Be careful what you condemn
If the Bible says a thing is a blessing and a helpful thing, then it is. If the Bible goes on to warn that one should be careful not to use the thing to the extreme, including addiction, this does not negate the blessedness of the thing. The Bible is simply saying, "Don't turn a good thing into a god thing", to use Mark Driscolls phrase.
To prohibit a blessed thing completely on the grounds that sin is possible is stupid; worse, it's sinful.
"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,
who put darkness for light and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!" (Isaiah 5:20)
This is the mistake the Pharisees and teachers of the law made with so many things, especially Jesus. Augustine made the same mistake when he forbade sex unless it was purposed as a means for procreation between husband and wife. Thomas B. Welch did this with his condemnation of the use of wine in communion. And hundreds of modern day Christians make this same mistake with wine when they condemn its use altogether and make it sinful even to purchase or own it.
We must be careful about what and how we condemn things. Much wisdom is required and much discipline is required to evaluate the traditions that we inherit. How many blessings have been avoided because of wrongful condemnation and our propensity for adding regulations to those given in the Bible. This is a shameful thing.
Let's take the condemnation of wine in communion as our example.
"The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’" (Luke 7:34)
I find Wilson's argument for the use of wine compelling and his argument is futher bolstered by historical observations, like 1900 years of wine before grape juice was introduced (thanks to Welch). Make no mistake, grape juice was a category of drink 2000 years ago, as was water. Furthermore, while we don't know the actual level of alcohol we do know it was strong enough to get drunk on (1 Corinthians 11). Yet, we always hear of Jesus interacting with wine; turning water into it, drinking it, even remarking that he will not partake again until some appointed time in the future (Matthew 26:29). I find it interesting that the last thing Jesus drank was wine (John 19:30) and the drink he ordained for the future celebration is wine. Clearly Jesus liked wine.
Other Scripture references characterize wine as a blessing (Proverbs 3:9-10, Psalm 104, Isaiah 65:8) and helpful (1 Timothy 5), while some condemn drunkenness and addiction to wine as sin (Romans 13, Galatians 5, 1 Peter, 1 Timothy, etc). So it would seem that the Bible would confirm that there is an appropriate use for wine along with a risk worthy of warnings. I also find it interesting that the Pharisees didn't prohibit the consumption of wine; given their propensity to erect barriers around hard and fast rules so as to avoid even getting close to sinning.
Yet various modern day denominations have condemned the blessing of wine in order to prevent the possibility of the sin of drunkenness. In doing so aren't they calling the blessing a sin? The Bible says calling something a sin that God himself calls a blessing is itself a sin. That was the problem of the Pharisees. In fact, isn't the unpardonable sin attributing something to Satan that should be attributed to God?
Be careful what you condemn because in doing so you may be sinning. Take every thought and tradition captive and inspect it with the light of God's word and the wisdom in it.
