearm, or do your taxes are all readily accepted milestones of maturity. But having a beer while you watch the game is somehow out of bounds?
Our biggest problem is that we don’t trust the work of the Holy Spirit in giving His people self control (Galatians 5:23), and we distrust Him so much that we believe the lies that alcoholism is a disease. Where in Scripture does God allow us to pathologize what He calls sin, and why is it only this and anxiety that get a pass in different directions? Insert any other sin and you’ll see how silly it is. And God forbid we treat the much more common sin of gluttony like we do drunkenness. Again, we’d overcorrect the other way and have a bunch of people just starve to death. You can’t learn to exercise self control if there’s never anything to control.
And frankly, some of y’all could probably use a good, stiff drink to unwind a little bit. Make your heart glad in God, and thank Him for the fact that even a PBR can help take the edge off.
Cheers to the King.
You can hear this podcast on the Westminster Effects Doxology Podcast feed on Apple and Spotify.