By Arthur D. Yunker
This was recommended to me by a fan on Facebook.
I found this to be humourous, engaging, thought provoking and in some places absolutely authoritative!
I reached out to the author and gained his permission to post the entire essay, unaltered, on our website. You can find it here, and on our library page with other recommended readings.
When you study the Bible, don’t merely read it. Dive into it! Remember these 4 things.
1. The Bible is not a book, it is a library of books. 66 books written over the course of about 1500 years, written in different times, in different cultures, by different writers, in different genres, in different languages, to different people. Yet, all inspired and authored by God.
2. Bible is written for us, but not to us. It was, as stated in the last point, written to a specific audience. That audience was not us, in our current cultural context. Learn about who it was written by and to and view it through those cultural lenses, not through our own biases and cultural tendencies.
3. Don’t just read a single Bible verse. Read the paragraph at miminum, the whole chapter is even better. Know the surrounding verses, the context of the verse is key to understanding it. Knowing it’s place in the grand story of the Bible, and who wrote it, to whom, and when, will help you understand the why. Scripture interprets scripture, the surrounding verses will help you understand the confusing ones.
4. All the Bible points to Jesus. All scripture is pointing to the coming Messiah. The Old Testament is His backstory, the long tale of God’s relationship with man, how broken it had become, and the New Testament is God coming to earth to restore and rebuild that relationship. Slowly, but surely bringing the world back towards its original design. Each verse it included purposefully to play a role in the grand story of Jesus and His grace.
One thing must be kept in mind: We Christians are Christians first and everything else after that. Our first alliegiance is to the kingdom of God. Our citizenship is in heaven. We are grateful for political freedom. We thank God for democracy as a way of life. But we never forget that we are sons of God and citizens of another city whose builder and maker is God. For this reason, we must not identify the gospel with any political system or make Christianity to be synonymous with any form of government, however noble. Christ stands alone, above and outside of every ideology devised by man. He does not join any of our parties or take sides with any of our great men except as they may come over on His side and try to follow Him in righteousness and true holiness. Then He is for them, but only as individuals, never as leaders of some political faction. The true Christian will be loyal to his country and obedient to those in authority, but he will never fall into the error of confusing his own national culture with Christianity. Christianity is bigger than any country, loftier than any civilization, broader than any human ideology.
A.W. Tozer
Have you ever thought about leaving, or actually left a church because it didn’t share the same political beliefs you do?
When you were looking, or perhaps you are still looking, for a home church, is how they support your political beliefs one of the deciding factors?
Are we trying to bend our faith to fit our political beliefs or adjust our political opinions to align with our Christ centered worldview?
Ponder that.
We are Citizens of Heaven, Followers of The Way, Believers in Jesus, and Co-Heirs with Christ, the fact we live in America is secondary and our beliefs about American political issues, as varied as they can be, should always yield to our Faith, Relationship, and Love we share in Christ’s Kingdom.
Perhaps it should be welcomed that what may be taught on Sunday morning would shake our political beliefs to the core, make us question our stance, even maybe, change to be more like Christ and less like a political party.
Christian First, American Second.
Have you ever been told or heard that America is a Christian nation. God’s country? Blessed and chosen by God? Or that such and such verse is about America needing to repent in order to be blessed by God again? Etc etc?
(Like 2 Chronicles 7:14. Contextually about Isreal and God’s promise to the people of Isreal, not the USA.)
I find it to be a very nationalistic worldly view, and not of the Kingdom.
Don’t get me wrong, I love America. I believe it’s the best country on earth. We are so privileged to live here and enjoy the freedom and rights we do as American citizens.
But to elevate my earthly country, above others as exalted by God? I just can’t buy it.
You see, I beleive Christ died, paid the price, tore the vail, and rescued each and every one of us, no matter what nation we hail from. He even specifically instructs us to spread His good news to “All Nations”!
Other countries even send missionaries to the US. I’m not convinced that God is anxiously seeking for the nation to repent, at least not even remotely like like eagerly awaits each individual soul who turns to Him. Our individual hearts are what God is after, a relationship with you specifically, not your country of origin or residence. God does call countries he calls individuals.
I’m merely a foreigner here in the USA, citizen yeah, but my home is in another Kingdom.
Let us not forget who we are. Lets not let patriotism or nationalism overshadow our roles ambasadors of Heaven, not of this world, but in it.
Patriotism
Oxford Dictionary
the quality of being patriotic; devotion to and vigorous support for one’s country.
Nationalism
Oxford Dictionary
Identification with one’s own nation and support for its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations.
Many people fall for the appeal of becoming a gatekeeper. Under the false notion of being a protector, they take it upon themselves to judge and determine who is allowed in and who is not. Who is a sheep, who is a ram, who is really a Christian, who is not. Often, throwing cultural and social norms and beliefs in the mix. Many people have felt unworthy, and unloved in church, shamed from the the faith, segregated, and outcast.
You can, in fact like both your country and God, but we are commanded to love One over the other.
Many conservative Christians elevate certain political views as dogmatic Christian beliefs.
“You vote Democrat so you aren’t a real Christian.”
“You voted for a candidate that accepted money from a company that supports abortion, you aren’t a Christian”.
Etc.
Here we see Governor DeSantis virtually equate the left with the Devil himself as he parallels “schemes of the Devil”, as it is written in the Bible, with his own “the left’s schemes”. (See Ephesians 6 which he paraphrases about the Armor of God)
The danger here, though, is in wedding our faith commitments to our political beliefs and making them so intertwined that we think our politics are God’s politics, our party is God’s party, our political opponents are God’s adversaries, and our beliefs are God’s Way.
John Corriea
Further, while I love the United States very much, in the grand picture of the Kingdom of God, what country you call home means didly squat, let alone what political party you are in.
Should our Christian beliefs influence our political stances? Absolutely. Though I fear many who’ve bought into Christian Nationalism, the idea that America is God’s country and that we are the last Christian stronghold on earth, let their political stances influence their theology, instead of the other way around.
“Ain’t gonna find it in a politician
Not from the government or any law
Can’t get it going by your own religion
Only by the Spirit and the Word of God
Only by the Spirit and the Word of God
Come with me
Come on with me, yeah!Anybody here looking for a revival
“Revival” by Third Day
In our own hearts and across the land
Anybody looking for a revival
Lift up your voice and say Amen
Lift up your voice and say Amen”
We aren’t called to be gatekeepers. In fact, just the opposite. We have just about zero role in determining who may enter the Kingdon and who may not. We are told to love everyone, especially those who harm us or whom we would consider our enemies. That role of determining who may enter and who may not, is God’s and His alone.
We are ambasadors. Citizens of The Kingdom, sent to the world, to share with everyone what we are about. What good is an ambassador that never leaves the embassy or only congregates with their fellow ambassadors?
An ambasador is sent to another place to represent their homeland. They engage with the locals, learn about their way of life, and share theirs with them. They show, by their actions, how their kingdom treats people. In this case, we are called to love. We are messengers of joy and grace, not harbingers of judgment and condemnation.
Are you more a citizen of America than you are a Citizen of Heaven? Are you living as a Christian refugee in America, as a Gatekeeper of the Faith, or an an Ambasador of Heaven?
I don’t want my love for anything, good or bad things, to overshadow my love for Christ and his Kingdom. I want His kind of love to be my legacy.
Was Adam’s first sin when he ate the fruit? Eve was deceived, I think we all remember the story from Sunday school right? If not, let me give a short version (full text in Genesis Chapter 3):
Adam and Eve are created as the first humans on earth. God gives them one rule, don’t eat of this particular tree. Satan, a fallen angel, appears in the garden as a serpent and deceives Eve, convinces her to eat of the tree because it’s delicious and mind blowing.
But where was Adam? Was he out foraging some berries from the thicket near the brook? Was he on one of those long walks with God?
No, he was standing right there with Eve! His first sin wasn’t when he ate the fruit, it was when he allowed Eve to be deceived and stood by and did nothing to protect her or himself from Satan’s evil schemes. His passiveness was his first failure.
A specific call to men but I feel can also be applied to all who walk in The Way, “stand up and fight!” Just as Joshua struggled with the urge to follow Moses’ footsteps, to be passive, dismissive of God’s command to rise and fight. We too struggle with our spiritual fitness and spiritual warfare.
In the very beginning of Joshua’s tenure as leader of the Isrealites following Moses’ passing, God commands him to be strong and courageous, to rise and fight, multiple times. (Joshua 1). He even describes what training for spiritual warfare looks like. Prayer, fasting and meditation on God’s Word. Feeding one’s spirit, ‘soul food’.
Don’t neglect your spiritual fitness, it starts with just a little, ‘nah, I can skip Bible reading this morning.” or, ‘missing prayer today is OK, one day won’t hurt.’ Small things, when repeated, become habits that hurt our relationship with God, and therefore reduce our ability to resist and repell the schemes, arrows, attacks of the devil.
Instead, build those small habits. Those moments and minutes with God change our entire lives, every day. Carve in your heart the habit of telling God, “Yes!” when He commands us to be strong, and rise up, and deeply ingrain the habit of forcefully and audibly resisting the plea for passiveness from Satan.
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”
Acts 2:1-12 ESV
Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
Genesis 11:1-9 ESV
When The Holy Spirt came down on the discples and apostles on Pentecost, He, in a way, undid that was done at Babel. They were confused, dispersed and separated for their desire to become greater than God. They wanted to reach the heavens themselves, out of their own pride.
Now, God has come down to us, His Spirit indwelling in our hearts, breaking the barriers of language and sending out ambasadors of His Kingdom throughout all the world.
Today is Pentecost Sunday, regarded as the birth of the Church, it commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit. By Who’s power we can fulfill the great commission and live out the greatest commandments.
Now go! Live like Jesus, Love people, and lead others to Him!
Do you absolutely love church politics? Are you eager to jump into hot theological debates? Do topics like Water Baptism (dunk or sprinkle), Speaking in Tongues, should women be preachers, etc etc get you hot and bothered? Or do you actively avoid controversial religious topics?
It’s my firm belief, that God is much more concerned with how we go about having such conversations, in genuine love and grace, than what side of the isle we are on. Allow me to explain:
Firstly, when we have such discussions on controversial, or unclear areas of theology, we need to ensure the conversation is with the right people and we have the right relationship with said people. We should have a solid relationship built on love and grace with other members of The Way whom we eat, worship, and live life with.
“So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.”
1 Thessalonians 2:8 ESV
They should be mature in the faith, able to consume the meat and potatoes of Scripture, not just milk.
“I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,”
1 Corinthians 3:2 ESV
And they should be studied in the word, dutifully reading and meditating in scripture. For scripture is our measure. Not some blog, YouTube/TV preacher, or book. Scripture.
“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”
2 Timothy 2:15 ESV
When discussing these types of opinions, interpretations, and conflicts it’s important that they not be equated with salvation. As is the issue in Acts 15 and Galatians 5 on circumsion, it’s not not a requirement of salvation, though Jews are welcome to keep up appearances with the law if they wish. We must keep the main thing the main thing and not let the gospel get muddied by periphery conflicts, additional rules, gatekeeping and roadblocks to salvation.
Salvation is about a relationship with the Living Savior Jesus Christ, not about a list of rules.
“For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.”
Romans 3:28 ESV
The big point of the Gospel of Jesus is that God loved us so much, he created us in His glory, in His image, that we would live for His glory and reflect His righteous image. But we sinned. We all have succumbed to self-centeredness and fallen short of His Glory. But God Loves us so much that he sent his Son, Jesus, to take our punishment and pay our sins. Therefore re-opening a direct relationship between us as individuals, and Himself, with no need for intermediates, middle men, sacrifices, etc. He seeks your heart, directly, as you are, and wants you to spend time with Him to get to know Him, and be in relationship with Him eternally.
Jesus simplified our mission while we are here on earth, which establishes our core beliefs here at T&T:
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 22:36-40 ESV
Matthew 28:19 ESV
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”
So, anything beyond that, which is typically what divides denominations, churches, cultures, social groups, tribes, etc, is all secondary. Which means we are free to disagree, but we are not free to hate. Different opinions can and do coexist in the church. The conflict on curcumsism in Acts and Galatians being one of the hottest debates in the scripture, it’s covered in multiple books of the Bible. Unfortunately, disagreement sometimes breeds division and strife in the church. This occurs when people can’t agree to disagree and focus on the main thing. Paul, Peter and the others navigated their issues together in the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, reconciled, united, and continued on. They did not branch off in separate denominations.
“The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion”.
1 Timothy 1:5-6 ESV
Our focus and priority should be on living like Jesus, loving others, and leading others to Him. If we instead focus on peripherary things, even though they may be good things, and flip our priorities around, we can, and likely will, hurt each other. Deep wounds exist in our Christian culture as a result of lost focus. Ask yourself this, before getting into a debate or heated discussion on a peripheral theological issue:
“Is it more important to be right, or to love?”
Sometimes, beating people over the head with with good book and into submission to your interpretation of a given scripture can overshadow our primary mission.
“As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.”
Romans 14:1-4 ESV
It’s not about winning the debate, but about winning souls. That only happens through love and grace. That love and grace is how others will know we are of The Way, that we are disciples of Christ.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:34-35
Loving our neighbors is a commandment. Being right all the time is not, it’s not even possible to be begin with.
“For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”
Romans 7:15 ESV
“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
1 John 1:8 ESV
We are even cautioned against vain discussions and quarreling over such opinions and matters multiple times.
“Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers.”
2 Timothy 2:14 ESV
To quote The Westminster Confession of Faith, which has been used for hundreds of years as a standard of doctrine:
“All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other that not only the learned but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them”
The Westminster Confession of Faith (Chapter 1, section 7)
It can be important to be dogmatic, laying down principles as incontrovertibly true, on topics which are plainly and easily understood and learned, like salvation. However, if you’re talking to someone who doesn’t agree with you on a particular issue, then standing on your dogma does nothing for them. Zero. Instead, building relationships enable us to build bridges and reach those who are lost and encourage those who are weak. When discussing controversial, muddied, and unclear topics, we need to yield and use caution. For unity, humility, peace, love and grace in the church are mightily important to God.
“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
Ephesians 4:1-3 ESV
Step back from dogma, opinions, interpretations, etc. Stop, listen, and love them. Love is so much more important than being right. Just read 1 Corinthians 13 and you’ll see.
“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV
As we venture into some tough controversial, contentious topics, as iron sharpens iron, sparks may fly. We may disagree. But at the end of the day, we must lead with love, grace, and friendship. We are all one, brothers and sisters, co-heirs with Christ, sons and daughters of God. We stand together, always.
“But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian [the law], for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Galatians 3:25-28 ESV
You don’t have to surrender and give up your beliefs and convictions, and neither do they, in order to love each other. Focus on building relationships, not roadblocks. We have great freedom in Christ and through His grace, it’s OK, to disagree, just remember to keep the main thing the main thing. Live like Jesus, Love everyone, Lead others to Him.
“When I have found intense pain relieved, a weary brain soothed, and calm, refreshing sleep obtained by a cigar, I have felt grateful to God, and have blessed His name”
Charles Spurgeon
We all find pleasure in different things. Relief and relaxation in a warm bath, a cool glass of sweet tea on the patio, perhaps a fine brandy or just a glass of coca cola. Our focus is not on the mere selfish enjoyment of things on this earth but soaking in God’s love for us in His creation. Enjoying the things made by our creator expresses our love for Him. We enjoy cigars and pipes. Other groups may enjoy other things, other hobbies, other pleasures, in which to elevate their spirits, relieve their pains, or calm their minds.
For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,
1 Timothy 4:4 ESV
After finishing his work in creation, God pronounced it “very good” (Genesis 1:31). This was not an anemic afterthought — Oh, well, it’s nice to be done with that — but a joyful recognition and celebration of accomplishment. As part of living life to its fullest, God invites us to join in the celebration, to enjoy and delight in His creation and all the gifts He offers us in it. These innumerable gifts come to us in many forms, including people, places, and things. “What gives me joy and delight?” This will differ for each of us, but part of loving God is to enjoy and delight in His creation and His gifts. Through any and every means possible, we seek to feast on the miracle of life with our senses.
When you think about a problem over and over in your mind, that’s called worry. When you think about God’s Word over and over in your mind, that’s meditation.
Rick Warren
Pondering the love of God is the central focus of our meditation. What makes meditation a biblical meditation is that it is “holy to the Lord.” We are not taking time off from God; we are drawing closer to him. It does not mean we necessarily spend the entire time in prayer or studying Scripture, though those activities may be part of meditation. Instead, contemplation means we are acutely focused on those aspects of God’s love that come to us through so many gifts from his hand. Scripture affirms that all creation declares his glory (see Psalm 19:1). We intentionally look for his grandeur in everything from people, food, and art to babies, sports, hobbies, and music. In this sense, contemplation is an extension of delight — we are intentional about looking for the evidence of God’s love in all of the things he has given us to enjoy.
So, for me, and maybe even you too, enjoying a cigar or pipe especially in community with other brothers and sisters in Christ as we meditate on God’s glory, grace and love, is truly a wonderful form of worship, and praise.
“I believe that many who find that ‘nothing happens’ when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand.”
CS Lewis
If you are adamantly against smoking and drinking in any amount, quantity, or context, then I don’t pretend to be eager to persuade you otherwise. However, if you are a Christian, who also enjoys these comforts let this not only calm your mind but caution you not to let any good thing overtake your love for Christ.
Jesus told us that we are commanded to love each other, and love fulfills the law.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
John 13:34-35 ESV
And He said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.
Matthew 22:37-40 ESV
Paul dissects this a bit later in his letter to the Galatians:
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Galatians 5:13-14, 18-23 ESV
He guides us in our Christian freedom in his letter to the Romans:
As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
Romans 14:1-4 ESV
And cautions us on taking things too far in his letter to the Corinthians:
All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.
1 Corinthians 6:12 ESV
A couple things to lay out here.
We grow up in a society, a culture, a tribe if you will, that has different expectations and liberties. That varies greatly among believers. It is important to let our relationship with God, our devotion to Scripture, and the grace and love of Jesus to guide us and not the ways of the world, society, or even our local church culture.
In Ecclesiastes, presumed author Solomon, wise son of David, tells us:
There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?”
Ecclesiastes 2:24-25 ESV
Are we not to find enjoyment in God’s creation? Are we doomed to labor and toil with no joy on this earth? Of course not. God has given us this earth, it’s plants, animals, all of Creation, to protect, rule, and certainly to enjoy. This enjoyment can certainly be a form of worship, praise and glory to God, and certainly can enhance our meditation on His word and works.
The line is in not letting anything become our Master except Christ. We can eat, drink, and smoke but not to the point of abuse, gluttony, drunkenness, and addiction.
If we are sacrificing, our families, our devotion to Christ, etc to afford the time and money to smoke cigars and pipes then we definitely need to stop and it is a sin. When our pleasures in life, out prioritize our love for Christ and others, we are in the wrong.
Rather, we can enjoy some of the pleasures of this world, but only to the extent we don’t worship them. We worship the Creator, not His creation.
For some, this means they can’t smoke or drink because they slip too easily into misaligned priorities and into addiction, abuse, and idolatry.
For others, they can enjoy simple freedoms and stay on track in their faith. I’d even encourage them to inject Bible study, devotionals, and or meditation in their smoking time.
And even others, the mere appearance of contact with anything of this nature, alcohol, tobacco, etc, is near blasphemy! They are quick to assume that simple association means one is a slave to these vices.
Jesus was even called a drunkard and glutton because of the company he kept. See Luke 7. He did, in all likeliness, drink alcoholic beverages, but was not ever drunk. He made water into wine, would be reasonable that he sampled it, and He did also drink of the Passover cup.
Jesus was no stranger to controversy. He was very controversial by nature, upsetting the religious elite and being a man of the people, a friend of sinners.
Smoking cigarettes by inhalation is much more catastrophic to ones health than the occasional smoking of Cigars or Pipes, without inhaling, as is the standard practice. It’s apples and oranges and we’re not defending people who are addicted to smoking packs of cigarettes a day and inhaling the smoke in a desperate attempt to self medicate against the stresses of life. Who could not simply stop smoking because they are in fact addicted. (Most studies find that cigarette smokers have about double the health risks of cigar and pipe smokers, one study done by the Surgeon General in 1964 even shows pipe smokers live longer than the control group of non smokers. Cigars, or pipes still have negative health effects, though not as high of a risk as cigarette smoking.)
Nicotine itself has many studies that show its negative effects, but it is not without its share of positive attributes as well. Studies have shown that nicotine helps with weight loss, is a performance enhancer, and can help prevent parkinson’s, tourettes, alzheimer’s, ulcerative colitis, and sleep apnea (Jarvik ME. Beneficial effects of nicotine. Br J Addict. 1991 May;86(5):571-5. doi: 10.1111/j.1360-0443.1991.tb01810.x. PMID: 1859921.).
There can be enjoyment in a good cigar or pipe. The aroma is pleasing to the senses, the flavors, the methodic chore of keeping a pipe lit, etc. Granted just like not everyone enjoys chocolate milk, cigars and pipes are not enjoyed by all. A rather few by all accounts. So, yeah if you don’t enjoy something certainly don’t do it. Likewise if you enjoy it too much, where your priorities shift to center around feeding your habit, you should stop.
Still, the primary reason some Christians are against smoking is the eisegetical view of 1 Corinthians 6:19 (which is contextually about sexual purity). Here it is in context.
Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, however God will do away with both of them. But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power. Do you not know that your bodies are parts of Christ? Shall I then take away the parts of Christ and make them parts of a prostitute? Far from it! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “The two shall become one flesh.” But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every other sin that a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought for a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
1 Corinthians 6:13-20 NASB 2020
Even if we accept that view, which I wouldn’t say is against common sense, of course we need to care for our bodies, it’s not a simple ruling that all things that can harm you are sin. There are many things we do that aren’t the safest for our bodies. Recreational activities, like skydiving, rock climbing, mountain biking, contact sports, etc all pose a significant risk to our bodies, but are not sins. We assess and accept risk in a reasonable and prudent way, not recklessly. Even some occupations are inherently dangerous to our health, take mine as a plumber, exposure to diseases and chemicals, working on my knees, etc. Still an assessment is made weighing the risks with the rewards.
Many don’t see the reward of enjoying a cigar or pipe to be worth anything , definitely not something to write home about. Others find it enjoyable (perhaps similar to the aroma from the smoke from the alter is pleasing to God; Gen 8:21, Lev 1:9, Lev 3:5) and like choosing to consume a donut or bacon occasionally despite the negative health benefits of doing so, do so. Guarding against doing it in excess, but still experiencing that freedom to enjoy some pleasures in life.
This issue of smoking cigars and pipes for enjoyment, not out of addiction, has been hashed out before. By none other than a world-renowned theologian and minister, Charles H. Spurgeon.
“Well, dear friends, you know that some men can do to the glory of God what to other men would be sin. And notwithstanding what brother Pentecost has said, I intend to smoke a good cigar to the glory of God before I go to bed to-night. “If anybody can show me in the Bible the command, ‘Thou shalt not smoke,’ I am ready to keep it; but I haven’t found it yet. I find ten commandments, and it’s as much as I can do to keep them; and I’ve no desire to make them into eleven or twelve. “The fact is, I have been speaking to you about real sins, not about listening to mere quibbles and scruples. At the same time, I know that what a man believes to be sin becomes a sin to him, and he must give it up. ‘Whatsoever is not of faith is sin’ [Rom. 14:23], and that is the real point of what my brother Pentecost has been saying. “Why, a man may think it a sin to have his boots blacked. Well, then, let him give it up, and have them whitewashed. I wish to say that I’m not ashamed of anything whatever that I do, and I don’t feel that smoking makes me ashamed, and therefore I mean to smoke to the glory of God.”
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, as quoted in the church magazine Christian World, September 25th, 1874.
Spurgeon also replied to the Daily Telegraph, which also covered the controversy.
“To the Editor of the Daily Telegraph.
SIR,
YOU cannot regret more than I do the occasion which produced the unpremeditated remarks to which you refer. I would, however, remind you that I am not responsible for the accuracy of newspaper reports, nor do I admit that they are a full and fair representation of what I said. I am described as rising with a twinkling eye, and this at once suggested that I spoke flippantly; but indeed, I did nothing of the kind. I was rather too much in earnest than too little. I demur altogether and most positively to the statement that to smoke tobacco is in itself a sin. It may become so, as any other indifferent action may, but as an action it is no sin. Together with hundreds of thousands of my fellow-Christians I have smoked, and, with them, I am under the condemnation of living in habitual sin, if certain accusers are to be believed. As I would not knowingly live even in the smallest violation of the law of God, and sin in the transgression of the law, I will not own to sin when I am not conscious of it. There is growing up in society a Pharisaic system which adds to the commands of God the precepts of men; to that system I will not yield for an hour. The preservation of my liberty may bring upon me the upbraidings of many good men, and the sneers of the self-righteous; but I shall endure both with serenity so long as I feel clear in my conscience before God. The expression “smoking to the glory of God” standing alone has an ill sound, and I do not justify it; but in the sense in which I employed it I still stand to it. No Christian should do anything in which he cannot glorify God; and this may be done, according to Scripture, in eating and drinking and the common actions of life. When I have found intense pain relieved, a weary brain soothed, and calm, refreshing sleep obtained by a cigar, I have felt grateful to God, and have blessed His name; this is what I meant, and by no means did I use sacred words triflingly. If through smoking I had wasted an hour of my time—if I had stinted my gifts to the poor—if I had rendered my mind less vigorous—I trust I should see my fault and turn from it; but he who charges me with these things shall have no answer but my forgiveness. I am told that my open avowal will lessen my influence, and my reply is that if I have gained any influence through being thought different from what I am, I have no wish to retain it. I will do nothing upon the sly, and nothing about which I have a doubt. I am most sorry that prominence has been given to what seems to me so small a matter—and the last thing in my thoughts would have been the mention of it from the pulpit; but I was placed in such a position that I must either by my silence plead guilty to living in sin, or else bring down upon my unfortunate self the fierce rebukes of the anti-tobacco advocates by speaking out honestly. I chose the latter; and although I am now the target for these worthy brethren, I would sooner endure their severest censures than sneakingly do what I could not justify, and earn immunity from their criticism by tamely submitting to be charged with sin in an action which my conscience allows.Yours truly,
C. H. SPURGEON.
Nightingale Lane, Clapham, Sept. 23.”
Charles H. Spurgeon
Phillip R. Johnson notes this on his website, The Spurgeon Archive (Romans45.org):
“It is important to note that Mr. Spurgeon’s love for cigars was not an addiction, and he deliberately kept it from becoming an addiction, as is clearly shown in the anecdotes related by William Williams (below). Furthermore, we fully agree with Mr. Spurgeon that smoking cigars per se is not a sinful activity. Cigars, unlike cigarettes, are properly smoked without inhaling, minimizing the risk of lung damage. Nor does cigar smoking normally involve the kind of addictive behavior associated with cigarette use. By all accounts, Mr. Spurgeon’s smoking was occasional, and never much more than a cigar a day or so—which, again, suggests that this was no addiction with him. There are no doubt health risks associated with cigars, but this is also true of cream cheese, or coffee, or almost anything when consumed without moderation. There is no real evidence that cigars in any way hastened Mr. Spurgeon’s death. Spurgeon died—not from smoking but from complications of gout and Bright’s disease—at the Hotel Beau-Rivage in Mentone on the last day of January 1892. Mr. Spurgeon’s smoking was a historical fact, and the cause of truth cannot be served by denying it or inventing myths that suggest he finally “repented” of this activity. The fact is that he did not regard smoking cigars as a sinful activity, and he evidently held that opinion until the end of his life.”
The Spurgeon Archive (romans45.org)
Personally, I very much like to enjoy a good cigar and brandy with one or more theologically-minded brothers/sisters who like to talk theology shop. God forbid we take a moment to relax and reflect on His glory and use stuff He made possible to aid in our reflection by lending a degree of focused happiness to the effort.
