Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities.
Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, a young man he had mentored who was now leading a church in the city of Ephesus. Timothy apparently suffered from recurring stomach problems and frequent illnesses. In the middle of serious instructions about church leadership and handling sin, Paul pauses to give Timothy this very personal, practical piece of advice. In the ancient world, diluted wine was commonly used for medicinal purposes — the fermentation process made it safer than untreated water, and it was known to aid digestion and settle stomach ailments. Paul seems concerned that Timothy's strict personal discipline — perhaps avoiding wine for religious or ascetic reasons — was actually harming his health. It is a remarkably human moment in a letter full of weighty theological instruction.
Lord, thank you that you care about my body, not just my soul. Forgive me for treating rest and care as weaknesses instead of gifts you've given me. Help me receive the ordinary things that keep me well — and extend that same attention to the people around me who are quietly running on empty. Amen.
You might read this verse and wonder what it's doing in the Bible. Between instructions about church elders and warnings about sin, Paul suddenly stops and says: *hey — your stomach. Drink some wine. Take care of yourself.* It almost feels out of place. But that's exactly what makes it worth pausing over. The apostle Paul, writing what became sacred Scripture, thought it worth interrupting the theology to notice that his friend was sick and not taking care of himself. That's not a footnote. That's a window into what Paul thought actually mattered about a person. There's a version of devotion — and a lot of people quietly live it — where caring for your body feels selfish, where rest feels like laziness, where physical needs are always secondary to spiritual ones. Timothy may have been doing exactly that: grinding through illness because enduring it felt more holy than addressing it. Paul didn't affirm that. He told him to eat, to drink, to do the ordinary thing that would help him feel better. Your body is not a distraction from your calling — it's what your calling moves through. How are you actually doing? Not spiritually. Physically. And is there someone in your life who needs you to ask them the same thing?
Why do you think this practical, personal verse made it into Scripture? What does its presence suggest about how God views physical health and ordinary human needs?
Do you tend to neglect your physical health in the name of productivity, ministry, or spiritual discipline? What has that pattern actually cost you over time?
Some people feel guilty receiving care or practical advice about their wellbeing — they'd rather push through. Where do you think that impulse comes from, and is it actually virtuous?
Paul's concern for Timothy's health is an act of pastoral care embedded inside a theological letter. Who in your life might need someone to notice how they're actually doing — physically, emotionally, practically — not just spiritually?
What's one concrete step toward your own health or wellbeing that you've been putting off? What would it take to actually do it this week?
He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried.
Numbers 6:3
Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts.
Proverbs 31:6
And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart.
Psalms 104:15
It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink:
Proverbs 31:4
Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.
Proverbs 31:7
For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:
1 Timothy 4:4
For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre;
Titus 1:7
Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations:
Leviticus 10:9
No longer continue drinking [only] water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.
AMP
(No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.)
ESV
No longer drink water [exclusively], but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.
NASB
Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.
NIV
No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach’s sake and your frequent infirmities.
NKJV
Don’t drink only water. You ought to drink a little wine for the sake of your stomach because you are sick so often.
NLT
And don't worry too much about what the critics will say. Go ahead and drink a little wine, for instance; it's good for your digestion, good medicine for what ails you.
MSG