What Does the Bible Say About Drunkenness?

Drunkenness is not treated as a minor social lapse in Scripture but as a serious moral and spiritual failure with grave consequences. Proverbs 23:20-21 warns starkly: '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.' The association of drunkenness with poverty and ruin is not merely economic — it reflects the spiritual desolation that follows when appetite overrides reason and the fear of God. The New Testament raises the stakes still further. In Galatians 5:21, Paul lists drunkenness among the works of the flesh, warning 'that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.' This is not to say that a single act of drunkenness damns a person beyond recovery, but that an unrepentant lifestyle characterized by drunkenness reveals a heart that has not been transformed by grace and is therefore not walking by the Spirit. The apostle Paul reinforces this in 1 Corinthians 6:10, where 'drunkards' are included among those who 'shall not inherit the kingdom of God.' These warnings are not given to torment but to deliver — God loves us too much to let us destroy ourselves without counsel. The remedy Scripture prescribes is not mere willpower but the fullness of the Holy Spirit, who produces the fruit of self-control in those who yield to Him. The believer is called to sobriety not as a burden but as a freedom — the freedom to remain clear-eyed, watchful, and available for the purposes of God.