Is smoking a sin?

Ryan2021 said:

i smoke, i don't do it all the time infact i can go weeks without smoking. But there are times when i am very anxious or just feel like i want a cigarette and so i have days where i smoke more and other days i don't smoke at all. I'm not sure if its the nicotine i want or i just enjoy doing it maybe as a distraction. if i feel nervous or anxious i find that having a cigarette is a distraction. I am aware it is a form of self harm due to the health implications and that it can also be selfish as other people can be affected by the smoke but i always try not to do it around other people. Its something i know i should stop doing, but compared to drinking alcohol its not mind altering and it doesn't lead to bad behavior that being intoxicated with alcohol and drugs can

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Your body is a temple, so keeping it as healthy as possible so the Holy Spirit can guide you is important.

1 Corinthians 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

I smoked when I was in my late teens into my early twenties. I prayed and asked God to take away the urge, I really wanted to quit but I was addicted. After earnestly praying, the next day I came down with a cold and lost the urge and never smoked again. He can help you, give it to Him but you have to really want to make a change.

Ryan2021 said:

i smoke, i don't do it all the time infact i can go weeks without smoking. But there are times when i am very anxious or just feel like i want a cigarette and so i have days where i smoke more and other days i don't smoke at all. I'm not sure if its the nicotine i want or i just enjoy doing it maybe as a distraction. if i feel nervous or anxious i find that having a cigarette is a distraction. I am aware it is a form of self harm due to the health implications and that it can also be selfish as other people can be affected by the smoke but i always try not to do it around other people. Its something i know i should stop doing, but compared to drinking alcohol its not mind altering and it doesn't lead to bad behavior that being intoxicated with alcohol and drugs can

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Most of the Christian commentary that I have encountered considers it to be a sin for the reason you identified. However, if we are talking about an addiction, that's taken into consideration. And also, we are all weak and sinners. We fall every day, if truth be told. But if we want to get technical about smoking, the answer probably is "yes."

For health purposes it's good not to smoke.

Though, the important thing to remember, is that According to 1 Corinthians 10:


Sins, there are countless numbers of their it seems.
According to book of

Jesus Christ has paid for all of these sins on the cross for all people, and all people have different types of measures of faith according to the book of


God can help you over come the things of the flesh though we will not never be perfect. According to the book of James Chapter 1 starting at verse


At this point in my explanation all I am left with is the choice is totally up to you.

You are the one who has the free will to make choices in this life to either smoke or not smoke, and God is more than willing to be there and help you in your times of need.

Also it doesn't make us better if we are able to overcome some thing we have that we act on in the flesh by the grace and strength that the Lord Jesus Christ gives to us according to the book of

God bless and take care.

could cut your life short so your purpose in life also would be cut short


if you marry,would you want to leave your wife & kids alone w/o you?


one of my grandparents died younger due to smoking
grandmother lived for 30 more years

(Rom 14:21) It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.
(Rom 14:22) Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.

let God lead you as to what is sin, and what sin needs to be dealt with at any given time - no one can stop all sinning instantly and permanently - as long as we're in these flesh bodies, sin will be a problem. if you allow this to get you into fear, you'll lose sight of God's mercy and grace by focusing on judgment and punishment - this is far more dangerous to your life in the flesh than an occasional cigarette; because what you focus on you magnify in your life - faith magnifies God's desire to restore, quicken, and create in your life; fear magnifies the devil's desire to steal, kill and destroy in your life.

(Rom 4:17) (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
(Rom 4:18) Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
(Rom 4:19) And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb:
(Rom 4:20) He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
(Rom 4:21) And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

when you smoke, after every drag on the cigarette, thank God that you are free from smoking - call those things that be not as though they were like God calls them, and eventually you will be free

I have some serious issues with smoking as it pertains to me personally. I hide it. I feel guilty about it. It's a huge taboo. Yet, I don't see it as a sin. Both my wife and my mother are heavy smokers. They are both devout Christians from different denominations. I do not see either of them as sinners because of their smoking. I do see them as hypocrites however, which is why I hide my own smoking. It's the splinter and the log kind of hypocrisy that Jesus spoke of. Yet their hypocrisy is rooted in their love for me.

I hate it when I read somebody talk about the Glory of God. As in, well, Son. Are you smoking for the glory of God? And then there is the body and the temple thing. Quite honestly, I don't put much weight behind the body and the temple comparison. Our body is supposed to rot into the ground after it expires. It has no real value, except to house the soul, which lives forever. I don't see smoking as something that can destroy the soul, like mind altering drugs and inappropriate contentography and lust can do.

Kenny Benson said:

Both my wife and my mother are heavy smokers. They are both devout Christians from different denominations. I do not see either of them as sinners because of their smoking...

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Quite honestly, I don't put much weight behind the body and the temple comparison. Our body is supposed to rot into the ground after it expires. It has no real value, except to house the soul, which lives forever. I don't see smoking as something that can destroy the soul, like mind altering drugs and inappropriate contentography and lust can do.

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On the other hand, willfully destroying God's creation, our bodies included, has been considered a sin because it counters God's purposes by artificially shortening our lives. Occasional smoking probably wouldn't rise to that level, but the "heavy" smoking you are referring to probably would be a different matter akin to what you said about drug use.

If it is where does it fall? Before you contemplate whether something is sinful you must determine what it violates.

Sin is a falling short of God's perfection, or "missing the mark," not just a failure to adhere to the Ten Commandments in specific instances.

If people understood this, they would more readily appreciate the meaning of the various Biblical references to us mortals being in sin and everyone needing a savior etc.

Those who do NOT appreciate the point are likely to become the kind of Christian who thinks that he's "been good," more or less, and deserving of salvation, having added up the charitable actions committed and balancing them against wrongs done, and then concluding that he's never killed anyone or stolen anything important, etc. etc.

Kenny Benson said:

I have some serious issues with smoking as it pertains to me personally. I hide it. I feel guilty about it. It's a huge taboo. Yet, I don't see it as a sin. Both my wife and my mother are heavy smokers. .

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Nicotine is a strong narcotic and there are a number of drug that can be smoked in this world. But the words "narcotic" and "drug" are not found in the Bible, neither is "poison ivy" found in the Bible.

bèlla said:

If it is where does it fall? Before you contemplate whether something is sinful you must determine what it violates.

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Good question.

What we do find there is 1 Cor 6
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought for a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

1 Cor 3:
16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.

Of course you could say "what if I were seriously overweight and eat myself into an early grave, would God not also be against that as well?". And you would have a good point, God would also be against that as well.

I would suggest that you work on the stress issue. It seems to be the trigger for your smoking. The bible tells us:

Mark 14:38 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."

Stress can be overcome through consistent prayer. The Holy Spirit gives love, joy, peace. As we spend consistent time with God, His attributes become the norm for us, and our stresses abate.

It is not always easy to pray, and it can seem, dull and boring, but it gives us a smooth road in the end.

I've never smoked but both my parents were heavy smokers, my mother had a nervous disposition and my dad was a chronic workaholic so I suppose tobacco soothed their stresses and in that sense could be called a God-given "medicine" and therefore not sinful-
"Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river...Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing" (Ezekiel 47:12)