What Does the Bible Say about Being Sober?

Although wine is a permitted drink according to the Bible, getting drunk is a sin. The Word of God makes that point clear in both the Old and New Testaments. Scripture also includes stories about the foolish mistakes people made while being drunk. Noah and Lot are both examples of how too much wine can result in embarrassment and immoral behavior.

It's our experience in The Solid Rock Road that many Christians justify their abuse of alcohol by pointing out that Jesus turned water into wine, and that Jesus drank wine. However, there is not a single account in which Jesus got drunk. How many wine-drinking Christians can make this same claim? And how many Christians have turned from wine to hard liquor and even to drugs?

There's addiction issues in the church and our purpose in The Solid Rock Road is to help Christians identify and not deny! The following are some key Scriptures on being sober:

Proverbs 20:1

Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.

Proverbs 23:20-21

Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags.

Proverbs 23:29-35

Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? 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 utter perverse things. ...

Isaiah 5:11

Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them!

Hosea 4:11

“Wine and new wine enslave the heart.”

Romans 13:13 ESV

Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.

Romans 14:21

It is not right to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that makes your brother stumble.

1 Corinthians 5:11

But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.

1 Corinthians 6:10

Nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Ephesians 5:18

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,

Galatians 5:21

Envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Timothy 3:2-3

Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.

Titus 2:1-3

"But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine: that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience; the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things."

1 Peter 4:3 ESV

For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.  

1 Peter 1:13

"Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober.”

1 Thessalonians 5:6-8

"Let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober."

You can also learn more about our Christian Recovery ministry called the Solid Rock Road here: www.thesolidrockroad.com. You can also follow us on Facebook.  And you can read our book "Follow The Solid Rock Road: Pathway to Radical Recovery".