Albert Barnes Commentary 1 Timothy 5:23

"Be no longer a drinker of water, but use a little wine for thy stomach`s sake and thine often infirmities." — 1 Timothy 5:23 (ASV)

Drink no longer water.—There has been much difficulty regarding the connection this advice has with what comes before and after it. Many have considered the difficulty so great that they have suggested this verse has been misplaced and should be placed elsewhere.

The true connection, and the reason for the introduction of the advice here, seems to me to be this: Paul appears to have been suddenly impressed with the thought—a thought very likely to occur to someone writing on the duties of the ministry—of the arduous nature of the ministerial office.

He was giving advice concerning an office that required a great amount of labor, care, and anxiety. The labors required were such as to demand all one's time; the care and anxiety associated with such a responsibility would be very likely to weaken the body and injure the health.

Then he remembered that Timothy was still young: he recalled his weak constitution and his frequent attacks of illness; he recollected the very abstemious habits Timothy had adopted. In this connection, he urges him to pay careful attention to his health and prescribes the use of a small quantity of wine, mixed with water, as a suitable medicine in his case.

Thus considered, this instruction is as fitting for an inspired teacher to give as it is to advise someone to take proper care of their health and not needlessly throw away their life. . The phrase, drink no longer water, is equivalent to "drink not water only." (See numerous instances in Wetstein). The Greek word used here does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament.

But use a little wine. Mixed with the water—the common method of drinking wine in the East. (See Robinson's Bibliotheca Sacra, i, 512-513).

For your stomach's sake. It was not for the pleasure derived from the use of wine, or because it would produce hilarity or excitement, but solely because it was regarded as necessary for improving health; that is, as a medicine.

And your often infirmities. (Greek: asyeneiav). Weaknesses or sicknesses. The word would include all physical infirmities but seems to refer here to some attacks of sickness that Timothy was prone to, or to some weak constitution; but beyond this, we have no information regarding the nature of his illnesses. 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). See Barnes on 1 Timothy 3:3.

   It is not improbable that the same thing would be regarded as proper among those who ministered in sacred duties under the Christian dispensation. The natural feeling would be, and quite properly, that a Christian minister should not be less holy than a Jewish priest, especially when it is remembered that the reason of the Jewish law remained the same—that you 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 urged to do so.

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. (See Doddridge). There are few young men so temperate as to require such an authority to persuade them to do so.

4. The advice 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," mixed with water—for this was the usual method. (See Athaeneus Deipno, lib. ix, x, c. 7).

5. It was not as a common drink, but the advice or command extends only to its use as a medicine. All the use that can be legitimately made of this instruction—whatever conclusion may be drawn from other teachings—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 advice, Use a little wine, they could regard it only as a rebuke for their usual habit of drinking much. To many, the advice 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 limit them to a much smaller amount.

7. This whole passage is one of great value to the cause of temperance. Timothy was undoubtedly in the habit of completely abstaining from the use of wine. Paul knew this, and he did not rebuke him for it. He clearly favored the general habit and only asked him to depart from it to a small extent so that he might restore and preserve his health. To this extent, and no further, is it right to apply this language regarding the use of wine; and the minister who should follow this instruction would be in no danger of disgracing his sacred profession by the debasing and demoralizing sin of intemperance.