Ahhhh, the proverbial "balance"
I remember reading sometime back, the words: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN". The word "TEKEL" may fit here perfectly... "Thou are weighed in the balance and found wanting."
Many times, we tend to think of what is and is not allowed on our own terms, placing a dividing line down that we refuse to cross, but at the same time allowing ourselves to get as close to that dividing line as we possibly can without going over to the side that we deem to be "wrong."
But suppose, just suppose, that God has stricter guidelines for where that line is to be placed? After all, God's Word says if we look after a woman to lust after in our hearts we have already committed adultery. He also said that if we hate our brother, we are murderers. Is it not possible that God holds the same high standards concerning alcoholic beverage?
You may not be crossing the line that you have laid out, but you may be crossing the line that God has established.
In 1 Thessalonians 5, we read:
1 Thessalonians 5:4 (KJV) But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
1 Thessalonians 5:5 (KJV) Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
1 Thessalonians 5:6 (KJV) Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
1 Thessalonians 5:7 (KJV) For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
1 Thessalonians 5:8 (KJV) But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
1 Thessalonians 5:9 (KJV) For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
1 Thessalonians 5:10 (KJV) Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
Notice the two contrasts mentioned in those verses
DAY as opposed to NIGHT
DRUNKEN as opposed to SOBER
The word "SOBER" means "abstaining from alcohol; not intoxicated; of a clear mind"
EXACT OPPOSITES! God wants us to walk as far from the dividing line as we possibly can. he wants us to be watchful and alert. The best way to make sure you are not crossing God's already established line is to not touch alcohol at all.
God doesn't favor compromise.
Revelation 3:15 (KJV) I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
Revelation 3:16 (KJV) So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.