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...the Bible tells me so:
“It’s A Sin To Burn”
We traveled to
As we drove to
Did you hear the story about the young preacher who was undecided as to what he would preach the coming Sunday at a small, country church? He hit on a great idea. He would preach against the evils of smoking. (Now, what was he “against”?)
While he was greeting the congregation afterward, a little old lady, cheek bulging, came up to him. She spit on the ground and said, “Sonny, that’s the best sermon ‘gainst smokin’ ah ever heard. Anythin’ tastes that good, it’s a sin to burn!”
...What was that crop? Tobacco.
I find it incredible that various government entities filed a civil lawsuit against the tobacco industry to try to recoup tobacco-related losses to Medicare and Medicaid. Supposedly, the tobacco industry hid the fact that cigarettes were addicting and caused cancer. Give me a break! What idiot did not know about habit-forming nicotine? “Cancer sticks” and “coffin nails,” those were names for cigarettes long before I was born.
The settlement is bringing billions more tobacco dollars
into government coffers. Washington, D.C. and every state in the
It is not that I like tobacco. I hate it. Cigarettes killed my mother at forty-five. Her mother, my grandmother smoked just as much and lived into her eighties. Go figure. However, both of them chose to smoke.
Is it a sin to smoke? That is a good question. No doubt, the Bible does not say, “Thou shalt not smoke.” What we have are principles to guide us.
First, Paul asked, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NRSV).
Did you hear that your body is a temple, owned by God? How can you glorify God with cigarettes that cause lung cancer and heart attacks? Do you understand that tobacco kills?
Chewing tobacco causes oral cancer. A preacher-friend of
mine gave up dipping after he visited patients suffering from oral cancer and
being cared for at
Does someone say, “Yes, but everybody who eats carrots and broccoli dies. So then, we mustn’t have them either.”
I would agree with them, if they were talking about asparagus or slimy okra. Seriously, everybody who eats dies. That does not mean that we should give up food. Consider the alternative. But, tobacco kills. There is no dispute. I know it; you know it. By your comment you admit that tobacco is wrong for a Christian.
Second, you protest, “But cigarettes are legal.” Many
Christians at
Who says that smoking is good for you? Every dollar spent for cigarettes cost seven dollars in tobacco-related medical expense. Most every smoker that I know of wished that they had never started that filthy habit. Laws protect our children from access to tobacco, but also from attractive advertising as well. However, laws cannot protect our children from their parent’s spending habits. How much of the things our children need “go up in smoke”?
Who is not dominated by smoking? Mom said, “I’ll never give up cigarettes.” She quit twenty years ago. I miss her very much! Life can be different for you. You can quit. Many have. You can chose to go “cold turkey,” use nicotine patches or gum, or enter a chemical dependency program. Whatever way you chose to give up tobacco, depend on the strength that Christ gives and that, through His people (see Philippians 4:13).
Third, some other Scriptures addressing the question of how we are to live are:
• Matthew 18:6 and 19:14 on influencing our children,
• Matthew 5:13-16 and Romans 12:1-2 on influencing others,
• 1 Corinthians 3:16 on the importance of the life of the church, and
• James 4:3-4 and 1 John 2:15-17 on the evils of the worldly living.
What is the measure of a man? The story was told many years ago of a father counseling his son to stay away from marijuana. As he was blowing cigarette smoke in his son’s face, he said,
“Now, son, that grass (cough, cough), you’re supposed to walk-k-k on and c-c-cut, not puff (cough, cough) on and sm-m-moke. I want you to be a m-m-man like your d-d-dear (hack, hack, h-) old-d-D-Daddy (cough, cough, cough).”
Imagine with me a man standing under a street lamp, puffing on a cigarette and blowing smoke into its light. The man looks familiar. As you look closer you realize that it is Jesus. How vulgar. Here we are, a people to be conformed to the image of the Son of God (Romans 8:29). My Jesus never died for a cigarette. He died for me.
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