It is wrong. Why would you knowingly put poison in your body ?
For many people that start smoking it is not quite as simple as that. It is easy to say that from an outsiders perspective if you have never smoked and gotten into your "wise years" without picking up the habit. Unfortunately for a lot of young people like myself we do pick up the habit through various ways that old hairy legs puts upon us. This can be through peer pressure and wanting to seem "cool" or "with it" or "grown up like" by smoking cigarettes. When you are very young (in your young teens) you don't tend to stop and think about the medical implications like a doctor or surgeon would. You only see the fun, easy, cool and grown up independent side to it (oh look at me smoking a cigarette, how grown up am I?).
Like myself, I started smoking at around 14 years old (2 years off the legal age) simply because my older brothers and those around me of around my age group or above were smoking and like so many lads my age, in my generation, I would do near anything to fit in with the crowd and have some kind of identity. Thats what smoking cigarettes can do is give you a false identity and that and its like a social thing isn't it, smoking I mean.
But what it all comes down to is how clever you are. But you only have that if you have been educated on it. We was never fully educated on the medical implications of smoking in my years 10-20+. Back then they never advertised dying cancer patients on TV as a way to put you off smoking. Back then they wouldn't publish a picture of someones tar clogged lungs onto the back of a pack of cigarettes then. And back then they never had a single thing to help you give up smoking either. No patches, no support groups. Nothing.
Its only really been in the past what 10+ years? That the government is now doing more (with the aid of and pressure from other people and agencies) to educate people on the medical implications to smoking.
So yes, you are right to say it is wrong. But its not just a simple matter of knowing I am doing something wrong and stopping doing it. If it were that simple we wouldn't be here talking about this now and millions of people would still be alive today.
Smoking is a tricky subject because at first you don't care about the medical implications. You are young and care free. All that stuff to you is negative and something you wont have to think about for a very long time yet. While you are young all you see is the cool grownup side to it.
Of course as all addicted smokers know, there is no cool, grown up side to it at all. In fact as we know today, its one of the most dirtiest, disgusting, stinkiest, filthiest habits you can ever pick up.
But you have to remember here that people have been smoking for thousands of years. I'm not quite sure that cavemen were smoking pipes or rollups but I am sure they would have used to burn and inhale somethings at times and thats pretty much where it started from.
It's only because of our split from God that we even do smoke! Smoking is something that old hairy legs love people to do! That is why he tries to make it cool for kids to smoke. Satan is very clever remember, he knows about the naivety of young people and he plays that to his advantage. One sure fire way to steal, kill and destroy a person and end his life early is to try and get that person addicted to smoking, which can lead to other things like drinking and even harder drugs. Its easier to say yes to these things if you've already said yes to smoking. And he knows this very well.
It's just a matter of educating people. I truly believe that at some point in the future, people will be so clued up about their health that nobody will even smoke anymore. Smoking just wont exist. There will be no more cigarette producing companies, but then, there will always be marijuana and evil in the world so there will always be people trying to profit from things like that because of the work that old hairy legs does in the world.
But yes ultimately, the body is a temple for the Holy Spirit. You are not your own, you were bought at a price (the price of Christs death on the cross). He paid for your body with his blood. We should thank Him continually for that and show Him our thanks by honoring our bodies by not smoking which has serious health implications.
I wish I never started smoking. It has led to other things as well. To any and all young people out there that feel they have to bow to peer pressure or want to appear more grown up. Get a grip! Don't do it. Trust me on that.
So is smoking a sin?
In my opinion yes, because God made the body to survive without drugs of any kind. And because it damages your health, causes emphysema, cancer etc etc. When you actively know this but then deny it, then it is a sin.
However its a tough one to fully control because its often far too late before most smokers fully realize this. I used to know young early Christians would go to bible study and then go out for fag breaks. I used to be one of them.
As Christians, what we need to be doing is reaching out to young people and early Christians and warning them of the health implications and the soul-side implications of smoking in the same way as other anti-smoking campaigns are doing today. We need to educate people how smoking is giving the devil a foothold in their life and making a mockery of the power of Jesus' saving atonement. Just my HO