No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach’s sake and your frequent infirmities.
Parallel translations
- WEB Be no longer a drinker of water only, but use a little wine for your stomach’s sake and your frequent infirmities.
- KJV Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.
- BSB Stop drinking only water and use a little wine instead, because of your stomach and your frequent ailments.
- NASB Do not go on drinking only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.
- NLT Don’t drink only water. You ought to drink a little wine for the sake of your stomach because you are sick so often.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Paul advises Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach and frequent ailments rather than drinking only water. The counsel shows pastoral concern for Timothy's bodily health.
Overview
Amid weighty instruction, Paul offers a personal, practical note about Timothy's physical health, recommending moderate use of wine for his ailments. This balances his call to purity in the previous verse, clarifying that bodily care is not unspiritual. It reflects a sane, non-ascetic view of the body and the apostle's tender concern for his younger colleague.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Ps 104:15wine that makes glad the heart of man, oil to make his face to shine, and bread that strengthens man’s heart.
- Prov 31:4–7It is not for kings, Lemuel; it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes to say, ‘Where is strong drink?’
- 1 Tim 4:4For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with thanksgiving.
- 1 Tim 3:3not a drinker, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous;
- 1 Tim 3:8Servants, in the same way, must be reverent, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for money;
- Titus 1:7For the overseer must be blameless, as God’s steward; not self-pleasing, not easily angered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for dishonest gain;
- Ezek 44:21Neither shall any of the priests drink wine, when they enter into the inner court.
- Eph 5:18Don’t be drunken with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,
- Titus 2:3and that older women likewise be reverent in behavior, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good;
- Lev 10:9–11“You and your sons are not to drink wine or strong drink whenever you go into the Tent of Meeting, or you will die. This shall be a statute forever throughout your generations.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
There is 'one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all' — the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh.
How 1 Timothy 5:23 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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