Numbers 6:4

Nazarites had taken, among other vows, one which prohibited them from the use of wine. So that they might not violate the obligation, they were forbidden to drink the vinegar of wine or strong drinks; and, to make the rule still clearer, they were not to touch the unfermented juice of grapes, nor even to eat the fruit, either fresh or dried.

To fully secure the integrity of the vow, they were not even allowed anything that had to do with the vine; they were, in fact, to avoid the appearance of evil. Surely this is a lesson to the Lord’s separated ones, teaching them to come away from sin in every form, to avoid not merely its grosser shapes, but even its spirit and likeness.

Strict walking is much despised today, but rest assured, dear reader, it is both the safest and the happiest. He who yields a point or two to the world is in grave danger; he who eats the grapes of Sodom will soon drink the wine of Gomorrah. A little crevice in the sea-bank in Holland lets in the sea, and the gap quickly swells until a province is drowned.

Worldly conformity, in any degree, is a snare to the soul and makes it more and more liable to presumptuous sins. Moreover, just as the Nazarite who drank grape juice could not be entirely sure whether it might have undergone some fermentation, and consequently could not be certain in his heart that his vow was intact, so the yielding, temporizing Christian cannot maintain a conscience void of offense, but must feel that his inward monitor doubts him.

We need not be in doubt about things that are doubtful; for us, they are wrong. We must not dally with tempting things, but flee from them swiftly. Better to be sneered at as a Puritan than to be despised as a hypocrite. Careful walking may involve much self-denial, but it has pleasures of its own which are more than a sufficient recompense.