Although there is a lot of controversy over alcohol consumption within the Christian faith, scripture is clear that, as Christians, we do have the liberty to drink. As with all liberties, however, this does come with a caveat. As Paul says, "All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any." (1 Corinthians 6:12). "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not." (1 Corinthians 10:23). The simple principle here is that liberty is dangerous if improperly used. It may well be lawful to consume alcohol, but is it beneficial to do so? Worse than that, can alcohol actually master you?
Needless to say, alcohol can indeed be addictive. Not only that, but it can also lead to some very unlawful things. Not only does scripture tell us "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;" (Ephesians 5:18), but it even goes as far as to tell us that drunkards will not inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:10; Galatians 5:19-21). Drinking alcohol is not a sin in and of itself, but drinking too much alcohol most certainly is. But this leads us to the question, at what point have we drunk too much?
Principles of Christian liberty
Before we address how you know when you've had too much, let's first talk about how you know when you haven't. Biblically speaking, there are two kinds of believers when it comes to issues of liberty. First, Paul describes those who are "weak in the faith" (Romans 14:1). Weaker brethren are those who, for whatever reason, are offended in the conscience by otherwise permissible things. Romans 14 rather explicitly applies to drink (Romans 14:17, 21; cf. Colossians 2:16), but it is more specific about food and festivals. "For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs." (Romans 14:2).
If you believe you can eat meat, especially if you believe it to the extent of eating animals which are unclean under the Mosaic Covenant, you are a stronger brother by Paul's definition. If, by contrast, you are a vegetarian because your conscience is offended by meat, you are a weaker brother. Paul's command is clear: Let us not judge each other, for that is Christ's job (v4, 10). At the same time, however, we are not to put stumbling blocks in each other's way (v13). Therefore, while nothing is impure in and of itself, it is better for us to forego our liberties in order to preserve our brethren (v14-15).
In fact, Paul even says that "I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean." Furthermore, the chapter continues to its conclusion with these words: "Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence. It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak. Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth. And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin." (v19-23).
Thus, you know you have not had too much if you are not so mastered by it as to be incapable of giving it up. True strength is not only in being able to consume alcohol and give thanks to God for it, but in being equally capable of laying it down for sake of peace, love, and the preservation of our brethren. The first clue that you have had too much, by contrast, is that it does not come from faith, but desire.
See, going by this chapter alone, it can be said that any consumption of alcohol can be sinful, with the criteria being faith. If you are not fully persuaded in your own mind that you can have a drink, you are sinning against God when you do so. Alcohol, in this case, is not sin in and of itself, but that element of doubt makes it sin. Furthermore, if your brethren are offended by your drink, you are not walking in love for either your brethren, whom you are offending, nor for the God who bought them. Thus, the sin is not in the drink, but in the fact it is not being drunk in love. Any amount of alcohol that you feel is sin for you is sin for you, and any amount of alcohol you take for selfish reasons is as much of a sin as general selfishness. If you cannot forego your liberties, you do not have liberty, because you are a slave to your desire to indulge.
You know your exact limit
One peculiarity about knowing you've drunk too much is that you should never actually know. We live in a culture, much like many before us, that boasts in how much we can drink, but scripture tells us "Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!" (Isaiah 5:21-23).
This directly tells us that overindulgence is a bad thing while indirectly telling us that we are poor judges of when we have overindulged. First, woe to them who are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink. "Mate, I could drink you under the table." Ok, congratulations, you have a high alcohol tolerance. How do you know? Because you drank too much. As Christians, it is not becoming of us to know how much alcohol it takes to get us drunk. If you know, you know because you hit, and likely exceeded the limit. Repent of that, and stay as far below that line as is reasonable.
But notice also, "wise in their own eyes". This is a common theme in scripture in general. Fools, typically, do not know they are foolish. They measure themselves by themselves (2 Corinthians 10:12). They profess themselves wise, but become fools (Romans 1:22). There is more hope for a fool than a man wise in his own eyes (Proverbs 26:12). Unfortunately, we are very very poor self-judges, and we especially see this when our judgement is impaired by the effects of alcohol.
Now of course, I don't believe I am unique in this, but I am actually somewhat capable. I've often drunk to the point where I think "ok, that's probably too much". If you get to that point, stop immediately. If you even have a half pint left over, do not seek to finish it, pour it out. But in general, we are a poor judge, because the booze itself tells us "come on, drink more of me, you'll love it".
You can't stop
And ultimately, you might. In Proverbs 23:29-35, we read "Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again."
This passage encompasses a lot of the dangers of alcohol, to the point where, in theory, I could even have just cited it and concluded this article. This hypothetical drunkard is at his limit. He "tarries long at the wine", and when he wakes up, he goes out looking for more. This constant seeking of the drink, Proverbs tells us, brings woe and sorrow.
You're combative
One of those sorrows is the contentions. Alcohol abuse naturally leads to violence, both when drunk, and even when sober. Drunkenness leads to anger, and even makes one somewhat immune to pain. "They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not". A drunk person is more likely to start fights, because he not only thinks he can win, but he may even have twisted beliefs about the justifications. Yet, he probably can't win. When he wakes up, he has "wounds without cause". How'd you get that black eye? "Oh I don't know, I guess I walked into a door." No, you got drunk off your butt and got mad at a biker dude for looking at you funny. You're lucky to be alive.
Your heart is uninhibited
And in fact, violence is not the only sin one is likely to commit while drunk. Drunkenness erases what little inhibitions we have as humans. In fact, Ephesians 5:18 indicates that there is an immediate contrast between drunkenness and being influenced by the Holy Spirit. You can be drunk, you can be filled with the Holy Spirit, you can't be both. But when the Spirit is "gone", i.e. you have chosen to muffle His voice by surrendering your soberness to a bottle, all that's left is your own sinful heart.
Most Christians will know the dangers of this. Christ Himself says "Are ye also yet without understanding? Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man." (Matthew 15:16-20).
So, notice, the drink itself isn't defiling. It goes into the mouth, into the belly, then out the other end, just like everything else. But your heart? That's filled with all sorts of horrible things. Your heart is filled with evil thoughts. Murder, sexual immorality, theft, lies, blasphemy, these are all evil things that are in our hearts. Yet, when we are sober, we are guarded against them. We know they're evil and avoid them. We may even be able to remember "oh yeah, Matthew 5:27-28 says that to lust after a woman is committing adultery in my heart, so maybe I need to look this girl in the eyes rather than staring at her cleavage." Or we might think "Hey, Ephesians 4:29 says let no foul language come from your mouth, so I guess I need to stop effing and blinding". But when you're drunk? "Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things."
Put simply, the self control that scripture describes as the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) is completely wiped away when you cast the Spirit aside in favor of strong drink. Your perverse human heart remains perverse and sinful, but that which restrains it has been pushed aside. Therefore, you think, say, and do evil things.
You lose balance
And it's not just spiritual control you lose either. "Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast." Unlike on stable ground, the sea moves you. Even the best of boats may rock a little, but here, the Proverbs mentions the top of the mast. This is the highest point of a boat. When the boat rocks, even a little, the mast rocks a lot. It may even feel quite surreal, after a long trip, to stand on solid ground again.
Alcohol replicates this effect on any terrain, removing motor skills. You can often see someone else is too drunk when they're stumbling along, maybe occasionally falling over. This is not a good state to be in. If you're lucky, you're in a somewhat safe area, but what if you're far from home? Suddenly, the cause of those aforementioned "wounds without cause" could be from falling rather than fighting. Worst case scenario, you may fall and never get up. Our world is particularly dangerous. Not only do we have the basic dangers, but we even have heavy machinery you don't want to mishandle.
You often, if not always, want more
Realistically, you don't want to mishandle strong drink either, because it can be quite addictive. They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine." "when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again." At this point, alcohol has gone far beyond a blessing from God to make glad the hearts of men (Psalm 104:15) and has instead become a snare. It is a lawful thing that has lost its benefit, and you have become mastered by it. This unconscious entity has enslaved you, and now, you serve it as an idol. You basically cannot live without this stuff.
You're poor
The result speaks for itself. Earlier in Proverbs 23, we read "Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags." (v20-21). Similarly, in Proverbs 21:17, we read "He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man: he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich."
At this point, alcohol (or rather, pleasure in general) has consumed you, rather than you consuming it. You serve it so much that you have become unwise with your very wealth. You don't spend your wealth on important things, like food or shelter, and so you begin to struggle. You don't spend it on charitable causes, and so you become fruitless to society and to God. You don't invest it into businesses or anything that may increase it, so you'll just stay at the same level. You're sinking everything you have into the pursuit of that which is good, but only when it's Godly.
You're performing an important duty
On top of all of this, there are some people who have a greater responsibility to avoid the drink than others. Obviously, sin is sin no matter who commits it. No one should ever get drunk. But there are positions a human being can hold that, by nature, preclude alcohol.
Proverbs 31:4-5 gives the example of kings. "It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink: Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted." This, realistically, should be self-evident. Kings have a lot of responsibilities, for which they must be sober minded. Of course, this extends to other political leaders. You only need to look at the Biden administration to see the terrible effects of a ruler who is not of sound mind. They create horrific policies, they pervert justice, they make foolish mistakes that cost lives. Imagine how much worse it would be if he was drunk.
Similarly, the New Testament presents soberness as fitting for church leadership. This is less extreme than for kings, who of course never really cease in their duties. A king is a king from the moment he wakes up in the morning until his head hits the pillow at night. But a leader in the Church, while once again he should never be drunk, can afford to drink outside of his hours. This is why they are said to not be given to much wine, rather than just "don't drink wine" (1 Timothy 3:1-8).
Nevertheless, it seems axiomatic that if you're about to preach a sermon, you don't want to be touching a drop of alcohol. Why? Well because if you're not sober minded, you're going to goof up. Depending on the complexity of the passage, even a sober minded student might get confused.
It affects your witness
By far the most important sign that you're drinking too much is if you're dragging the name of Christ through the mud. As Christians, we need to hold ourselves to a high standard of behavior, distinguishing ourselves from the world. If we look like the world, we make Christianity look like just one more man made religion with no real benefit what so ever. If we're worse than the world, we actually present Christianity as an immediate problem. It is absolutely vital, knowing there are souls at risk, to consider the external impact of every possible action. If your drinking habits put people off coming to saving faith in Christ, you have absolutely drank too much.
Conclusion
We see, then, that although drinking is a blessing from God, it is a particularly dangerous blessing if you don't know what you're doing with it. Furthermore, there is a fine line between drinking in moderation, which is fine, and drinking to excess, which is sin. Alcohol abuse affects your own life, the lives of those around you, and maybe even the eternal souls of those who do not yet know Jesus. Therefore, if you drink at all, make sure you know your limits, and stay well below them.