Cigars, Christians, and the Glory of God
I had my first cigar when I was 8 years old–and liked it. It became an occasional ritual for me to walk to our local grocery store, “obtain” a pack of White Owl Rangers, and hang out behind my Grandparents church for a smoke. Yeah, this was sinful. But I was a dumb kid with few rules to follow and no internet to distract me. In my twenties I came to appreciate and purchase premium cigars.
Today I am a known cigar smoker, and occasionally get questions from Christians about the habit. How do I feel about the health risks? Isn't smoking addictive, or even sinful? Doesn’t your family hate the smell? How does this impact your witness?
Most of the time I get questions from other believers who enjoy a good cigar and catch some grief over it from other Christians. They want to know how I typically respond. But honestly, I don’t get any pushback from local Christians. But I have had decades to think about these issues, and thought I would offer my thoughts about cigars, Christians, and the glory of God.
WHY SMOKE?
One of the common questions Christians are asked is, “Why do you smoke cigars?” This question feels like someone asking me why I watch television shows or eat eggs for breakfast. The honest answer is, because I like it.
I don't smoke cigars because it's cool or to make a point. It's not to demonstrate my freedom in Christ, nor is it an effort to be evangelistic or missional. I smoke cigars because I find the experience to be pleasant. The ritual, aroma, and flavors are a delight.
Smoking a cigar slows a person down, gives them time to think, meditate, and enjoy one of God's many earthly gifts. I personally find that it helps me to write. And yes, cigar smoking is also a wonderful shared experience that promotes conversation and friendship. But to keep it simple, I smoke because I like it.
Of course, enjoying something doesn't justify its use. So allow me to answer the most common questions and criticisms concerning smoking cigars.
SMOKING IS BAD FOR YOU
We all know cigar smoking isn't good for you. Don't let your friendly neighborhood cigar aficionado tell you otherwise. Like many other things we partake of in this life, there is a risk associated with smoking cigars. While studies have shown that cigar smoking (without inhaling) is much less likely to cause various cancers, there is still a risk. So let me go on record as saying smoking, in all its forms, is unhealthy. It's bad for you. People can die from it.
But there is an implication in this question. The implication is if smoking is bad for you it is then inappropriate, if not sinful. So let's broaden our scope and consider an even greater health risk: poor diet. Far more people will die this year from poor diet and related problems than from smoking in all its forms.(1) In fact, obesity is now beating cigarettes as the greater health risk today.(2)
We take health risks when we eat hot dogs, microwave popcorn, and GMOs. Fried chicken, Fettuccine Alfredo, soda, and all things fast-food are bad for you and the impact on our health is not insignificant. Yet these risks, though even greater than smoking, are seen as acceptable.
What we are dealing with is risk. So, is risk wrong? Should Christians refrain from potentially deadly activities? Skydiving is dangerous. Hiking, mountain climbing, and spelunking put people in their graves too. Cars and guns kill a lot of people every year, but most Christians seem cool with those risks.
And it's not just recreation and athletics that brings risk. Some vocations are inherently dangerous. Commercial fisherman, loggers, aircraft pilots, and steel workers take greater risks than even firefighters when they clock in. How should a Christian evaluate the risks involved in their jobs?
I don't have all the answers here, but let me say two things. One, risk is not itself sinful. Folly is wrong, risk is not. Risk must be weighed responsibly and managed carefully. In vocation and recreation, this means practice, preparedness, and training. With diet and smoking, it means self-control and moderation.
Donuts are bad for me. I would like to eat donuts every day. I sometimes wonder if there will be donuts in the new heavens and earth, and then, how many I will be able to eat. But knowing the health risks in this life I choose to eat my donuts only occasionally. I’m as Christian, not an ascetic, so I’m not forsaking the worldly delight of donuts. Cigars are bad for me. I know the risks, and I believe the enjoyment of a cigar is worth it. So, I choose not to inhale and smoke in moderation.
We should take our health seriously. The bodies we have are given to us by our Maker. He wants us to use them faithfully and fruitfully, enjoying his creation with thoughtfulness and care. Some of what we enjoy is risky, and we should pursue wisdom in the risks we take. Concerning cigars, moderation is key.
YOU DEFILE THE TEMPLE OF GOD WHEN YOU SMOKE
Many good and godly pastors (some very well-known) have weighed in on the subject of smoking and concluded that it is a sin. I have argued that a health risk does not equal sin. Here I would like to address the passage of Scripture most commonly used against smoking, 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20. Here it is in context.
“‘All things are lawful for me,’ but not all things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful for me,’ but I will not be dominated by anything. ‘Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food’—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, ‘The two will become one flesh.’ But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
The popular argument is that since the Christian's body is a temple of the Holy Spirit we must refrain from defiling the temple with smoking. There are a few immediate problems with this argument.
One, it begs the question whether or not smoking is a sin. It assumes smoking is wrong and that it necessarily defiles what has been set apart for God. Two, the context shows us that Paul is not dealing with health or cleanliness issues, but sexual immorality.
As he often does, Paul is calling the church to a life of purity (see 1 Tim 4:12; 5:2). As motivation to maintain purity he reminds us that we, as believers, are the dwelling place of God. The Holy Spirit takes up residency in each believer making each of us a kind of temple. The temple is a sacred place set apart for God. Its purpose is the glory and enjoyment of God.
Many in the city of Corinth were arguing that the body is made for sex, so Christians ought to get to it! “Have your fill. Do not deny what your body was made for.” This was the sentiment. The Apostle rebukes the notion. "The body is not meant for sexual immorality!" Sex has a God-given place in life, but it’s in the joyful safety of marriage. Your body is where the Holy Spirit resides in a special way. To use your body for sexual immorality desecrates the temple. The issue here is fornication/adultery.
To try and apply this to smoking cigars is square peg in a round hole hermeneutic. It is eisegesis, not exegesis, and it actually downplays Paul's real point about the heinous nature of sexual immorality. Misusing the passage in this way distracts or downplays the real danger of sin and temptation.
If we want to play the silly eisegesis game then I'll start pointing out how God came down on Mt. Sinai in smoke, that he delights in the smoke of sacrifices offered in faith, and how there was always the smoke of incense in the temple. When Isaiah saw the Lord in the temple the place was filled with smoke (Isaiah 6). In Rev. 15:8 the glory of the Lord pours forth in smoke. God loves a smokey dwelling place! Of course, all of this is nonsense. The point is we have to let Scripture speak on its own terms and we must understand each passage in its own context.
Smoking a cigar cannot defile the temple. It neither makes us unclean nor offends God.
SMOKING IS A SIN
If you are familiar with the 19th century London pastor Charles Haddon Spurgeon you may know he was a gifted preacher, a sharp theologian, an earnest evangelist, and even started a Pastors College for those entering ministry. You may also know the man liked his cigars. He was well known as a cigar smoker and was occasionally challenged over it. His responses were typically simple, humorous, and biblical. On one occasion controversy resulted.(3)
Spurgeon and another well-known contemporary of his, G.F. Pentecost, were sharing the pulpit at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. This was the church Spurgeon pastored, so he preached that day against the danger of sin, and invited Pentecost to come up and make the application. During his time Pentecost preached vehemently against smoking tobacco and cigars in particular. After he concluded Spurgeon stood before the congregation and said,
“Well, dear friends, you know that some men can do to the glory of God what to other men would be sin. And notwithstanding what brother Pentecost has said, I intend to smoke a good cigar to the glory of God before I go to bed to-night.
If anybody can show me in the Bible the command, ‘Thou shalt not smoke,’ I am ready to keep it; but I haven’t found it yet. I find ten commandments, and it’s as much as I can do to keep them; and I’ve no desire to make them into eleven or twelve.
The fact is, I have been speaking to you about real sins, not about listening to mere quibbles and scruples. At the same time, I know that what a man believes to be sin becomes a sin to him, and he must give it up. ‘Whatsoever is not of faith is sin’ (Rom. 14:23), and that is the real point of what my brother Pentecost has been saying.
Why, a man may think it a sin to have his boots blacked. Well, then, let him give it up, and have them whitewashed. I wish to say that I’m not ashamed of anything whatever that I do, and I don’t feel that smoking makes me ashamed, and therefore I mean to smoke to the glory of God.”
The newspapers were happy to jump on this apparent conflict of ideas and reported the details of the evening. What troubled some, in particular, were Spurgeon's remarks that he intended "to smoke a good cigar to the glory of God." This became the talk of London.
Spurgeon was blessed to live before the age of social media, but the controversy still led him to write a letter to the Daily Telegraph to explain himself. In that letter Spurgeon wrote,
“There is growing up in society a Pharisaic system which adds to the commands of God the precepts of men; to that system I will not yield for an hour. The preservation of my liberty may bring upon me the upbraidings of many good men, and the sneers of the self-righteous; but I shall endure both with serenity so long as I feel clear in my conscience before God.”
In all of this controversy, Spurgeon's problem is my problem, and it should be every Christian's problem. We can only call sin what God calls sin.
As Christians, we take the word of God very seriously. It is not just a sacred book, but the very word of God, fully inspired, inerrant, and our only infallible rule of faith and practice. As A.A. Hodge explained,
“Whatever God teaches or commands is of sovereign authority. Whatever conveys to us an infallible knowledge of his teachings and commands is an infallible rule. The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the only organs through which, during the present dispensation, God conveys to us a knowledge of his will about what we are to believe concerning himself, and what duties he requires of us.”
So, when it comes to understanding righteousness and unrighteousness, the way of God and the way of sin, we must let the word of God speak. We confess that the law of God is good and that sin is a terrible evil. What is sin? Confessional standards like the Westminster Shorter Catechism and the Baptist Catechism say that sin "is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God (1 John 3:4)." This means to call something sin we must find a prohibition against it or the command of its opposite in Scripture.
Nowhere does Scripture indicate that smoking itself is sinful, nor even that unhealthy habits themselves are sinful. Yet, this doesn't completely settle the matter.
CIGAR SMOKING CAN BE SINFUL IF NOT DONE IN FAITH
As Spurgeon said, "what one cannot do in faith is sin (Rom 14:23)." If one's conscience forbids something he or she should generally refrain from it (see 1 Cor. 10 and check out R.C. Sproul's, Ethics and the Conscience). So for some, smoking could be a sinful practice, but for those who can enjoy a good cigar with a clear conscience, it is a good thing.
Smoking is Sinful When We Are Mastered By It
Addiction is the troublesome loss of self-control, and sin is always involved. We should only have one Master, and everything else in our lives must serve our service to him. If you are ruled by food, work, recreation, or cigars, repentance is needed. These are good things that can be turned into idols. Self-control is the mark of the Spirit-led disciple. Many have claimed Spurgeon eventually quit smoking, but all the historical evidence suggests the opposite. He continued smoking cigars throughout his life. However, he could and did lay cigars aside for extended periods of time.
Smoking is Sinful When We Intend to Frustrate Others
I have never met this person, though some seem to think this is what drives many young Christians to smoke. It is believed they light up to trigger some with their liberty, and use their freedom to bind others. So let's just say that if one smokes to needlessly provoke others it is sin.
Yet, like Spurgeon, I will smoke a cigar tonight to the glory of God. What does that really mean? It means that in whatever lawful thing we do as God's people we do with a clear conscience, with thankful and joyful hearts, to God for his good gifts.
“Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God”
1 Corinthians 10:31
References and Resources
*This article contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
1. Time Magazine, April 3, 2019, Jamie Ducharme
2. The Health Risks of Obesity, RAND Health
3. Spurgeon: Prince of Preachers, Lewis A. Drummond
