When someone with a better track record than Spurgeon tells me that it affects Christians spiritually, I will listen. I won't agree, because I know better. I'm not advocating smoking. I am against the attitude that smokers are modern day lepers to be condemned and avoided.
It's just a different sin, and all sin affects us spiritually.
You are certainly free to believe that smoking has no spiritual affect, but it obviously harms the body, and God commands us to take care of our bodies, which are the very temples He chooses to live in.
Now of course, I don't think that smokers should be shunned or condemned at all. One of my best friends is a heavy smoker, and I worry that she will suffer the same fate as my older relative because of it, but I love her dearly and would never turn my back on her. But I could also never live as a roommate in the same household with her because I am very allergic to the smoke and that would be causing me self-harm.
You of course are free to believe any way you want, but I personally believe that any form of harm, especially those we choose to do to ourselves (whether someone else's smoking or my own binge eating) most definitely affects us spiritually.
If the subject didn't affect you spiritually (even if you are a non-smoker,) I would highly suspect you wouldn't even feel a need to write such a thread.
The obvious fact that this bothers you so much is an indication of how much the very subject affects your spirit.
- 2
- Show all