Barnabas was taking a bottle of beer after another every time he received his salary at the end of every month. Every Sunday he was found in the Church with the other Christians. He used to get drunk and when you question him he say that even Jesus Himself made wine in Galilee. It is not bad to drink according to him because he says it is Biblical. He would also say that Paul told Timothy to be taking wine for his stomach. There are many Barnabas not only this one that I know. They are there in our Churches but the question is, 'are Christians supposed to be drunk? 'what kind of wine did Jesus make? how were the Jews using wine in such ceremonies? why did Paul tell Timothy to take a little wine? Was the case of Jesus and that of Paul about wine purpose of getting drunk? I will base my argument as a Pastor of a Pentecostal Church.
In the case of Barnabas ,I would like to say that there are Christians who are nominal and others who are carnal and in the two cases the do not care about the word of God but take things lightly.They are guided by the fresh. These are the ones who will take allot of wine and refer you to what Paul told Timothy to take little wine for the stomach in '1Tim 5:23' and of course they do not take little but much.For Timothy it was to be used as a medicine .Maybe when I meet Paul in Heaven ,I will have a question concerning this issue ,and the question Will be,'was it a must for Timothy to take wine instead of a medicine? Were all those people who had stomach problem taking wine instead of medicine? did it mean there was no other way of for curing stomach?These are some of the questions that O would request brother Paul to answer me.
The same Paul says in Romans 14:21 ,that anything that would make my brother to stable, should not be done.Anything that would hinder him or her to get saved should not be done.Better not do it.Jesus made wine in Galilee as it was according to the custom of such a cerebration.What we need to know is the kind of wine that people were taking and especially the one Jesus made.We know that there is wine that have alcohol made from grapes and other fruits ,some fermented and other not fermented. Fermented have alcohol while the unfermented have no alcohol. According to the Bible , nobody is supposed to get astray by using wine as we see in Proverbs 20:1 which says , 'wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is lead astray by them is not wise.' Paul in the book of Ephesians 5:18-20 is telling us not to be drunk with wine but be filled with the Holy Spilit.
In the Old Testament , priests were not allowed to drink wine on duty [Leviticus 10:9,Ezekiel 44:21].The abuse of wine is condemned in Proverbs and in the Prophets.Unfortunately ,today even some priests are very happy to take fermented wine to an extend of getting drunk.For the wine that Jesus made , we are not told that people got drunk. For me ,it is not the use of wine that is bad but ,but the abuse of it [this does not mean that I am supporting christian drinking wine to an extend of getting drunk but I am against little or much]. I would like to ask my fellow Christians not to take alcohol even little to prevent satanic forces using them.Evil will enter easily to those who get drunk.Drinking also takes people to captivity of the devil.
Think what is godly, eve when you are offered the best .Daniel,Shadrack,Meshack and Abednego refused to take what the king offered [rich food and wine]. Some of the bad things for wine are , people not able to provide for their family, somebody becomes uncontrollable, spoils the memory, brings poverty in the family and not forgetting that faith comes to an end after becoming drunk. I want to warn the Christians that no drunkards will inherit life[1Cor 5:11,6:10]. This is because drunkenness is also one of the work of the fresh as Galatians 5:21 tells us. No drunkard is prepared for Jesus second coming. There are so many things brought by drunkenness and that is why the Bible talks more about the wine being bad.
I want to remind the Christians , Pastors, Prophets, Apostles, Evangelists, Teachers and all the other leaders in the ministry plus all members of the different churches , that in '1Cor 5:11', Paul is telling us not even to associate with drunkards.This shows how serious it is to be drunk which will make you to brake the law of God. Our bodies are referred to as God's temple and we are not supposed to destroy it. Anybody who destroys Gods temple will be destroyed by Him.Do not do the things of the fresh which destroys the temple of God.Jesus even refused to take wine in His death hour[Mark 15:23].
Finally I would like to say from my own words . For every Christian to give the Holy Spirit a chance to control his or her life then we have no choice but to stay away from alcohol completely. We must be holy because the God we serve is holy We must be controlled by the power of the Holy Spirit if we want to please our God and also if we want to stay righteous before Him. Wine is not the solution ,Jesus is the solution.It is not too late for Christians to stop drinking and make an about turn and forget wine completely. The time is now for Barnabas to keep wine aside and turn to the Holy Spirit to control their lives. Do it NOW.[By Pastor Samuel Karimi]
