Is SMOKING still a SIN?

Dear Brethren,There is a multitude of people out there that think it is OK for a Christian to smoke. It has become a "Bad habit", "crutch", "addiction" or just a "weakness", but in God's eyes it is still a sin!What do you think? And why do you think so?In Christ,Gery

smoking is a sin as it harms the body, but in my experience, God deals with smoking in some and not others, why? I believe the 'others' have greater sins that need to be dealt with, and God will get to the smoking later on. Please remember we all have vices and will not be perfect this side of Heaven, but God will deal with us a bit at a time and get rid of weaknesses we have. I foe ex have a foul mouth, though not in front of others, and I know it's wrong and do try to deal with it, however there is a darker problem that needs to be addressed first :-( . Please don't think I am excuising my sin, I am ashamed of it, but one day at a time, please.

Certainly smoking is still a sin. And no, we will not be perfect this side of heaven, but smoking is so incredibly harmful to one's temple.I was a smoker for 16 years- I loved it! But it was killing me. I knew I needed to quit- I told Jesus I was finished with it, but I would need His divine help to quit it. I wanted to repent-I set a date- put on the patch and never looked back. It has been 1 &1/2 years and I have not touched a cigarette since! Really, if I would have known that it was so easy-(I was actually scared to quit) that Jesus really wanted to help me- I would have quit a long time ago. I do not and am not trying to be preachy about it- but if you smoke- quit! you will be amazed at how the Lord will deliver you from the bondage satan wants to keep you in. Stop harming your temple and you will get power to overcome other issues and you will grow spiritually. :-)Our God is mighty to save! Mary

It's better to ask: Is smoking unhealthy? Keep in mind that the eating habits of our nations are killing us - processed foods, refined sugar, fat, etc etc. Generally speaking, we are in denial about food issues. We know overeating is sin, but at church we have gluttonous pot lucks - with foods containing harmful poisions. We don't feel any guilt about that, so why should we say anything about smoking?To follow your train of thought, we would ask: Is eating hot dogs a sin? It is better to simply say, Hot dogs have very little nutritional value, and the chemicals in them harm our bodies. So we shouldn't eat them (and a whole lot of other "foods". Add to that a lot of pharmaceuticals, cigarrettes, lack of excercise, too much worry, air polution etc. What is the sin: It is loving the things in this world more than Christ. 1 John 2:15Do not love the world or anything in the world." This includes the "delicacies" of the culture - which for us is refined foods. Our bodies are amazing. They can get rid of alot of bad chemicals. But there is a limit to what our bodies can handle and so we should not excede the threshold. One who smokes only a little bit is far better off than a chain smoker.Diane

I feel I have to disagree with you here. If a person overeats, that is only harming oneself. Cigarettes produce 2nd hand smoke that causes much harm to others.Hardly the same. If it is not harmful to others, why has smoking been banned in so many restaurants, malls, most public places and eating hot dogs has not? Here in Michigan, you can't smoke in Mc Donalds, but you can eat junk food.Also, smoking cigarettes is being addicted to a very dangerous drug, you don't have to be at least 18 to buy a hot dog, and eating hot dogs and junk food doesn't make people sick who happen to be standing near you.They really don't have anything to do with one another.

"What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?"

So someone has been newly born again from the world, and they're a smoker. God doesn't deliver them from their habit straight away - are they in sin when lighting up? I personally don't think so. I think there is a big misunderstanding about what sin actually is (not saying that i've got it!) that has more of an "law" approach than the new testament pattern. Surely the whole answer is in Romans 14:23:"But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin."As soon as you're at that point - "doubting', unable to smoke in faith it becomes sin to the individual, I think. As I see it there are some things that I imagine can never be done in faith, others that can for some and not others. Is watching a film a sin? I know some people who can't watch one in faith...

Is smoking a sin?The issue is this - If one is to follow Christ, they must understand that their life isn't their own. Their bodies aren't their own, their time is not their own, and their desires to pursue their own interests in this world must be left at the cross. The message that Christ (along with the whole bible) brought was an ultimatum between serving yourself and denying yourself to take up your cross and follow Him. In smoking a ciggerate, the issue of sin does not lie in the ciggerate or the science of it's affects. The sin in the heart is the pursuit to "make this world your home." To pursue earthly pleasure is to reject the call of Christ. Is pleasure bad? Of course not. It's a by-product. However, the pursuit of pleasure is a direct result of a heart that refuses to count ALL a loss for Christ.Christ refused to love this world and was only set on the will of the Father and the eternal things. To be His disciples, we must do the same. We must not love our lives in this world.Smoking is no different than goin to starbucks, reading a book, working out, watching TV, hangin with friends, or even pursuing missionary work and other things that seem "good" in and of themselves. The question is, "deep in our hearts, why do we pursure these things? Is it to better follow Christ, serve His kingdom, and know Him more? Or is it to make our stay on earth a little more pleasuralbe to our tastes?"And, if it IS to pursue God's interests, is it something done in obedience to what He has said? Or do we have an agenda as to how we want to do it?Paul says, "All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable."He also says that we must "do ALL things as unto the Lord." Again he says, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition."Smoknig is not a "sin". However, serving yourself IS the essence of sin in that your allegiance is to yourself rather than God.Let us, in our hearts, reject this world and all the temporary pleasures that we may have God as our soul's contentment. Let us leave our idols and pleasures in Egypt and be willing to endure this temporary wilderness on earth in full allegience to God.....and one day, after being tested to see if we love Him, we will enter into His promise- eternal life.Ernestito

I heard a preacher talk about this once:a man came up to him and said "Pastor will you pray for me i want to give up smoking" the pastor said yeah sure, so they prayed and the pastor lead him in a prayer and at the end of the pastor told him to promise God he'd never put another cigarette in his mouth! the man said "I'm not promising God that!!" and the pastor said "Then you dont to be delivered from smoking at all!"a bit extreme as Jesus warns us from making vowes before God:Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. (Matt 5:33-37)but you get the picture

Ernestito said: In smoking a ciggerate, the issue of sin does not lie in the ciggerate or the science of it's affects. The sin in the heart is the pursuit to "make this world your home." To pursue earthly pleasure is to reject the call of Christ. Is pleasure bad? Of course not. It's a by-product. However, the pursuit of pleasure is a direct result of a heart that refuses to count ALL a loss for Christ.I think this says it all. Thank you,Ernestito, and welcome to the forum. I look forward to hearing more of your insight. Do let us know about yourself. Where are you from?Diane

I said this in another thread once...I heard a preacher once say :I don't know if smoking will send you to hell but it will sure make you smell like it.

I heard a preacher once say :I don't know if smoking will send you to hell but it will sure make you smell like it.Thank you for sharing this clergical insight. I will surely pass it on to all those I know who smoke. d

It is definately a sin. Saved or unsaved sin is sin. The Holy Spirit is using this thread to draw folks out of bondage. Give IN to the pricks in your heart to quit!!!!!! Dont reject the Lords movements in your life.If you take a step of faith to quit, flush all the cigs down the toilet and ask the Lord for forgiveness he will deliver you from this imprisonment. I recently was in the bondage of substance abuse. As a Christian I could not have full peace in my heart and was unable to have clear communication with God because I was regarding sin in my heart. I stuggled on last Friday night with the Holy Spirit. The Lord was guiding me to flush the two oz. of grade A weed down the toilet. I prayed to the Lord and fell asleep. When I woke up the preacher was in my house speaking with my parents. I went out back smoked a cigarrete and then went back in. I sat down next to the preacher and revealed my problem to him and my parents. We prayed and then the Lord delivered me! I flushed $650 dollars worth of drugs down the toilet. This was last Saturday. Since then the Lord has lifted the scales off of my eyes! I see almost everything now in a diffrent light! I was so afraid that it would be laborious to quit. Quite the contrarty. The Lord has made even walking out the front door more fufilling since this change. God doesnt need patches. I was smoking at least a pack a day. I was also smoking weed daily and even using some harder drugs on occasion. The Lord will not let his children live peacefully in sin. He delivered me completely with one single step of faith. He will do the same for you.

Hm. The greatest Christian once said to the effect ... All things are permissable, but not all things are wise.So is smoking a "sin"?I would have to say no. As one had mentioned earlier, the second cause of death in America is obescity. We are sick because we have too darn much? Then I read someone else post, it is a sin because you are hurting others, unlike eating when you are hurting yourself. So this increases the severity of sin before the eyes of God? I have a friend. With the work of the Holy Ghost, I helped guide my friend to the Lord earlier this year. He is a smoker. When I was trying to breastfeed him the word, I would constantly badger him about his smoking. Being that I am his superior at work I would, at some times, deny him a desired cigarette break. Down the line, I realize how bad I approached the situation. See the lot of us tend to have this problem: We try to cure instead of care for the human being that is deteriorating their lungs. I personally hate cigarettes. And I personally hate the habit. And I personally hate the tobacco companies. And I personally hate my friends habit. But I would really be stretching to say "Smoking is a sin". Might be for you ... but maybe not the next person. I know of amazing theologians ... anointed theologians ... who smoked til the day they were buried & through their masterpieces on paper, I know that the Spirit of God was working in a mighty way within.So, sin or not, that is up to one's conscious when it comes to smoking. I personally feel it is detestable and GEES do you smell!Let's try to care them into healthy lungs, let's stop trying to be doctors! =)In Love

Hm. The greatest Christian once said to the effect ... All things are permissable, but not all things are wise.Ok. so with this reasoning you are saying there is no such thing as sin? Just because we are permitted to sin doesnt mean that makes it any less of a sin. When you knowingly breath harmful smoke into your body it is wrong

Because we live under grace and not the law, does this mean we are to sin? In Pauls translated words "Not at all!".Paul might've sounded like a liberal at times, especially to the hard-hearts of the Pharisees. Paul was in no way trying to reason the world & himself out of sin. And neither am I. Saying all things are permissable is sound. It will get twarted out of control if it is removed from its context. So again, this is no reasoning for the allowance of sin. I don't want to sound like I'm pro-tobacco, again I state, I hate it, but it is definitely a stretch-calling it sin. You knowingly ate that junk ... did you sin?You knowingly let yourself listen to that song ... did you sin?You knowingly looked at MTV ... did you sin?Does God perfer the non-smoker over the smoker?A lot of things we do to our bodies is "wrong". Let's make a list, we'll be here all night. Tattooing poisons the blood. Is that a sin as well? Would the Lord reject me for putting ink to my flesh? And if so ... why? If I bring it to the Lord, & convicts me not, & am getting a tattoo with faith that this will not hinder my relationship with the Lord, then it is not sin. If you believe it will. Then it is sin.Now, we must also act in love. If what I do will become a stumbling block to you bro, then it is sin for I am no longer acting in love. Again & finally ... I do not want to be simplistic here, not all things are of the conscious, but if I have not been convicted of smoking or for my decision about getting a tattoo, it is not a sin for I am doing it in faith and not doubting.But am I to look down upon you?Are you to judge me?In Paul's words ... "NO!" =)In Love

You knowingly ate that junk ... did you sin?You knowingly let yourself listen to that song ... did you sin?You knowingly looked at MTV ... did you sin?Yes. Anything we do that Jesus would not have done knowingly because it was wrong is sin. There is no middle ground with the Lord. Its black and white. We are commanded to abstain from all appearences of evil. When you do something that is against what we know to be right through the principals of Gods word it is sin and is deserving of eternal punishment.

One could argue that eating a fatty cheeseburger is also deystroying your temple and therefore is a sin. I think its about the value we place it in our lives if it is an addiction that controls aspects of our lives it is an idol and must be dealt with. I for one have a cigar with pastor friends of mine during a golf game. Its a yearly tradition. I don't think its a sin, it brings fellowship to one another. So I think its a question of addiction and value in our lives.