Smoking: Is It A Sin?By John R. Gentry |
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Having lived in Kentucky for several years, I am fully aware of how prevalent smoking is. It is everywhere—in the movies and television, in our schools, at the restaurants (though some are now banning smoking), at the supermarket, etc. With so many people smoking from teenagers to the elderly, from drunkards to doctors, one might ask, “Is smoking a sin? After all, the Bible doesn’t mention it.” As with all such questions we want to ask, “What saith the Scripture?” Smoking Harms Our Body. A 2002 survey conducted by the US Department of Health and Human Services determined that smoking was a major cause of stroke and the third leading cause of death in the United States. In 2004 the University of Michigan stated in their report “Monitoring The Future, National Results on Adolescent Drug Use, Overview of Key Findings” that “the greatest preventable cause of disease and mortality in the United States is cigarette smoking.” Okay, smoking hurts and harms our bodies: does that make it a sin? Absolutely! Consider the following points and passages. Our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6.19). We are to glorify God in our body (1 Cor. 6.20; Phil. 1.20). We are to keep ourselves pure (1 Tim. 5.22). Our bodies are to be a living sacrifice to God (Rom. 12.1-2). A person who willingly hurts, harms, and is otherwise hostile to their body by smoking or using other forms of tobacco “sins against his own body.” Smoking Is Addictive. The US Department of Health and Human Services report mentioned earlier also stated, “Nicotine is one of the most heavily used addictive drugs in the United States.” In 1989 the US Surgeon General issued a report that concluded that cigarettes and other forms of tobacco, such as cigars, pipe tobacco, and chewing tobacco, are addictive and that nicotine is the drug in tobacco that causes addiction. Does being addicted to something make it a sin? Consider the following. If we are overcome by a thing, we become enslaved to that thing (2 Pet. 2.19). Paul said we should “not be enslaved by anything” (1 Cor. 6.12). When we become enslaved to sin, it brings forth death (Rom, 6.12-13, 16, 19). Being addicted to something means that the thing we are addicted to controls us and makes us obey it (Rom. 6.12). The Bible clearly teaches that we are not to let anything control us, but that we are to have complete control of our self, i.e., self-control. Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5.23). Self-control is required of one who will enter heaven (2 Pet. 1.5-11; 1 Cor. 9.24-27). Being controlled by those elements that cause hurt and harm to our body compounds the crisis by causing us to continually commit the hostility of hurt and harm against our body! Conclusion. It is amazing that some brethren smoke or preach that smoking is okay in the sight of God. There is not a man alive that can harmonize the principles and passages discussed earlier regarding sinning against our body (physically and mentally) with the damaging effects caused by tobacco. To smoke cigarettes or use other forms of tobacco prevents us from glorifying God in our body. Smoking is a sin! |
Blessed is the man who listens to me, |
