Revelries and drunkennesses

Revelry and drunkenness are works of the flesh; revelry consists in eating immoderately while drunkenness consists in getting drunk with wine or with alcoholic drinks. Both of them are very widespread all over the world and they have harmful effects on the life of those who give themselves over to them. We who are children of God must abstain from eating immoderately and from getting drunk because our body is the temple of God and we must possess it in sanctification and honor at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ by abstaining from any vice and overindulgence. Several Scriptures warn us against these works of the flesh and tell us what is the end awaiting those who walk in them.

● Wisdom says: “Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way. Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags” (Proverbs 23:19-21), and again: “Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women [things - NKJV], and thine heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again” (Proverbs 23:29-35)

● Jesus said: “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares” (Luke 21:34).

● The apostle Paul said to the Romans: “Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness ….” (Romans 13:13 - NKJV), and to the Ephesians: “Don’t get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery” (Ephesians 5:18 – NIV); and to the Galatians, after saying that revelries and drunkenness are works of the flesh, he says: “And the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:21 – NKJV).

As you can see, the Scripture says in various ways what happens to those who give themselves over to revelries and drunkennesses; they will ruin themselves in this world, and at their death they will go to perdition. On the other hand, it cannot be otherwise because the Scripture says that “he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption” or destruction (Galatians 6:8 – NKJV) and that “the way of the ungodly shall perish” (Psalm 1:6 – NKJV).

Brothers, the fruit of the Spirit is temperance, that is, self-control (Galatians 5:23), and we must walk in the Spirit, that is, temperately, because this is the will of God for us. For sure, if we walk in the Spirit we will manage to use foods and drinks moderately and we won’t fulfil these desires of the flesh, that is, revelry and drunkenness.

We must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but he is a drunkard, with such a man we must not even eat (1 Corinthians 5:8-12).

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