IS SMOKING WRONG?
Smoking is drawing tobacco smoke from cigarette or cigar or pipe into the mouth and often into the lung and puffing it out. Tobacco and smoking has a long and checkered history dating. The tobacco plant is believed to be widely spread in America since the first century. People have smoked tobacco for thousand of years. Pictorial records of smoking date back to the 11th century. Now there are hundreds of millions smoker world wide. A research says that everyday about one millions people take their first puff of cigarette. (US. Department of Health and Human Service, 2009) Every years million of people die from the effected caused by smoking cigarette. Each year million of people have cancer and many other diseases caused by the tobacco and cigarette. Many people thought that nothing is wrong with smoking cigarette. Because they think that smoking only affect them. But according to the Bible smoking is wrong and it is a sin to smoke because smoking doesn't have that many benefits for the smoker and other people. And everyone knows that smoking is bad for them and the people around them. The Bible never really has a verse telling us not to smoke. But every one knows that smoking is bad. And there are many bad effects from smoking.
Ethics is the study of good and evil, right and wrong. Christian ethic is inseparable from theology because it is grounded in the character of God. The task of Christian ethics is to determine what conforms to God's character and what does not.
Christian uses the Bible and the character of God to determine what is right or wrong. Christian morality is founded on the conviction that an absolute moral order exists outside of our being. There really isn't a bible verse telling us not to smoke but according to God's character we shouldn't smoke and the bible also gives us warning using the excessive drinking of wine as an example the Bible also tells us to seek the Holy Spirit to feel good rather than other chemical.
Christian morality is founded on the conviction that an absolute moral order exists outside of our being. It is a morality from the nature of God. The Bible tell us "The true light that gives light to everyman" (John 1:9 NIV) The Christian also uses the law of love to determine what is right or wrong. As Christian our responsibility to love our neighbor entails an even more fundamental obligation: our duty to love God. "The moral end or the highest good is the glory of God." (William Young, Baker Dictionary of Christian Ethics, 432-433) The Christian who recognize the truth of God's law will dedicate their life and obey it.
Smoking is bad for our body. The Bible told us "Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body." From this bible verse we know that we should take care of our body and stay healthy. And smoking is not a good way to stay healthy. And Jesus also teaches us to be healthy in physical and spiritual life. Smoking is undoubtedly very bad for your health. Smoking has been proven to damage the lungs and the heart. A research say that every years 5.4 millions people die from lung cancer, heart disease, and other illness directly linked to tobacco use.
The Bible tells us that "Everything is permissible for me- but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me- but I will not be mastered by anything." (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV) Smoking is not considered beneficial and smoking is not truly honoring God with our body. Nobody is smoking for the glory of God. Everyone knows that there are no benefits from smoking cigarette there is benefits from selling cigarette but you get nothing for smoking. The bible command us not to allow our bodies to be mastered by anything and smoking can be addictive and some people are mastered by smoke and they just living waiting to smoke and all they think about is cigarette. God don't want us to harm our body or anyone around us and smoking can harm us the people around us.
There are many reasons not to smoke. Some people say smoking make them feel good and it make them forget about bad things. Some people think that smoking help them lose there weight but smoking is horrible for your health and leads to numerous disease and disorders. Smoking lead to cancer, heart disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases. God doesn't want us to get disease and die from smoking. And smoking has many bad effects on the smoker smoking gives you bad breath and yellow teeth. Smoking also has negative effects on the skin. And it is hard to tell people about Jesus if we are smoking.
People shouldn't smoke because smoking habit is very bad for their financial. Christian should not spend there money on smoking and drinking. Many cigarette companies spend billions on marketing each year in 2005 they spend $13 billion to promote cigarette. Because cigarette companies make billions of dollar each month selling cigarette. The smoking habit has gotten more and more expensive every year. The average smoker spends $30 a week for smoking. A study estimate the total cost of smoking for a person each year is $3391. (CDC, 2002) That is the money that could go toward bills and life expense and we could help the people who are in need with that money. Lower income people smoke significantly more than the wealthy, and spend a much higher proportion of the income on tobacco. And smoking health production costs reach $150 billion a year. (CDC , 2002) If a smoker continues to the point they get diseases then they will have to spend money to treat these diseases. Also, smoker may have to pay more money for health and life insurance.
Tobacco companies make so much money from selling their product. Some Christian thinks that there is nothing wrong with selling smoke if we don't smoke them. But the bible told us that "So in everything, do to other what you would have them do to you, for this sum up the law and the prophet."(Matthew 7:8 NIV) A lot of people become rich from selling cigarette. But Jesus tells us to love our enemy and pray for them and one of the ways to love other people is not doing harm to them. And Christians are called to live "in" the world, not "of" it. So we should not do what is wrong even if other people make a lot of money from selling cigarette. The bible also say "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." (Roman 12:2) Even because other people make money doing things that is bad like selling drug and cigarette. However, Christian should not do that and show to the other people how Christian live there holy life.
Since 1910 people have learned about the bad effect from tobacco. And people know that smoking is bad things and many people are trying to quit smoking. In 2001, 22.8% of American adult, about 46.2 million, smoked, and 70% of them said they wanted to stop. (CDC, 2002) Many people who tried to quit smoking have failed. A lot of people are addicted to smoking. Christian who doesn't smoke should help people quit smoking and should help prevent people from smoking. Because if we don't' help ban tobacco or help prevent other people from smoking it is a sin because it is not doing what God want us to do. Today more and more cities are passing law preventing smoking in public places like restaurants and park due to known effect of smoking and secondhand smoke. In fact, secondhand smoke can be more dangerous to a non-smoker than the direct smoke to smoker. Christian shouldn't smoke because it will harm other people and Christian should help prevent smoking because preventing smoking can help those other people who don't smoke to be healthy and live a good life. So Christian should prevent other people from smoking because secondhand smoke can kill us and we should take care of our body. Many people start smoking and they think that they will never get addicted and become a smoker. Other people think that smoking is easy to quit. But quitting is not as easy as they think it will be. And there are ingredients in the cigarette that make the smoker addicted and make it hard to quit smoking. As Christian if we know people who smoke we should advice and help them to quit smoking. Smoking is hard to quit but with the help from God and people around they could quit smoking and they could become Christian.
One of the ways to help prevent smoking is to teach our children about the bad effect from smoking. As with virtually all public-health problems, a major huddle to reduce smoking is the lack of public education. People are not fully aware of the hazard of smoking, and it is a weakness that the tobacco industry is quick to exploit. A research show that only 25% of the Chinese population knew that tobacco is was is bad for their health. (WHO, 2007) Christian should tell and warned other people about the bad effect from tobacco. Christian parents should prevent their children from smoking. As children grow into teen, they may seem to tune out of what their parent says. But researches shows that parents are still the strongest influence on adolescents, big decision, like whether to smoke or drink or have sex. ( Philip Morris USA, 2005 ) As Christian we should teach other people about the bad effect of smoking and we should tell them about Jesus.
Christian attitude to smoker should be good and understand them because some people smoke because they are stress and they don't have any hope in life. Even those people know that smoking is bad for them but they do not care because they don't have any hope in life and smoking make them forget about the bad thing. Christian should go tell the, about god and tell them that Jesus love them and show the love. And it will make them have hope in life and quit smoking.
Is smoking wrong? Some people think that nothing is wrong with smoking because it is not doing anything bad. Other people think that smoking is not wrong because they think that if smoking is bad why would God created tobacco. But we know that every thing that God created is good but because men sins against good and that make all the bad things in the world exists. But everyone that smoke knows inside their heart that smoking is wrong and they shouldn't do that. Smoking is a sin. But maybe in the future if we could make cigarette that does not harm our body maybe that day smoking is not a sin. But for now smoking is wrong.
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