1 Timothy 5:23

Ver. 23. No longer drink water that is, water exclusively but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake, and thy frequent ailments. The direction here given is in itself plain enough. For some reason not specified, but probably from a desire to testify against prevailing excess by the strictest example of moderation, Timothy had become what is now called a total abstainer: he drunk only water; and the apostle counsels him to relax to some extent in this practice; and instead of restricting himself to water as a beverage, to use a little wine, on the special ground that this might be (medicinally) beneficial to his stomach, and a corrective to his frequent ailments. This has appeared to many too low a ground, considered by itself, for a direction carrying with it apostolic authority, and occurring in the midst of others bearing on pastoral duty. It has consequently been regarded by some, and still is by Ellicott, as having a moral rather than a dietary aim as a kind of qualification or counterpoise to the charge immediately preceding: Keep thyself pure, but do not therefore deem it necessary to refrain from using a little wine, as thy health may occasionally require, or think of going into ascetic rigour regarding it. Undoubtedly the passage quite naturally admits of being applied against abstinence from wine on ascetic principles, since it shows that the materials of food and drink are to be primarily considered with reference to the sustenance and health of the body, and that there is no merit in abstinence from their moderate use per se: in so far as they may be temporarily or habitually disallowed by any one, it should be only on grounds of fitness and expediency, whether derived from the physical or the moral aspect of things. But that is all. To say that the direction was occasioned by the actual appearance of the ascetic tendency in the church, and with the design of checking its progress, is a quite gratuitous assertion, and has the natural cast and impress of the direction against it; although, when that tendency did discover itself, and even led some to object to the use of wine in the Lord's Supper, this passage was most justly appealed to as a proof to the contrary. But when we find the apostle himself assigning a reason for the particular advice he tendered to Timothy, why should any other be sought for? Was it unbefitting one ambassador of Christ to charge another, amid the toils and troubles of his work, to pay some regard to his bodily health, and to take such food and nourishment as was deemed best for the purpose? No one surely will be disposed to allege that especially since our Lord Himself did not think it beneath Him, in one of His last discourses with His disciples, to give them instructions of a quite cognate nature: He charged them, with a view to their bodily protection and support, to take with them scrip as well as purse, and a sword and garments (Luke 22:36); in other words, to neglect no proper precautions for their outward safety and well-being. This instruction to Timothy bears the same general character. He had a great, and in many respects irksome, work to do, with the disadvantage of a delicate and often ailing frame; and if care were not taken to place it under proper dietary treatment, he would inevitably become more or less incapacitated for duty: there might especially ensue that sort of nervous debility and depression, which more almost than anything besides, unhinges the firm resolve of the soul, and disposes it to shrink from the less pleasing parts of pastoral duty. The principle involved, then, in this prudential advice to Timothy, is in its most natural and obvious sense capable of the fullest vindication; it is, indeed, of practical moment for all times; the laborious pastor or evangelist, if he is wise, will never neglect it: for his work's sake, as well as for his personal comfort and advantage, he will endeavour to keep his bodily frame in a sound and healthful condition. And as regards the specific means recommended for this end, the taking of a little wine, the apostle is to be contemplated merely in the light of a friend, exhorting to the use of what was then understood to belong to the proper regimen for such infirmities as Timothy was labouring under. Granting even that wine might not, in the present advanced state of medical science, be found the best specific for his peculiar ailments, that would argue nothing against the propriety of the prescription as coming from the pen of an apostle. He necessarily wrote from the point of view common to him and his contemporaries, having regard to what was then believed to be best; and possibly, if we knew more fully the circumstances of the case, it might even still be deemed such: no one, at least, can certainly affirm it to have been otherwise. On every account, therefore, we ought to take the advice tendered by the apostle in its simplest and most obvious import. So considered, it has its value (as already stated in the Introduction) in an apologetic respect, incidentally witnessing to the apostolic authorship of the epistle; its value, also, as an indication of the regard that should be had, even by the most distinguished of God's servants, to the proper regimen and health of the body; and finally, its value as a testimony to the lawfulness of such kinds of food as are adapted to the weal of the body, subject only to considerations of propriety, as contradistinguished from the restrictive prohibitions of a false asceticism.

But if, in dealing with a matter of this kind, we may in one respect take into consideration the change of times, so should we also in another. “How few are there now-a-days,” Calvin justly asks, “for whom it might be necessary to interdict water! how many who have to be urged to the restricted use of wine! Moreover, we see here how needful it is for us, even when we desire to act rightly, to seek from the Lord a spirit of prudence, that we may keep the moderation which He would have us to observe! A general rule is laid down, that we should maintain such temperance in meat and drink as may be conducive to our personal health, not for the purpose of prolonging life, but that so long as we continue in life we may be serviceable to God and our neighbours.” He then refers to the Carthusians, who carry their asceticism so far, that they would rather die than taste a bit of flesh; and adds: “But if the temperate and abstemious are enjoined not to injure their health by too great reserve, no slight punishment awaits the intemperate, who by surfeiting and drunkenness impair their energy. Such persons are not to be admonished, but rather, as brute animals, to be driven from their pabulum.”