If a Believer Takes Wine Moderately, Does Not Get Drunk and Does Not Weaken His Brothers Conscience nor Hurt His Testimony, Has He Sinned?
1) Direct answer
No—if he truly remains sober, is not under its power, does not wound a weaker conscience, and his own heart is clear before God, he has not sinned. But the higher, cleaner way is abstinence.
2) Scriptural explanation
- The Bible shows real wine existed and could be used without sin in proper measure: Jesus made wine at Cana (John 2:10), and Timothy was told, “use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake” (1 Timothy 5:23).
- Drunkenness and being influenced by drink are condemned: “Be not drunk with wine” (Ephesians 5:18); drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom (1 Corinthians 6:10; Galatians 5:21).
- Liberty is judged by love and conscience: “It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth” (Romans 14:21). “Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth… whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Romans 14:22–23).
- Wisdom warns of its snare: “Wine is a mocker” (Proverbs 20:1); “Look not thou upon the wine… at the last it biteth like a serpent” (Proverbs 23:31–32).
3) Simple clarifying logic
- The sin is not in the mere existence of wine, but in loss of sobriety, bondage, and harmful influence.
- If there is no drunkenness, no offense, and no self-condemnation, there is no sin in that act. Yet the safest testimony and the strongest walk is to abstain, to avoid the snare, and to be filled with the Spirit rather than influenced by wine (Ephesians 5:18).
4) Reinforcing statement
You see, the Bible does not command drunkenness; it commands sobriety. But love chooses the higher road. Abstinence keeps the vessel clean and the witness bright.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Investments
63-0126 §91
Now, a sheep will just lay and let you shear---forfeit his rights. You're American. You can cut your hair. You can do anything you want to in America. You can get drunk, lay on the streets, and you can be a prostitute. You can live with a man, or a man live with a woman, become a common-law wife. You can have four or five, six, seven, eight, many as you want to. Don't make ... some of them have fifteen, twenty. Where's your pattern at? You don't have to do that. You say, "Well, if I'm American haven't I got the rig...
At Kadesh-Barnea
56-0527 §30
What I'm trying to get at is this: The greatest sin I find in the church today is unbelief. That's the only sin there is. There's no other sin but unbelief. How much of that is night out there? How much is dark? You couldn't say, "This much is dark," right from my hands. It's all dark. Now there is only one way to designate and to determine sin; that isn't by whether you drink or whether you smoke or whether you gamble. It's designated this way: because you are an unbeliever you do that. That's true. Because you ga...
Discerning the Body of the Lord
59-0812 §26
...ith poison toxin. Its increase of insanity is terrible. It causes immorality among the young. And even the churches today are preaching and practicing, many of them: "drink moderately." You know that's the truth. Telling their young folks at home and the parents: "Let your children drink. They're going to drink anyhow, so just teach them to drink moderately." The Bible condemns it. It is not right. God help a man with no more discernment than that, or a church. Can't discern the right from the wrong.
Hebrews, Chapter 2, part 1
57-0825M §36
...ake just one Scripture now before closing; on the Day of Pentecost, when they received the Holy Spirit. About four days later, Peter had passed through the gate called Beautiful; he and John. They said, "Look on us," to a man. And he said, "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have I'll give you. In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." And the man looked up and never questioned nothing about it. He just stood up and went walking. They were ignorant and unlearned men. But the Bible said, "T...
Seals 9: Questions and Answers on the Seals
63-0324M §47
QUESTION: What does "...see thou hurt not the oil and the wine" mean in Revelation 6:6? It's the Holy Spirit. See, we just got through that. Probably somebody, you know, come in a little late for the message, for the other tapes, you see. "...hurt not the oil and the wine." What does the oil and wine mean? The oil, as we took it in symbol, means the Holy Spirit, see. Wine is the ... and oil is connected together in the Bible in worship. And the wine, as we put ... that's where I got the idea that it's stimulation....