Can Christians Eat Meat
or Drink Wine?
by Henry Velez; Editor

INTRO: 
What we will examine here is the issue regarding meat and wine in the Christian life. As we will see, this is an issue which touches upon both Biblical direction from God as well as personal conviction in the individual. There is a proper way to handle one's convictions regarding meat and wine. We will first look at Biblical references beginning with the Old Testament (prior to Jesus incarnate) and move forward to the New Testament (after the arrival of Jesus).

"Doesn't it say somewhere in the Bible not to eat certain meat?" 
The reference most people turn to who advocate the abstinence of meat or certain meats is located in the following verses;

Lev 11:1-8
1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron,
2 "Say to the Israelites: 'Of all the animals that live on land, these are the ones you may eat:
3 You may eat any animal that has a split hoof completely divided and that chews the cud.
4 "'There are some that only chew the cud or only have a split hoof, but you must not eat them. The camel, though it chews the cud, does not have a split hoof; it is ceremonially unclean for you.
5 The coney, though it chews the cud, does not have a split hoof; it is unclean for you.
6 The rabbit, though it chews the cud, does not have a split hoof; it is unclean for you.
7 And the pig, though it has a split hoof completely divided, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you.
8 You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you.

There are more verses that follow regarding certain types of seafood, poultry and even insects which were part of the dietary laws handed down from God to Moses and the H. These dietary laws became part of what God required of the Jewish nation whom He had called to be His people. These dietary laws were handed down during the time of the Old Testament. 

As can be seen by the verses above, not all meats were considered unclean.. only certain meats such as pigs (pork), camels, etceteras based on their characteristics regarding split hoof and cud.

"What about drinking wine?" 
This is where many people do not make an important distinction. God reveals in the Bible that He is not against the drinking of wine.. however.. He is very opposed to drunkenness. To drink wine to the point of drunkenness is both sin and unwise. However, the drinking of wine itself is not a sin. Consider the following passages;

Prov 20:1
1 Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler; whoever is led astray by them is not wise.
Prov 23:20-21
20 Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat,
21 for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags.
Prov 23:31-33
31 Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly!
32 In the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper.
33 Your eyes will see strange sights and your mind imagine confusing things.
Eph 5:18
18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
1 Tim 5:22-23
22 Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, and do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.
23 Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.

Jesus Himself can be seen in various verses turning water into wine at a wedding (see John 2:1-11), having wine during meals with people (see Luke 7:24-35), wine being part of the Passover feast (see Mark 22:14-25) as well as wine being part of the new covenant taking of 'communion'.. remembered by partaking of wine and bread. (see ICor. 11:23-28)

Again, this distinction must be made.. the difference between "drinking wine" and "getting drunk". Furthermore, though drinking wine is allowable, if a person has a history of struggling with drunkenness.. the Bible states such a person is wise to not allow such a thing to "hold mastery" over him. This would mean abstaining so as to keep distance from something which has proven to be a problem in the past. Notice that in verse '11' the past-tense 'were' refers to a person's past.;

1 Cor 6:9-12
9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders
10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
12 "Everything is permissible for me"-- but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"-- but I will not be mastered by anything.

"Was it real wine?"
There are still those today, in Christian circles, who will agree with the above verses however choose to believe that Jesus only drank a water-down version of wine or perhaps grape juice wherever the word 'wine' is used in scripture.

There are several problems with this belief. First is the issue of warnings regarding the drinking of wine leading to drunkenness.  Obviously if what Hebrews drank was only watered-down wine there would be little worry.  Actual, fermented, alcohol bearing wine is what was common not only among Hebrews but others of the same time period.
The second supposition is that watered down wine was used for meals.  While this may be true for what was served to children, actual wine is what Jesus produced at the wedding in Cana. (His first miracle.)  People do not celebrate weddings with watered-down wine, but actual wine.  The host for the wedding even comments on the excellency of the wine Jesus had produced.

^{John 2:9-11  9}They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside ¹⁰and said, "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now."
¹¹This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.

Third, the greatest problem against the belief that Jesus did not drink actual is the simple fact that unfermented grape juice did not become available until 18 centuries after the time of Jesus. Grape juice that is squeezed and stored at room temperature will ferment.  The pasteurizing of juices was not introduced until centuries later.  Lacking refrigeration or the process.. the fruit of the vine was always harvested into wine.

"Didn't the dietary restrictions get lifted by Jesus' authority?" 
There are two references, both very explicit, regarding the issue of eating any kind of meats, even those previously considered 'unclean'. The first occurs while Jesus was alive in the flesh, before the cross;

Mark 7:14-19
14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this.
15 Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.'"
17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable.
18 "Are you so dull?" he asked. "Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'?
19 For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.")

The second explicit directive from Jesus came after He had resurrected from the cross and appeared to Peter in a vision;

Acts 10:9-16
9 About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray.
10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance.
11 He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners.
12 It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air.
13 Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat."
14 "Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean."
15 The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."
16 This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.

Some have tried to interpret the above reference as meaning a symbol of "Jews and Gentiles", clean and unclean people.. not animals. The verse is very clear though in speaking of killing animals and eating them. Trying to make an analogy regarding Gentiles then breaks down. Meanwhile the entire New Testament is already filled with clear directives that the Gospel is available to both Jew and Gentiles. 
Peter is later seen eating at the table of Gentiles, who have no dietary laws regarding meat. (see Gal. 2:11-20) Further, in verse '15' it is stated, "..God has made clean", meaning it was unclean before (Old Testament/Covenant) and has now been made clean in the New Covenant which relies on faith and not the works of the law for salvation. This new covenant and how it applied to Gentiles (non-Jews) is again addressed in detail in Acts 15:1-30.

"So if it's okay Biblically to eat meat, why do some people insist it is not allowed?"
"Do I have to abstain from meat because someone won't consider me a Christian if I do?" 

This was and still is an issue since people from either past cultures or personal convictions still do not allow themselves to eat meat (or drink wine). When they meet with a person who enjoys the freedom offered in the Bible to do so, there is often a clash of convictions. Read here to see what the Bible has to say about resolving such an issue;

Rom 14:1-23
1 Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters.
2 One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.
3 The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him.
4 Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5 One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.
6 He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.
7 For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone.
8 If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
9 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.
10 You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat.
11 It is written: "'As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.'"
12 So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.
13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way.
14 As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.
15 If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died.
16 Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil.
17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,
18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.
19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.
20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble.
21 It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.
22 So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves.
23 But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.

So then, each side is told to have a loving tolerance and respect for each other's personal convictions. It is an unloving thing for either side to try to convert the other to a conviction they do not hold to. The man with freedom should allow the man who abstains, to remain abstaining.. and vice-versa. Likewise, to go against one's convictions regarding these sort of 'disputable matters' is sin, for it is done against conscience and therefore 'not from faith'.

Verse 22 states, "So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves." This does not mean a person decides for themselves what they may approve of in "all things". Where the Bible is clear and 'indisputable' about issues (such as stealing, adultery, lying, etc.).. a person cannot circumvent around God's direct moral law simply because their own conscience is 'okay' with it. The issues of conscience apply only to 'disputable' areas not specifically addressed in scripture. Such issues as food, alcohol, dancing, how many children, etc. are areas where individual freedom may be expressed.

SUMMARY: The direction in all this focuses on two things; 
(1) Mutual respect for each other's convictions and 
(2) Behaving in a loving manner. This would mean taking the other person's conviction into account when you are with them.. abstaining from meat or alcohol for that meal so as not to offend them. It would be unloving to insist upon them they either eat meat or share a meal with you while you partook of wine, even if not to drunkenness. Walking in and having your own conviction about the matter between yourself and God can be exercised at a later time when not in the abstaining-person's presence.

Phil 2:1-4
1 If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion,
2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.