62. 1Ti_3:8

1 Timothy 3:8 1 Timothy 3:8, Deacons—“not given to much wine.” This is held as evidence not only that they might use some wine, but also that the wine was intoxicating. The Greek word prosekooccurs twenty-four times, and is eight times rendered beware; six times, take heed; four, gave heed; one, giving heed; two, gave attendance; one, attended; one, had regard; one, given to wine. Robinson’s rendering is, “to give or devote one’s self to anything;” and other lexicons, “be addicted to, engage in, be occupied with,” as in 1 Timothy 1:4; 1 Timothy 3:8. The deacons of the primitive churches were converts mostly from idolatry, and in their unconverted state were accustomed to voluptuousness and sensuality. In the previous pages, we have seen that those who were dissipated and voluptuous preferred the wine whose strength had been broken by the filter, because it enabled them to drink largely without becoming intoxicated. They used various methods to promote thirst. These voluptuous drinkers continued at times all night at their feasts. “Excessive drinking, even of uninebriating drinks, was a vice prevalent in the days of St. Paul, and corresponded to gluttony, also common—the excessive use of food, but not of an intoxicating kind”—Bib. Com. p. 368. Paul is simply guarding the deacons against a vice of the day.

Such devotion to any kind of wine showed a voluptuousness unseemly in one holding office in the church of Christ. “To argue that, forbidding much wine, Paul approves of the use of some wine, and of any and every sort, is to adopt a mode of interpretation dangerous and wholly inconsistent with common usage.” When applied to the clause, “‘not greedy of filthy lucre,’ it would sanction all avarice and trade craftiness short of that greed which is mean and reckless.” But Paul, and other inspired writers, make all covetousness to be idolatry, and not to be once named, much less practiced by the saints, even moderately.