SMOKING

By Ryan Hicks

Smoking is a filthy vice that is practiced by millions today (even many that pretend to be Christians). I have been to churches and have seen ushers and deacons smoking cigarettes outside the church. Most do not have enough decency to get FAR away from the church so as not to stink up the church.

The common catch phrase used by weak ministers is, "Smoking won't send you to hell, but it will make you smell like you have been there." I have news for these weak ministers and the smokers lured into their lies, smoking WILL take you to hell. Not only that, it will help you get there faster via lung cancer or some other disease caused by smoking.

1 Corinthians 3:16-17
16   Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
17   If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

If you defile the temple of God, your body, by sin and bodily impurities how can you expect God to do anything else but destroy you?

1 Corinthians 6:19-20
19   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?
20   For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

You are bought with a price. You cannot glorify God with a filthy cigarette in your mouth. You defile your body and make yourself look foolish to the highest degree. Your god becomes that "cancer stick" that is steadily killing you off. Most smokers think more about and care more about smoking and cigarettes than they do God and the Bible. If you are a smoker then please consider that last sentence again. If you are like most smokers you will realize that smoking takes the priority before God every time. Put Him first and get the sin out!

Many of these same people cannot get out to go to church in bad weather, but will travel many miles in terrible weather to get their drug of choice, the cigarette. This only proves their true master is not God, but is the cigarette.

Romans 14:13
13   Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.

The point here is that we had better not put a stumblingblock before a brother. What if a brother gets saved, thus freed from cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and the like, and sees professed Christians smoking? You are only casting a stumblingblock before him, and are desperately wicked in doing so. Paul goes on in just a few verses later to say, "But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died" (Romans 14:15). Why would you destroy a believer by getting them into sin through something they are tempted by and were at one time even in bondage to? This is not Christ-like, for you are not only defiling your own soul but are helping to destroy (defile) those whom Christ died for!

Matthew 18:6
6   But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Smokers offend children all the time. Many parents offend children by smoking around them and ignoring their pleas for clean air. Also, little ones will see a pretend believer smoking and become offended because this person is showing forth the fruit of the world and not godliness.

Romans 15:1-2
1   We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
2   Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.

How many of your neighbors are pleased with your smoking? How many does your smoking edify? None? What about your neighbors in restaurants? What about in stores? What about anywhere else? No one is edified by your smoking, not even yourself!

1 Corinthians 10:13
13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

If you will consecrate yourself to God and give up the sin of smoking then you will be free. Temptation will surely come, but, as all who have overcome tobacco, liquor, marijuana, and other sins know, the temptation will only last a few minutes. It will not last for a long time unless you are giving your thoughts over to the temptation. When the temptation comes to smoke start reading the Bible aloud until it is gone. Eventually the devils will get tired of driving you to the word by their temptation and you will overcome!

If you need prayer and help getting the victory over this or any other sin please do not hesitate to contact me immediately! I am here to help you and pray with you.

In closing, "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14).