GRAPE JUICE OR WINE FOR COMMUNION?
Sakkie Parsons
Someone wrote to me as follows:
“… I want to ask you something again. I’m involved in a ministry, but they use sweet wine for Communion – is that wrong? And some churches use Monis. What is the difference – is it wrong to use sweet wine for Communion?”
Here’s how I like to respond when someone speaks with me about this matter:
No, I don’t think either of the two is making a mistake.
What I do know for certain is this:
In Jesus’ time there was sweet wine, but there was no Monis, and please don’t let people tell you the nonsense that the wine used in Jesus’ time didn’t contain alcohol!
If that were the case, then my great hero Paul, for example, would not have been able to write on one occasion—and this is just one of the many examples I could mention where the Word speaks about drunkenness in one form or another—
Ephesians 5:18 (AMP) Do not get drunk with wine, for that is wickedness (corruption, stupidity), but be filled with the [Holy] Spirit and constantly guided by Him.
And Jesus would also not have warned as follows:
Luke 21:34 But be on guard, so that your hearts are not weighed down and depressed with the giddiness of debauchery and the nausea of self-indulgence and worldly worries of life, and then that day [when the Messiah returns] will not come on you suddenly like a trap.
The New Living Translation reads as follows:
Luke 21:34 “Watch out! Don’t let your hearts be dulled by carousing and drunkenness, and by the worries of this life. Don’t let that day catch you unaware,
You can become ill from too much grape juice, but you cannot become drunk from it.
There is, however, something to be said in favor of using grape juice for Communion—
For example, to put it plainly, you don’t make it difficult for someone who is an alcoholic. And after all, we read how our behavior should be when it could cause someone to stumble:
Romans 14:20 Do not, for the sake of food, tear down the work of God [that is, destroy the spiritual maturity of another believer]. All things are indeed ceremonially clean, but they are wrong for the person who eats and causes offense [to another’s conscience].
Romans 14:21 It is good [to do the right thing and] not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything that [by your example] makes your brother stumble.
Although, for the reasons mentioned above, I myself would prefer to use grape juice for Communion, I do otherwise enjoy a glass of wine.
You can drink too much wine, and that is wrong—but then again, you can also eat too many grapes at once, and that’s gluttony.
In the end, the following rule applies beautifully to the child of God, also when it comes to what is used for Communion:
1 Corinthians 10:31 So then, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of [our great] God.
1 Corinthians 10:32 Do not offend Jews or Greeks or even the church of God [but live to honor Him];
To summarize, as I understand it from the Word:
Neither wine nor grape juice is wrong to use for Communion—but I myself, as I’ve explained, am more comfortable with grape juice.
Greetings,
Sakkie