Is Your Temple Smoking?

One of the vices that Christians have recently joined the culture in protesting is that of smoking.  The scriptural passage that is invariably used to preach against smoking is the one that speaks about your body being the temple of the Holy Spirit—and that a Christian would not want to have that temple polluted with smoke.

The only problem is that the Christian is not consistent in the application of this verse, if this is the way that it should be taken, because all kinds of things that the Christian permits or does not preach as strongly against that he should.

For example, when was the last time that you heard a preacher tell you that if you’re overweight, you’re in sin.

Yes brother, that extra 50 to 100 pounds is sin.  Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Lord?  Do you think that He wants a flabby body full of excess fat?  Do you think He likes living in their, squished with all those Twinkies?

Or what about the inconsistency when it comes to drugs.  We use the same passage to tell kids to stay away from drugs, but have you ever heard this?

Stay away from that Tylenol, sister, and put back that morphine.  Yes, those drugs that they prescribed to you to pick up the pharmacy are from the devil!  They pollute that temple that is your body, effecting your thinking, or they contain alcohol!

Surely some of these are helpful in some circumstances, but under a doctor’s supervision.

The point that I’m trying to make is that sometimes we try to make things into sins using passages that are convenient, but don’t really fit.  We don’t want our kids smoking or doing drugs, so we find a passage that “works” but then don’t think through it to how it could be applied to other things.

Are there better passages or principles?  Undoubtedly.  They’re just not as quick and easy to find.