Question:
Today as we serve God we don’t sacrifice animals and we don’t do a lot like the Bible times and I know drinking beer, wine, liquor is wrong so my question is: why during communion do the brethren drink wine? Because I think that if people think it’s all right to drink during the service or meeting then if Christians can drink so can I. That would be then leading people to sin. Why not just drink grape juice? (Also Catholics do this.)

Answer:
The reason for confusion brought out in this question is that the Bible does not say that it is wrong to use wine, etc., but it most certainly does condemn the abuse of it. “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18).

We use wine because it was given us by our Lord as a symbol of the new covenant in His blood. The cup symbolizes that cup which Jesus spoke of in the garden, “O my Father, if it be possible, [remove] let this cup pass from Me” (Matthew 26:39). When the Father gave the cup to Jesus it was a cup of sorrows; this cup given to us is called a “cup of blessing” (1 Corinthians 10:16).
As the cup of blessing He used wine to express that blessing, since the Word refers to wine as “that maketh glad the heart of man” (Psalm 104:15). Wine is referred to in Revelation 6:6 where it describes oil and wine as things possessed by the rich. “And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.” As wine speaks of our redemption through Christ’s blood and oil speaks of the Holy Spirit, who is richer than we? The wine then speaks to us of earthly joy.