Is drinking hard alcohol and smoking using a hookah with friends considered sinful? Why or why not?
Answer:
There is nothing specific in the bible that bans hard alcohol or the hookah water pipe (also known as shisha). The same goes for other types of alcohol, smoking in general and many of the choices we make in life.
What the bible does talk about is sobriety, addiction, idolatry and self-control. These principles apply to all of life and are at the heart of godly behaviour and choices. The bible tells us in principle not to get drunk (Ephesians 5:18). 1 Corinthians 6:12 reminds us not to be addicted (“mastered”) to anything we do, or else we will be enslaved in our addiction and reject God (Luke 16:13). This also means that we do not frivolously engage in activates we know have the potential to “enslave” us.
The bible says that we must be self-controlled, sober and disciplined (1 Tim 4:7, 1 Peter 4:7, 2 Tim 4:5) in order to please God.
The bible contains rules, but the point of the bible is not the rules – the bible is about the story of God, Jesus Christ and how we, as His creation, should respond to Him in faith and life.
Mark 7:14-23 reminds us that it is not what we do but who we are that approves or condemns us before God. Only someone who has placed his faith in Jesus Christ for salvation is able to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Merely following rules will gain us nothing.
Mark 7:14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand. 15 There is nothing outside of a person that is able to make him unclean by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that makes him unclean.”
17 Now when Jesus had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 He said to them, “Are you so foolish? Don’t you see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot make him unclean? 19 For it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and then goes out into the sewer.” (This means all foods are clean.) 20 He said, “What comes out of a person makes him unclean. 21 For from within, out of the human heart, comes evil ideas, immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, evil, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, and folly. 23 All these evils come from within and make a person unclean.”
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