Habitual or Sinful Smoker?

Smoking is a bad habit--I'm sure no one would deny that, even if they think it is cool. Soon the reality sets in and they long for freedom from the drag, especially the cost and health concerns (do you have money to burn?). The prince of preachers C. H. Spurgeon was asked if he'd ever stop smoking--he said when it became a problem! (He defined a problem as having to smoke two at a time!) Smoking is one of the strongest addictions, nicotine to be exact is narcotic in its strength and smoking should be labeled a vice--like drinking and gambling or similar activity that is deleterious.

When a habit interferes with your Christian walk it is time to quit. There can be neutral habits like scratching your head that have no moral value positive nor negative but are just idiosyncrasies. I do not judge people just because they smoke, because smoking per se is not prohibited in Holy Writ; but it can be inferred from many passages that the addiction can be sinful. There isn't much to build an anti-smoking case on but it is there and every spiritually ambitious believer should consider letting God give him victory over this vice which is a vicious habit.

1 Cor. 6:12 says that all things are indeed permissible, but I will not be mastered by anything. 1 Cor. 9:27 says that we should bring our body under subjection, lest, when we have preached to others, we ourselves should be disqualified. Gal. urges us not to be entangled in bondage and stay free in the Spirit. Most important though are Rom. 12: 1 saying that we should present our bodies as living sacrifices and 1 Cor. 6:19-20 saying that our bodies are not our own, but belong to God--they are not to do with what we want ourselves. When people first started to smoke they didn't know the hazards, except that it was a dirty habit.

It is only recently that tobacco is a known carcinogen and even second-hand smoke isn't safe. I know of an old Christian man who smokes a pipe, but he's in control of it, not vice versa. My uncle Bob chewed snuff his whole adult life with it being nothing more than a nuisance to others. If we can't afford to smoke it is a matter of stewardship, not being cool or of our liberty.

I have acquired a taste for wine, and I am not an alcoholic and I don't have cravings, just an appreciation on occasion. Jeremiah in the Old Testament drank wine but he respected abstinence. I know that you can have victory over the flesh in Christ who makes us more than conquerors.  Sin is "lawlessness" and sinners are known to be a "law unto themselves" making up their rules as they go along, not subject to any authority. The ultimate question you must ask:  Do you control it, or does it control you?  Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty--not bondage. "All wrongdoing is sin:" Case closed.   Soli Deo Gloria!