Is It Rare? November 6, 2025

Hup planned to invite some of his Christian friends over for a Bible study and wine tasting. Song of Solomon was the book chosen, as was the color of the wine: red, Italian… Tuscany, not Rome.  

“Are you sure about this Hup?” his wife asked. “I saw the stink eyes you got at church when you announced your plans.”

“Yeah, so did I. Stink eyes everywhere, a few of them bloodshot. I have my reservations.”

“Why did you announce it then?”

“It’s a study of the Song of Solomon. Think about it: it’s written, for thy love is better than wine. That, and I will remember thy love more than wine.” How can you say that if you don’t drink wine? His wife shook her head after giving him a reproachful look and walked away. Hup chuckled to himself and reconsidered his comment about having to drink wine to exegete the passage. Wine was merely representative of what a person most cherished. It’s where a man’s heart flew if not to Christ. Hup called out, “I’m just kidding you know.”

“I know,” she said as she reentered the kitchen. Gracie was laying on her bed beneath a table. “Still like to know why Hup.”

“Is it a sin to drink wine? No. It is if I drank excessively. Given the intimacy that I say that I desire to have with Christ, why would I displace his Spirit by giving control of my body to a worldly one? My body is his temple.

“You could be a stumbling block to the young whose conscience thought drinking was a sin.”

“That’s true, but those who I asked said they were mature Christians, hardly young that I’d be a stumbling block. I wouldn’t combined the events if that was the case.   

“Why drink at all?” 

“That’s a fair statement.”

“Why then?”

“It’s a matter of the liberty that the Apostle Paul spoke of… what we can drink… eat… we must do this, and can’t do that. I admit it’s confusing at times. 

“Confusing?”

“To discern the legitimacy of what is right and wrong when the Bible is silent or accepting of a behavior. Is it the Holy Spirit speaking? My conscience? A conscience that with maturity would allow the young Christian to enjoy a rib eye off a pagan altar? There’s nothing definitive against drinking wine. Paul told Timothy to drink some for his stomach. Am I trying to justify drinking wine by raising these defenses? 

“Are you sure you want to do this? I know you Hup. I know your heart for the Lord.” 

“Yeah, for the Lord, and I’m pushing back on mother’s church. That’s what Solyma discovered. Mother’s children were angry because she didn’t tend to her vineyard as expected. That’s why I got those stink eyes. They’re upset that I don’t fall into lock step with their thinking.” 

“Okay,” Hup’s wife said. “Tend to your own vineyard, Hup.”