Is Smoking A Sin?

A close friend of mine name Pete Butler and I were saved about the same time. We began to work with the youth in our church and lead a boy’s group. That was when it began to get really hard for me as I was under deep conviction about my smoking. I had for years wanted to quit because of my health, but now it dawned on me that smoking was a bad testimony in front of my son and these boys that Pete and I were seeking to lead to Christ. I came under heavy conviction and could find no peace. I tried, I really tried hard to quit, but each time I failed. I was like the fellow in the TV commercial advertising a system to quit smoking. He said "I have quit a thousand times." I had too. I prayed about it in earnest, but I could get no victory over it. Looking back I know the reason now. The reason I could not quit was even though I did want to and knew it was wrong....deep down I enjoyed smoking and did not really want to quit! Only a smoker can understand this seeming contradiction of wanting to quit and at the same time not wanting too. I think if most smokers who have tried to quit smoking will admit it, they too really deep down do not want to quit because their addiction it brings pleasure.

Pete and I both smoked and we made a pact together that we would quit and for two or three weeks we both did. One Saturday morning he and I planned to go down to the Tar River which was nearby to prepare a place we planned to have our boys camp out the next week. I got up early and ate breakfast and drank a cup of coffee. There is nothing like having a smoke after a good meal and a cup of coffee and I was craving a cigarette. I walked over to my wife’s father county store to wait for Pete who was coming to pick me up. There on the shelf was those Salem cigarettes I had smoked for so many years. The urge to smoke was so great and I was having a real "nicotine fit" and I gave in and I brought a pack hurriedly lifting one to my mouth. I took a deep draw on the "weed" and although for a moment it made me dizzy the old pleasure came back. I fought really hard to ignore my failure and put it out of my mind. Pete arrived and we headed for the river. Without thinking, falling back to my old habits, I took the pack of Salems out of my pocket and as I stuck the smoke to my lips I offered Pete one. What happened next I will never forget. Pete just looked at me with surprise and disgust. In a raised voice he said, "Cooper! I do not believe you are offering me a cigarette!" The conviction that griped my heart at that moment was overpowering. I felt like the lowest person on earth. I have failed my friend and I have most of all failed the Lord. I took the cigarette from my mouth and threw it and the pack out the window of the truck in from of Linwood Joyner’s house there on Highway 97. I have never smoked since. The Lord did not give up on me and that day God answered my prayers and through Him I overcame that additive habit and grew closer to the Lord. As I look back I know that if I had not continued to seek God’s help I would have never overcome smoking and would not today be a Gospel preacher and pastor. I knew I was a bad testimony for the Lord and a bad example to my son, my wife, my church and those youth I worked with. I knew too that Christ suffered for my every sin and everytime I lit up and smoked I caused Him pain 2000 years ago. My spiritual relationship with the Lord would never have grown and it would have prevented the Lord from using me. I would have remained a defeated Christian really unfit for the Lord’s use. Thank God He loved me enough to deliver me from that sin. By the way that was twenty six years ago and I have not had any respiratory problems since and all my allegories cleared up.