Why Wine for Communion

Here at Hope, we offer both grape juice and wine as options for communion, which we do weekly. However, there was a time when we offered only juice, and only after a couple of years of discussions, teachings, and some wrestling on the matter did we begin to offer wine. But why?

The purpose of this post is to provide a relatively brief answer to this question. This post is in no way exhaustive on the matter of wine or juice, but seeks to simply explain why we at Hope use wine for communion. If you want to listen to the message I gave on this topic back in February of 2024, you can listen to it on Spotify (Wine & Strong Drink) or watch it on YouTube. For the purposes of this post, I give three reasons as to why we provide wine for communion. Of course, this post, due to its brevity, will possibly leave lingering questions. I would be happy to address them personally if you find any questions remaining that are burning to be answered.

Wine is Good... Not Evil.

The threshing floors shall be full of grain;

      the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.

Joel 2:24

Wine is a blessing from above. This is not the opinion of a man, but the teaching of God's Word. Simply peruse the 200+ verses that speak of wine, as well as those that speak of strong drink, and this is the clear picture painted for us by God's Word. I won't cite them all as it is not a hard thing for you to look up yourself, and if you've read the Old Testament, you know this already. To sum it up, wine is a comfort meant to gladden and strengthen the hearts of men and a sign of God's blessing among His people. The prevalence and enjoyment of wine is a key marker of the Messianic age, hence the inclusion of the water into wine miracle we read about in chapter two of John's gospel.

And while it may be true that wine is good and not evil, there are still many warnings and cautions given in regard to wine. Scripture is clear that drinking too much of it and chasing it is wrong and destructive to one's life. To go to wine for one's happiness and joy, and not to Yahweh, the giver of the wine, is sinful. Consider Proverbs 20:1, 21:17, 23:29-35, as well as 31:4, which warns rulers against drinking. And yet, a mark of the Proverbs 31 woman is that she would plant a vineyard.

Wine is not evil; it is meant to be good, a gift from above. But if we are not careful, we can abuse it, and as it is with sex, we can twist what is meant to be a blessing from above into a curse down below.

Now, to deal with a common objection, or better yet, a common misunderstanding. Wine in the Old Testament was wine, not juice, and the same in the New Testament. It was perhaps watered down at times, but watered-down wine still has alcohol and can still get people drunk, perhaps not as easily, but that too would depend on one's tolerance to alcohol, which varies from person to person. Self-control is still needed regardless of the alcoholic content of the wine.

But why use wine for communion?

Wine is ordained by God.

And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

Luke 22:19-20

Simply put, we drink wine in remembrance of Christ. The fruit of the vine, as it is described in the synoptics, was wine, not juice. Yes, grape juice can be considered "fruit of the vine," and so can tomato juice. But just as much as we know that they were not drinking tomato juice, we know that they were not drinking grape juice. If they were, and had the means to drink grape juice regularly in remembrance of Christ, then the church would not have needed to wait until the 19th century for Dr. Welch to make that possible.

You might say, what does it matter? If they're both considered fruit of the vine, why not just stick with juice?

Again, because it was wine that was drank, not juice. It is odd that the drink that Christ drank, wine, is the drink that is most often required to be defended rather than the drink that wasn't drank by Christ. Plus, it is wine we will drink with Him when He returns, not juice.

The fact that Jesus both modeled and commanded us to drink wine in remembrance of Him should be reason alone to drink wine. And we ought to do so without needing further explanation as to why that is. Another consideration on this matter is the wisdom of Christ. Was Christ unwise to command His people for centuries to drink a beverage that would be a stumbling block for His people? If, as some have suggested, we are putting a stumbling block in front of our brothers and sisters in Christ, wouldn't Jesus be the one responsible for such a stumbling block since it is His command? Is He not all-knowing and perfect? Then how could obedience to His command be a stumbling block? How can it be bad for the church? Granted, the church can certainly abuse the command and do harm with it, just as the church can with any command of Christ. Love and care for one another in the name of Christ is to be paramount. But as John tells us in 1 John 5:2, we know that we love one another when we obey His commands.

Thus, we chose to offer wine for the sake of our brothers and sisters in Christ, which brings me to the next reason for it.

Wine Edifies.

For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

2 Timothy 1:7

Or, another way to say it, wine is for the sake of discipleship. Often, the argument against wine and for the sake of juice is one rooted in love for neighbor, specifically for our brothers and sisters in Christ who struggle with alcoholism or have a strong aversion to alcohol due to traumatic experiences or personal beliefs. While the argument is well-intended, it is the weaker argument and the weaker love, as it robs our brothers and sisters in Christ of the blessing that wine is meant to be, as well as avoiding the harder and better conversation we need to have with them.

As believers in Christ who have been given a spirit of self-control, we ought to be able to enjoy the blessings of God as they were intended to be enjoyed. We should not be avoiding them simply because it is easier to do so.

For example, think about sex and pornography. When someone who has struggled with pornography gets married, we do not tell them that they must abstain from sexual activity for the rest of their life. They might have to abstain for a period to gain and learn self-control, but we don't expect them or their spouse to abstain forever. Why? Because sex is meant to be a blessing, a good that is enjoyed between them. So, we strive with them to get to a point where self-control is known and practiced. Therefore, why not the same for the brother or sister in Christ who struggles with alcoholism?

By having wine at a communion, it brings this issue to the forefront. It forces the conversation, and thus it forces discipleship to happen. You might object and say, what about Romans 14? Romans 14 is about matters that speak to liberty, not to what God has explicitly commanded and modeled for us to do. Our love should limit our liberty, and at the same time, our love should encourage us to walk with our brothers and sisters in Christ so that they may strengthen their weak faith and learn self-control in order to enjoy the blessings of Christ as commanded by Christ. Now, this may mean, for a time, we tell our brothers and sisters in Christ to abstain from the table, in hopes that the desire to receive the cup would be a motivating factor for them to learn self-control so that one day, they may receive the cup once again.

We must be careful not to allow the teaching of Romans 14 to become an edict or a law that restricts faithful obedience to observing the sacraments. Or, as one commentator put it, the tyranny of the minority or the tyranny of the weak should not keep the body at large from faithful worship and faithful observance of what Jesus Himself commanded and modeled for us.

Therefore, if any compromise is to be made on the matter of wine and juice, it most certainly should not be to remove wine from the table as a concession to those of weaker faith. If any compromise is to be made, it should be made in the allowance of juice, not in the prohibition of wine.

One final comment. Sometimes the question of the bread is brought up in objecting to the wine over juice. People wonder if we use unleavened bread since that's the bread they ate at the Last Supper. The argument is reasonable, so here is my answer.

Bread is bread, wine is wine, and juice is juice. All three of these contain their own varieties, and yet juice is not wine. Where we can have bread that has leaven or does not have leaven, both are still bread. We can have wine that has alcohol and does not have alcohol. But non-alcoholic wine is still not juice; there still remains a key distinction. I am more comfortable with non-alcoholic wine being used for communion than I am with juice, for it is still wine. And the wine that was used in the days of Jesus certainly is not the wine we drink today. The winemaking process has certainly changed and improved, increasing the varieties of wine that we have access to. With all that being said, I would not be against using only unleavened bread for communion.