The cup of Communion wine is not just a sip of grape juice; it is at least a symbol of Christ’s blood and in any thoughtful theology, far more than that. Drinking alcohol is always part of a wider context: a context that can be positive or negative. Understanding what that wider context is provides perspective on why at some times and in some places the church has not seen alcohol as a significant problem whilst elsewhere not drinking alcohol has been made a confessional issue.

The mediaeval monks of Europe became famous for their ability to brew beer, and both Martin Luther and John Calvin drank alcohol on a daily basis. On the other hand, American Christians are often ferociously teetotal. Why? 

In the Middle Ages, the only water to drink was either rain water or river water, and the river was probably being used as the local public toilets, laundry and waste tip as well as providing the drinking water supply. There were only two ways to make the water safe from disease, to boil it or to brew it. As tea was not yet widely imported into Europe, fermenting barley or wheat in water was a simple way of making the water safe to drink and nutritious. In the Middle Ages, drinking alcohol was a health-protection measure. Children were given “small beer” (low in strength) from an early age, and sick monks had their daily ration of beer doubled. 

The American experience is born out of a very different background. As the pioneers expanded into the West, they were followed by shanty-towns, in which the local tavern was also the brothel and the bookmaker’s. To buy a drink in one of those places was to risk getting involved in the evils of prostitution and gambling. Small wonder then that it was something which no Christian could be seen to get involved in.

Drinking alcohol is not an activity which can be understood in abstraction. It is always contextual. Drunk Christians are an impediment to the credibility of the gospel with Muslims who see not drinking alcohol as an article of their faith (though Muslim practice with regard to alcohol has not been uniform either). By contrast, for a Christian to refuse a nip of home-brewed raki from a Balkan or Turkic host or a glass of wine from a French or South African vintner is to insult one’s host.

Drinking alcohol is also contextual in the Bible. The wedding of Cana highlights how alcohol includes and excludes. At the wedding at Cana, not having enough wine to serve meant social disgrace. Jesus’ miraculous intervention ensured that the wedding would be remembered for years afterwards as the one where the best wine was served. The sheer amount of alcohol Jesus produced was prodigious: the equivalent of 760 bottles of wine or 4,560 glasses of wine. Even allowing for the wedding lasting for up to a week, there was a lot of wine to go round.

Elsewhere in the Bible, not drinking alcohol is a sign of commitment to God. The Rechabites were a clan grouping within Israel which did not drink wine (Jer 35:6) and whose example of commitment was used by God to shame the rest of the people of Judah for their unfaithfulness (Jer 35:12–16). Numbers chapter 6 prescribes a rule of life for Nazirites, for men and women who want to make a special vow of dedication to the Lord. Not drinking wine or any other fermented drink was one of the obligations during the period of the vow (Num 6:3). Samson was a Nazirite (Judg 3:5), albeit one who was not faithful to all the aspects of his vow. John the Baptist was also probably a Nazirite, and certainly did not drink wine or other fermented drink (Luke 1:14–15).