Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Doug Wilson just posted the text from a talk he gave yesterday on the subject of cigarette smoking and sin. It's quite helpful and speaks to all sorts of issues beyond smoking.
Smoking reveals the method of a self-serving ethic. The way others are to view your liberty is not the same way that you should view your liberty. Other Christians should let you do what you want unless the Bible forbids it. That’s how we guard against legalism. But you should use your liberty differently—you should be asking what the reasons are for doing it, and not what the reasons are for prohibiting it. Liberty is intended by God for you to use as an instrument for loving others (Gal. 5:13), and not as an instrument for suiting yourself.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Smokers:
C.H. Spurgeon
D.L. Moody
C.S. Lewis
J.R. Tolkien
Martin Luther
Jim Elliot
It is a cultural thing, and nothing more. I know many missionaries oversees who socially smoke homegrown tobacco with the tribes who grow them. Most of my professors at, quite conservative, seminaries in the south partake in tobacco. This is an old dead arguement that builds pride, not unity.
I think you miss the point, Preson. Wilson isn't saying smoking is sin for all people. He is saying it MIGHT be sin for some people. And we all should only worry about ourselves because freedom looks differently in different Christians' lives. You actually agree with Wilson's remarks, oddly enough.
Post a Comment