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.
- Love fulfills the law.
- Sin is something done without love for God or others.
- Some things can be OK for some, but a sin for others.
- If you feel in your heart, that something is a sin for you, and you do it anyway, you have sinned.
- Something may not be a sin in moderation, until we let it dominate our life, like food, alcohol, TV, video games, social media etc.
- Sin is very much about the condition of your heart and your motives.
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.
