For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he will drink no wine nor strong drink. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb.
It is impossible to avoid the significance of the contrast in this verse between intoxicating "spirits" which John would renounce and the "Spirit" who would be in him, filling him, even from his mother's womb, and for his whole life.  The same contrast was evident on Pentecost when the apostles were not "drunk with wine" but filled with "the Spirit."  Paul wrote, "And be not drunken with wine wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit"  (Ephesians 5:18).  Strong drink is an unqualified curse upon the earth; and, although Christ did not require the kind of abstinence which marked the life of John the Baptist, drunkenness is forbidden, as well as any association with a drunkard  (1 Corinthians 5:11).