Survey
of the Letters of Paul: 1 Timothy 5:23
Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine
often infirmities.
Verse 23 is its own section.
1 Timothy 5:23
Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy
stomach's sake and thine often infirmities.
ADVICE FOR TIMOTHY
1 Timothy 5:23
Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine for the sake
of your stomach, to help your frequent illnesses.
THIS sentence shows the real intimacy of these letters. Amid
the affairs of the Church and the problems of
administration, Paul finds time to slip in a little bit of
loving advice to Timothy about his health.
There had always been a strain of self-denial in Jewish
religion. When a man took the Nazirite vow (Numbers 6:1–21),
he was pledged never to taste any of the product of the
vine: ‘They shall separate themselves from wine and strong
drink; they shall drink no wine vinegar or other vinegar,
and shall not drink any grape juice or eat grapes, fresh or
dried. All their days as Nazarites they shall eat nothing
that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the
skins’ (Numbers 6:3–4). The Rechabites were also pledged to
abstain from wine. The Book of Jeremiah tells how Jeremiah
went and set before the Rechabites wine and cups: ‘But they
answered, “We will drink no wine; for our ancestor Jonadab
son of Rechab commanded us, ‘You shall never drink wine,
neither you nor your children; nor shall you ever build a
house, or sow seed; nor shall you plant a vineyard’”’
(Jeremiah 35:6–7). Now, Timothy was on one side a Jew – his
mother was Jewish (Acts 16:1) – and it may well be that from
his mother he had inherited this abstemious (ăb-stē'mē-əs,
əb-) [eating and drinking in moderation] way of
living. On his father’s side, he was a Greek. We have
already seen that behind the Pastorals there is the heresy
of Gnosticism, which saw all matter as evil and often
resulted in self-denial; and it may well be that Timothy was
unconsciously influenced by this Greek abstinence as well.
Here we have a great truth which Christians forget at their
peril – that we dare not neglect the body, for often
spiritual dullness and sterility come from the simple fact
that the body is tired and neglected. No machine will run
well unless it is cared for, and neither will the body. We
cannot do Christ’s work well unless we are physically fit to
do it. There is no virtue – rather the reverse – in neglect
of or contempt for the body. Mens sana in corpore sano, a
healthy mind in a healthy body, was the old Roman ideal –
and it is the Christian ideal too.
This is a text which has much troubled those who are
advocates of total abstinence. It must be remembered that it
does not give anyone a license to indulge in drink to
excess; it simply approves the use of wine where it may be
medicinally helpful. If it does lay down any principle at
all, E. F. Brown has well stated it: ‘It shows that while
total abstinence may be recommended as a wise counsel, it is
never to be enforced as a religious obligation.’ Paul is
simply saying that there is no virtue in the self-denial
which does the body more harm than good. ~Barclay
commentaries
Now to the commentaries.
First from the Matthew Henry Concise Commentary:
1 Timothy 5:23
The apostle also charges Timothy to take care of his health.
As we are not to make our bodies masters, so neither slaves;
but to use them so that they may be most helpful to us in
the service of God. ~Matthew Henry CC
The John Darby Synopsis also speaks to the verse in the
overall sense:
Timothy's habitual temperance is here seen: weak in body,
the apostle recommends him to use his liberty by taking a
little wine — a pleasing instance of grace. We have here a
proof of the habits of this faithful servant. The Spirit
shows us how carefully he kept himself from exciting or
satisfying his passions in the least thing (at the same
time that there is perfect liberty to use everything that is
good when there is a true reason for it) and also the
apostle's tender interest in his fellow-labourer in the
gospel. It is a little parenthesis attached to the
expression, " be not a partaker of other men's sins," but it
has great beauty. This affectionate watchfulness became the
apostle; he desired holiness in his representative, but he
well knew how to respect Timothy, and to maintain the
decorum which he had enjoined, and to exhibit his heartfelt
tenderness. ~John Darby Snopsis
The Geneva Bible Translation Notes says: "let the elders
have consideration for their health, in their diet."
~Geneva
For the other commentaries, the verse is in four parts:
1] Drink no longer water.
2] But use a little wine.
3] For thy stomach's sake.
4] And thine often infirmities.
1] Drink no longer water.
Drink no longer water - I suppose the thought of Timothy's
trials called to mind a sense of his physical condition.
Hence, he gives a medical prescription. The water of that
region is not good. The writer well remembers a fearfully
sick day that he passed at Ephesus in 1889, due to the
water. Paul, hence, advises that instead, he try the light
wines, with only the smallest percentage of alcohol. The
prescription is not of a beverage, but of a remedy for an
invalid. ~People's New Testament
Drink no longer water - There has been much difficulty felt
in regard to the connection which this advice has with what
precedes and what follows. Many have considered the
difficulty to be so great that they have supposed that this
verse has been displaced, and that it should be introduced
in some other connection. The true connection, and the
reason for the introduction of the counsel here, seems to me
to be this: Paul appears to have been suddenly impressed
with the thought - a thought which is very likely to come
over a man who is writing on the duties of the ministry - of
the arduous nature of the ministerial office. He was giving
counsels in regard to an office which required a great
amount of labor, care, and anxiety. The labors enjoined were
such as to demand all the time; the care and anxiety
incident to such a charge would be very likely to prostrate
the frame, and to injure the health. Then he remembered that
Timothy was yet but a youth; he recalled his feebleness of
constitution and his frequent attacks of illness; he
recollected the very abstemious (ăb-stē'mē-əs, əb-)
habits which he had prescribed for himself, and, in this
connection, he urges him to a careful regard for his health,
and prescribes the use of a small quantity of wine, mingled
with his water, as a suitable medicine in his case. Thus
considered, this direction is as worthy to be given by an
inspired teacher as it is to counsel a man to pay a proper
regard to his health, and not needlessly to throw away his
life; compare Matthew 10:23. The phrase, “drink no longer
water,” is equivalent to, “drink not water only;” see
numerous instances in Wetstein. The Greek word here used
does not elsewhere occur in the New Testament. ~Barnes
Notes
Quoted verse:
Matthew 10:23
But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into
another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone
over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.
Drink no longer water -Though it was commendable in him to
keep under his body, as the apostle did, by abstemious
living, and not pamper the flesh and encourage the lusts of
it, and so preserve purity and chastity; yet it was proper
that he should take care of his health, that it was not
impaired by too much severity, and so he be incapable of
doing the work of the Lord. And it seems by this, that his
long and only use of water for his drink had been
prejudicial to his health: wherefore the following advice
was judged proper: ~John Gill
Drink no longer water - as a habit. This injunction to drink
wine occasionally is a modification of the preceding “keep
thyself pure.” The presbyter and deacon were enjoined to be
“not given to wine” (1
Timothy 3:3,
1 Timothy 3:8). Timothy
seems to have had a tendency to undue ascetical strictness
on this point (see on
1 Timothy 4:8; compare the
Nazarene vow, Numbers 6:1-4; John the Baptist, Luke 1:15;
Romans 14:1-23). Paul therefore modifies the preceding
words, “keep thyself pure,” virtually saying, “Not that I
mean to enjoin that kind of purity which consists in
asceticism, nay, be no longer a water-drinker,” that is, no
longer drink only water, but use a little wine, as much as
is needed for thy health. Timothy was of a feeble frame, and
prone to timidity in his duties as overseer where vigorous
action was needed; hence Paul exhorts him to take all proper
means to raise his bodily condition above these infirmities.
God hereby commands believers to use all due means for
preserving health, and condemns by anticipation the human
traditions which among various sects have denied the use of
wine to the faithful. ~Jamieson, Fausset, Brown
Drink no longer water - Not complete asceticism, but only
the need of some wine urged in Timothy’s peculiar physical
condition (a sort of medical prescription for this case).
~Robertson's Word Pictures
2] But use a little wine.
But use a little wine - The emphasis is on oligōi (a
little). ~Robertson's Word Pictures
But use a little wine - Mingled with the water - the common
method of drinking wine in the East. ~Barnes Notes
But use a little wine - some, by "a little wine", understand
not the quantity, but the quality of the wine; a thin,
small, weak wine, or wine mixed with water; and so the
Ethiopic version renders the words, "drink no more simple
water", (or water only,)
"but mix a little wine"; though rather the quantity is
intended, and which is mentioned. Not as though there was
any danger of Timothy's running into an excess of drinking;
but for the sake of others, lest they should abuse such a
direction, to indulge themselves in an excessive way; and
chiefly to prevent the scoffs of profane persons; who
otherwise would have insinuated that the apostle indulged
intemperance and excess: whereas this advice to the use of
wine, was not for pleasure, and for the satisfying of the
flesh, but for health. ~John Gill
3] For thy stomach's sake.
For thy stomach’s sake - It was not for the pleasure to be
derived from the use of wine, or because it would produce
hilarity or excitement, but solely because it was regarded
as necessary for the promotion of health; that is, as a
medicine. ~Barnes Notes
For thy stomach's sake - to help digestion, and to remove
the disorders which might attend it: the Ethiopic version
renders it, "for the pain of the liver", and "for thy
perpetual disease"; which last might be a pain in his head,
arising from the disorder of his stomach. ~John Gill
For thy stomach’s sake - Here only in N.T. Our word
“stomach.” ~Robertson's Word Pictures
4] And thine often infirmities.
And thine often infirmities - weaknesses, lack of strength.
~Robertson's Word Pictures
And thine often infirmities - ἀσθενείας astheneias -
Weaknesses or sicknesses. The word would include all
infirmities of body, but seems to refer here to some attacks
of sickness to which Timothy was liable, or to some
feebleness of constitution; but beyond this we have no
information in regard to the nature of his maladies. In view
of this passage, and as a further explanation of it, we may
make the following remarks:
(1) The use of wine, and of all intoxicating drinks, was
solemnly forbidden to the priests under the Mosaic law, when
engaged in the performance of their sacred duties; Leviticus
10:9-10. The same was the case among the Egyptian priests.
Clarke; compare notes on
1 Timothy 3:3. It is not
improbable that the same thing would be regarded as proper
among those who ministered in holy things under the
Christian dispensation. The natural feeling would be, and
not improperly, that a Christian minister should not be less
holy than a Jewish priest, and especially when it is
remembered that the reason of the Jewish law remained the
same - “that ye may put difference between holy and unholy,
and clean and unclean.”
(2) it is evident from this passage that Timothy usually
drank water only, or that, in modern language, he was a
“tee-totaller.” He was, evidently, not in the habit of
drinking wine, or he could not have been exhorted to do it.
(3) he must have been a remarkably temperate youth to have
required the authority of an apostle to induce him to drink
even a little wine. There are few young men so temperate as
to require such an authority to induce them to do it.
(4) the exhortation extended only to a very moderate use of
wine. It was not to drink it freely; it was not to drink it
at the tables of the rich and the great, or in the social
circle; it was not even to drink it by itself; it was to use
“a little,” mingled with water - for this was the usual
method.
(5) it was not as a common drink, but the exhortation or
command extends only to its use as a medicine. All the use
which can be legitimately made of this injunction - whatever
conclusion may be drawn from other precepts - is, that it is
proper to use a small quantity of wine for medicinal
purposes.
(6) there are many ministers of the gospel, now, alas! to
whom under no circumstances could an apostle apply this
exhortation - “Drink no longer water only.” They would ask,
with surprise, what he meant? whether he intended it in
irony, and for banter - for they need no apostolic command
to drink wine. Or if he should address to them the
exhortation, “use a little wine,” they could regard it only
as a reproof for their usual habit of drinking much. To
many, the exhortation would be appropriate, if they ought to
use wine at all, only because they are in the habit of using
so much that it would be proper to restrain them to a much
smaller quantity.
(7) this whole passage is one of great value to the cause of
temperance. Timothy was undoubtedly in the habit of
abstaining wholly from the use of wine. Paul knew this, and
he did not reprove him for it. He manifestly favored the
general habit, and only asked him to depart in some small
degree from it, in order that he might restore and preserve
his health. So far, and no further, is it right to apply
this language in regard to the use of wine; and the minister
who should follow this injunction would be in no danger of
disgracing his sacred profession by the debasing and
demoralizing sin of intemperance. ~Barnes Notes
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