Is getting drunk a sin?

c. 150–200 · Anonymous (Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs), The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs 4.14

And now, my children, be not drunk with wine; for wine turneth the mind away from the truth, and kindleth in it the passion of lust, and leadeth the eyes into error. For the spirit of fornication hath wine as a minister to give pleasures to the mind; for these two take away the power from a man. For if a man drink wine to drunkenness, he disturbeth his mind with filthy thoughts to fornication, and exciteth his body to carnal union; and if the cause of the desire be present, he worketh the sin, and is not ashamed. Such is wine, my children; for he who is drunken reverenceth no man.

c. 370–419 · Jerome, Letters 69.9

Wine drinking means self-indulgence, self-indulgence means sensual gratification, sensual gratification means a breach of chastity. He that lives in pleasure is dead while he lives, and he that drinks himself drunk is not only dead but buried. One hour’s debauch makes Noah uncover his nakedness which through sixty years of sobriety he had kept covered. Lot in a fit of intoxication unwittingly adds incest to incontinence, and wine overcomes the man whom Sodom failed to conquer.

c. 390 · John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 57.6

These things are not said by me to all: or rather they are said to all, not because all are drunken, God forbid; but because they who do not drink take no thought of the drunken. Therefore even against you do I rather inveigh, that are in health; since the physician too leaves the sick, and addresses his discourse to them that are sitting by them. To you therefore do I direct my speech, entreating you neither to be at any time over-taken by this passion, and to draw up as by cords those who have been so overtaken, that they be not found worse than the brutes. For they indeed seek nothing more than what is needful, but these have become even more brutish than they, overpassing the boundaries of moderation. For how much better is the ass than these men? how much better the dog! For indeed each of these animals, and of all others, whether it need to eat, or to drink, acknowledges sufficiency for a limit, and goes not on beyond what it needs; and though there are innumerable persons to constrain, it will not endure to go on to excess. In this respect then we are worse even than the brutes, by the judgment not of them that are in health only, but even by our own.

c. 386–397 · John Chrysostom, Homilies on 1 Timothy (In epistulam i ad Timotheum homiliae 1-18) 13

Who can describe that storm that comes of luxury, that assails his soul and body? For as a sky continually clouded admits not the sunbeams to shine through it, so the fumes of luxury and wine enveloping his brain, as if it were some rock, and casting over it a thick mist, suffer not reason to exert itself, but overspread the drunken man with profound darkness. With him who is thus affected, how great must be the storm within, how violent the tumult. As when a flood of water has risen, and has surmounted the entrances of the workshops, we see all the inmates in confusion, and using tubs and pitchers and sponges, and many other contrivances to bale it out, that it may not both undermine the building, and spoil all that is contained in it: so it is when luxury overwhelms the soul; its reasonings within are disturbed. What is already collected, cannot be discharged, and by the introduction of more, a violent storm is raised. For look not at the cheerful and merry countenance, but examine the interior, and you will see it full of deep dejection. If it were possible to bring the soul into view, and to behold it with our bodily eyes, that of the luxurious would seem depressed, mournful, miserable, and wasted with leanness; for the more the body grows sleek and gross, the more lean and weakly is the soul; and the more one is pampered, the more is the other hampered. As, when the pupil of the eye has the external coats over it too thick, it cannot put forth the power of vision, and look out, because the light is excluded by the thick covering, and darkness often ensues; so when the body is constantly full fed, the soul must be invested with grossness.

1673 · Richard Baxter, A Christian Directory Chapter VIII

Drunkenness hath made men commit many thousand murders; it hath caused many to murder themselves, and their nearest relations; many have been drowned by falling into the water, or broke their necks with falling from their horses, or died suddenly by the suffocation of nature. It draweth men to idleness, and taketh them off their lawful calling: it maketh a multitude of thieves, by breeding necessity, and imboldening to villany. It is a principal cause of lust and filthiness, and the great maintainer of whoredoms; and taketh away all shame, and fear, and wit, which should restrain men from this or any sin: what sin is it that a drunken man may not commit? no thanks to him that he forbeareth the greatest wickedness! Cities and kingdoms have been betrayed by drunkenness; many a drunken garrison hath let in the enemy. There is no confidence to be put in a drunken man; nor any mischief that he is secure from.

1680 · Mr. Wiseman and Mr. Attentive, characters in Bunyan's dialogue, The Life and Death of Mr. Badman The Life and Death of Mr. Badman

It greatly tendeth to impoverish and beggar a man. The Drunkard, says Solomon, shall come to poverty. Many that have begun the world with Plenty, have gone out of it in Rags; through drunkenness. Yea, many Children that have been born to good Estates, have yet been brought to a Flail & a Rake, through this beastly sin of their Parents. 2. This sin of Drunkenness, it bringeth upon the Body, many, great, and incurable Diseases, by which Men do in little time come to their end, and none can help them. So, because they are overmuch wicked, therefore they dye before their time. 3. Drunkenness, is a sin that is often times attended with abundance of other evils. Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contention? Who hath babblings? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of the eyes? They that tarry long at the Wine, they that go to seek mixt wine. That is, the Drunkard. 4. By Drunkenness, Men do often times shorten their dayes; goe out of the Ale-house drunk, and break their Necks before they come home. Instances not a few might be given of this, but this is so manifest, a man need say nothing. Atten. But that which is worse than all is, it also prepares men for everlasting burnings. Wise. Yea, and it so stupifies and besotts the soul, that a man that is far gone in Drunkenness, is hardly ever recovered to God. Tell me, when did you see an old drunkard converted? No, no, such an one will sleep till he dies, though he sleeps on the top of a Mast, let his dangers be never so great and Death and damnation never so near, he will not be awaked out of his sleep. So that if a man have any respect either to Credit, Health, Life or Salvation, he will not be a drunken man.

1712 · Matthew Henry, Commentary on Isaiah 5.18-30

Let drunkards know from this scripture that, (1.) They ungratefully abuse their bodily strength, which God has given them for good purposes, and by degrees cannot but weaken it. (2.) It will not excuse them from the guilt of drunkenness that they can drink hard and yet keep their feet. (3.) Those who boast of their drinking down others glory in their shame. (4.) How light soever men make of their drunkenness, it is a sin which will certainly lay them open to the wrath and curse of God.

1771–1772 · George Whitefield, Selected Sermons 52

Believe me, ye unhappy men of Belial, (for such, alas! this sin has made you) it is not without the strongest reasons, as well as utmost concern for your precious and immortal souls, that I now conjure you, in the Apostle's words, “Not to be drunk with wine, or any other liquor, wherein is excess.” For, First, Drunkenness is a sin which must be highly displeasing to God; because it is an abuse of his good creatures. When God first made man, and had breathed into him the breath of life, he gave him dominion over the works of his hands; and every herb bearing seed, and every tree, in which was the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to him was given for meat: but when Adam had tasted the forbidden fruit, which was the only restraint laid upon him, he forfeited this privilege, and had no right, after he had disobeyed his Creator, to the use of any one of the creatures. But, blessed be God, this charter, as well as all other privileges, is restored to us by the death of the second Adam, our Lord and Master Jesus Christ. Of every beast of the field, every fish of the sea, and whatsoever flieth in the air, or moveth on the face of the earth, that is fit for food, “we may freely eat,” without scruple take and eat; but then, with this limitation, that we use them moderately. For God, by the death of Jesus, has given no man license to be intemperate; but, on the contrary, has laid us under the strongest obligations to live soberly, as well as godly, in this present world. But the drunkard, despising the goodness and bounty of God, in restoring to us what we had so justly forfeited, turns his grace into wantonness; and as though the creature was not of itself enough subject to vanity, by being cursed for our sake, he abuses it still more, by making it administer to his lusts; and turns that wine which was intended to make glad his heart, into a deadly poison.

1823 · Robert South, Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions, Volume 2 26

But gluttony, and all excess, either in eating or drinking, strangely clouds and dulls the intellectual powers; and then it is not to be expected that the conscience should bear up, when the understanding is drunk down. An epicure’s practice naturally disposes a man to an epicure’s principles; that is, to an equal looseness and dissolution in both: and he who makes his belly his business will quickly come to have a conscience of as large a swallow as his throat; of which there wants not several scandalous and deplorable instances. Loads of meat and drink are fit for none but a beast of burden to bear; and he is much the greater beast of the two, who carries his burden in his belly, than he who carries it upon his back. On the contrary, nothing is so great a friend to the mind of man, as abstinence; it strengthens the memory, clears the apprehension, and sharpens the judgment; and, in a word, gives reason its full scope of acting; and when reason has that, it is always a diligent and faithful handmaid to conscience. And therefore, where men look no further than mere nature, (as many do not,) let no man expect to keep his gluttony and his parts, his drunkenness and his wit, his revellings and his judgment, and much less his conscience, together: for neither grace nor nature will have it so.

1845–1861 · Charles G. Finney, Sermons on Gospel Themes 11

We all feel that drunkenness is beastly. A drunkard we regard as a long way toward beasthood. See him reeling about, mentally besotted and reeking in his own filth! Is not he almost a beast? Nay, rather must we not ask pardon of all beasts for this comparison, for not one is so mean and so vile—not one excites in our bosom such a sense of voluntary degradation. Compared with the self-besotted drunkard, any one of them is a noble creature.

1881 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 27 (1881) 1593

When a man is given to wine, how can the Spirit of God dwell in him? How is it likely that the Truth of God shall enter an ear which has been rendered deaf by this degrading vice? How is the Word of God likely to operate upon a conscience that has been drenched and drowned by strong drink? I charge you, if any of you are given to drunkenness, flee from this destroyer before your bonds are made strong and you are hopelessly fettered by the habit!

1889 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 35 (1889) 2111

The drunken man is bad in every relation and the drunken woman is, if possible, worse. The drunken man ought never to be a husband, but he sometimes wears that name, and then he has a power to inflict misery which he is sure to use to the utmost. The drunken man will often do towards his wife what I will not trust my lips to speak of—it would be a libel on the brutes of the stall, or the beasts of the jungle, to liken him to them.

1891 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 37 (1891) 2220

Old Bacchus sits astride not only the wine cask, but many a man's heart. The man, when sober and "all right," is what everybody calls, "a good fellow." But he must drink and when once he is drunk, then he is by no means a good fellow, but foul and vile in language and one knows not what he may do! Sir, you must quit strong drink if you would be saved. No drunkard has any inheritance in the Kingdom of God! Drunkenness must be given up, and chambering, and wantonness, and gluttony, and all the sins of the flesh!

1911 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 57 (1911) 3233

It is a merciful thing that God forgives drunkenness. Some of those who have wallowed in it have been saved. We sometimes talk of a man being "as drunk as a beast," but who ever heard of a beast being drunk? Why, it is more beastly than anything a beast ever does! I do not believe that the devil himself is ever guilty of anything like that. I never heard even him charged with being a drunk. It is a sin which has no sort of excuse—those who fall into it generally fall into other deadly vices. It is the devil's backdoor to Hell and everything that is hellish, for he that once gives away his brains to drink is ready to be caught by Satan for anything! Oh, but while the drunk cannot have eternal life abiding in him while he is such, is it not a joy to think of the many drunks who have been washed and saved?

c. 398–404 · John Chrysostom, Homilies on 1 Thessalonians (In epistulam i ad Thessalonicenses homiliae 1-11) 9

If physical disorders have their origin in choice, much more those which are voluntary. Whence is drunkenness? Is it not from intemperance of soul?

1265–1273 · Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica I-II, q. 88, a. 5, ad 1

With regard to drunkenness we reply that it is a mortal sin by reason of its genus; for, that a man, without necessity, and through the mere lust of wine, make himself unable to use his reason, whereby he is directed to God and avoids committing many sins, is expressly contrary to virtue. That it be a venial sin, is due some sort of ignorance or weakness, as when a man is ignorant of the strength of the wine, or of his own unfitness, so that he has no thought of getting drunk, for in that case the drunkenness is not imputed to him as a sin, but only the excessive drink. If, however, he gets drunk frequently, this ignorance no longer avails as an excuse, for his will seems to choose to give way to drunkenness rather than to refrain from excess of wine: wherefore the sin returns to its specific nature.

1608 · Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life 3.29

Do not pronounce a man to be a drunkard although you may have seen him drunk, or an adulterer, because you know he has sinned; a single act does not stamp him for ever. The sun once stood still while Joshua and the children of Israel avenged themselves upon their enemies; and another time it was darkened at mid-day when the Lord was crucified; but no one would therefore say that it was stationary or dark. Noah was drunk once, and Lot, moreover, was guilty of incest, yet neither man could be spoken of as habitually given to such sins; neither would you call S. Paul a man of blood or a blasphemer, because he had blasphemed and shed blood before he became a Christian. Before a man deserves to be thus stigmatised, he must have formed a habit of the sin he is accused of, and it is unfair to call a man passionate or a thief, because you have once known him steal or fly into a passion.

1650 · Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living 2.2.6

But if it be inquired concerning the periods and distinct significations of this crime; and when a man is said to be drunk; to this I answer, that drunkenness is in the same manner to be judged as sickness. As every illness or violence done to health, in every part of its continuance, is a part or degree of sickness; so is every going off from our natural and common temper and our usual severity of behaviour, a degree of drunkenness. He is not only drunk that can drink no more; for few are so: but he hath sinned in a degree of drunkenness who hath done anything towards it beyond his proper measure. But its parts and periods are usually thus reckoned: 1. apish gestures; 2. much talking; 3. immoderate laughing; 4. dullness of sense; 5. scurrility, that is, wanton, or jeering, or abusive language; 6. an useless understanding; 7. stupid sleep; 8. epilepsies, or fallings and reelings, and beastly vomitings. The least of these, even when the tongue begins to be untied, is a degree of drunkenness.

1673 · Richard Baxter, A Christian Directory Chapter VIII

Drunkenness strictly taken, signifieth drinking till reason have received some hurt: and of this there be many degrees. He that hath in the least degree disturbed his reason, and disabled or hindered it from its proper office, is drunken in that degree: and he that hath overturned it, or quite disabled it, is stark drunk, or drunk in a greater degree. All excess of drink is sinful gulosity or sensuality, of the same nature with gluttony, and falls under all my last reproofs and directions. And in some persons that can sit it out, and bear much drink without intoxication, the sin may be greater than in some others, that by a smaller quantity are drunk by a surprise, before they are aware; but yet, cæteris paribus, the overthrow of the understanding maketh the sin to be much the greater; for it hath all the evil that the other degrees have, with more. It is a voluptuous excess in drink to the depravation of reason. Gulosity is the general nature of it: excess is the matter: depravation of reason is its special form.

1870 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 16 (1870) 940

Mournfully, I must go on and accuse some professors of being drunkards. There are still mingled with our Churches, even with our Nonconforming Churches, those who put but small restraints upon their animal appetites. They are overcharged with drunkenness in their parties and in secret. They talk like the disciples of Christ, and eat and drink like the followers of Epicures. Men given to wine cannot be filled with the Spirit! What? Though they are not seen staggering in the streets, is their excess one whit the less sinful than that of the public drunkard?

1878 · Charles G. Finney, Lectures on Systematic Theology 18

Intemperance, as a sin, does not consist in the outward act of indulgence, but in the inward disposition. A dyspeptic who can eat but just enough to sustain life, may be an enormous glutton at heart. He may have a disposition, that is, he may not only desire, but he may be willing, to eat all before him, but for the pain indulgence occasions him. But this is only the spirit of self-indulgence. He denies himself the amount of food he craves in order to gratify a stronger propensity, to wit, the dread of pain. So a man who was never intoxicated in his life, may be guilty of the crime of drunkenness every day. He may be prevented from drinking to inebriation only by a regard to reputation or health, or by an avaricious disposition. It is only because he is prevented by the greater power of some other propensity. If a man is in such a state of mind that he would indulge all his propensities without restraint, were it not that it is impossible, on account of the indulgence of some being inconsistent with the indulgence of the others, he is just as guilty as if he did indulge them all.

c. 743–750 · John of Damascus, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith (Expositio fidei; De fide orthodoxa) 38

All involuntary act depends, on the other hand, on ignorance, when one is not the cause of the ignorance one’s self, but events just so happen. For, if one commits murder while drunk, it is an act of ignorance, but yet not involuntary: for one was one’s self responsible for the cause of the ignorance, that is to say, the drunkenness.

1563 · John Calvin, Commentary on Jeremiah, part 1 (chapters 1-9) 6.10

The Prophet, as I have said, did not extenuate their guilt, but on the contrary shewed that they were so sunk in their vices, that they were not masters of themselves; as the case is with a drunkard, who is not in his right mind; but as he has contracted this vice of intemperance, his going astray or his ignorance is in no way excusable.

1706–1708 · Matthew Henry, Commentary on Genesis 19.30-38

A man may do that without reluctance, when he is drunk, which, when he is sober, he could not think of without horror.

1845–1861 · Charles G. Finney, Sermons on Gospel Themes 9

True, when a man makes himself temporarily insane, as by drunkenness, the courts are obliged to hold him responsible for his acts committed in that state; but the guilt really attaches to the voluntary act which creates the insanity. A man who gets intoxicated by intelligently drinking what he knows is intoxicating, must be held responsible for his acts during the ensuing intoxication. The reason of this is, that he can foresee the danger, and can easily avoid it.

1658 · Richard Baxter, A Call to the Unconverted to Turn and Live 4

Ministers see the poisoned cup in the drunkard’s hand, and tell him, there is poison in it, and desire him to have mercy on his soul, and forbear; and he will not hear us: drink it he must and will; he loves it; and therefore, though hell come next, he saith he cannot help it. What should one say to such men as these?

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: John 5.14

The drunkard that has been reformed, and that returns to his habits of drinking, becomes more beastly; the man that professes to have experienced a change of heart, and who then indulges in sin, sinks deeper into pollution, and is seldom restored. The only way of safety in all such cases is to "sin no more;" not to be in the way of temptation; not to expose ourselves; not to touch or approach that which came near to working our ruin. The man who has been intemperate and is reformed, if he tastes the poison at all, may expect to sink deeper than ever into drunkenness and pollution.

1858 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 4 (1858) 182

If a drunkard has become so foully a drunkard, that he finds it impossible to pass a public-house without stepping in, do you therefore excuse him? No, because his inability to reform, lies in his nature, which he has no desire to restrain or conquer. The thing that is done, and the thing that causes the thing that is done, being both from the root of sin, are two evils which cannot excuse each other. What though the Ethiopian cannot change his skin, nor the leopard his spots?

1866 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 12 (1866) 718

After conversion it frequently happens, and especially to those who have been guilty of gross sin before conversion, that temptation comes in with unusual force. You must not suppose that a man who is converted from drunkenness will never be tempted to drunkenness again. He will! That will probably be his burden for a long time. Any person who has fallen into lust will find it in his bones, and though he hates it and strives against it, yet there will be times when it will be as much as he can do and more than he could do without God's Grace to stand against it.

1872 · John Wesley, Sermons on Several Occasions 65

“Sinners of every other sort,” said a venerable old Clergyman, “have I frequently known converted to God. But an habitual drunkard I have never known converted.” But I have known five hundred, perhaps five thousand.

1885 · George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons, Second Series 2

When the drunkard, free of his body, but retaining his desire unable to indulge it, has time at length to think, in the lack of the means of destroying thought, surely there dawns for him then at last a fearful hope!—not until, by the power of God and his own obedient effort, he is raised into such a condition that, be the temptation what it might, he would not yield for an immortality of unrequited drunkenness—all its delights and not one of its penalties—is he saved.

1891 · G. G. Findlay, The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Galatians The Ethical Application. Chapter v. 13-vi. 10, Chapter XXIV. The Works of the Flesh

For men exposed to cold and hardship, the intoxicating cup has a potent fascination. The flesh, buffeted by the fatigues of a rough day's work, finds a strange zest in its treacherous delights. The man "drinks and forgets his poverty, and remembers his misery no more." For the hour, while the spell is upon him, he is a king; he lives under another sun; the world's wealth is his. He wakes up to find himself a sot! With racked head and unstrung frame he returns to the toil and squalor of his life, adding new wretchedness to that he had striven to forget. Anon he says, "I will seek it yet again!" When the craving has once mastered him, its indulgence becomes his only pleasure. Such men deserve our deepest pity. They need for their salvation all the safeguards that Christian sympathy and wisdom can throw around them. There are others "given to much wine," for whom one feels less compassion. Their convivial indulgences are a part of their general habits of luxury and sensuality, an open, flagrant triumph of the flesh over the Spirit. These sinners require stern rebuke and warning. They must understand that "those who practise such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God," that "he who soweth to his own flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption."

1894 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 40 (1894) 2354

How can you break loose from such chains? The habitual drunk—how shall he tear himself away from the cup that is ruining him? The man who has fallen into vicious habits, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?" If so, then he that is accustomed to do evil may learn to do well. But the Holy Spirit will help you to break off every sinful habit at once. I have known Him do it with many.

1894 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 40 (1894) 2371

I know that, with regard to the slavery of drunkenness, men think that they will drink a little less, and a little less, and gradually give it up. Do not drink any at all! Have done with it right now—you ought not to need to have any apprenticeship to the evil thing!

1896 · Dwight Lyman Moody, The Overcoming Life, and Other Sermons 1

The only cure for the accursed appetite is regeneration—a new life—the power of the risen Christ within us. Let a man that is given to strong drink look to God for help, and He will give him victory over his appetite. Jesus Christ came to destroy the works of the devil, and He will take away that appetite if you will let Him.

1896 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 42 (1896) 2487

If I were to go across a common at dead of night and half-a-dozen men met me and gathered round me, crying, "Your money or your life!" I should be beset by them. Suppose that I had to cross Clapham Common tonight and that I was thus surrounded and robbed—I should be beset by the thieves. But suppose I went that way again tomorrow night? And on Tuesday night, and on Wednesday night, and Thursday night, and Friday night, and Saturday night? Do you think that I should be able to say that I was "beset" by the robbers? People would naturally ask, "Why did you go that way? If you are attacked and robbed once, we can understand that, but what do you mean by going that way again?" Here is a man who says that drinking is his besetting sin. Well, my Brother, I can understand that you were led on, by degrees, from glass to glass till you lost your balance and were overcome. You call that your besetting sin and yet you still go to the public-house! Well, that is what I call going across a common on purpose to be robbed! And I do not believe your excuse about besetting sins.

1908 · Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: Proverbs 23.29-35

‘When shall I awake?’ He is not fully awake yet, so as to be able to get up and go for another drink. He is in the stage of feeling sorry for himself, and examining his bruises, but he wishes he were able to shake off the remaining drowsiness, that he might ‘seek yet again’ for his curse. The tyranny of desire, which wakes into full activity before the rest of the man does, and the enfeebled will, which, in spite of all bruises and discomforts, yields at once to the overmastering desire, make the tragedy of a drunkard’s life. There comes a point in lives of fleshly indulgence in which the craving seems to escape from the control of the will altogether. Doctors tell us that the necessity for drink becomes a physical disease.