Pipe Smoking 09: The Theological Part Continued

“I believe that many who find that ‘nothing happens’ when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand.” — C.S. Lewis

In the last post, we started the theological portion of this series. Today, I’d like to continue our journey on the theological portion. While I stated previously that there aren’t any biblical passages that support pipe smoking, I’d like to turn our attention to a very familiar story found in John’s Gospel.

John 2:1-11 (MSG; adapted):1

Three days later there was a wedding in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there. Jesus and his disciples were guest, too. When they started running low on wine at the wedding banquet, Jesus’ mother told him, “They’re just about out of wine.”

Jesus said, “Is that any of our business, Mother? This isn’t my time. Don’t push me.”

She went ahead anyway, telling the servants, “Whatever he tells you to do—do it.”

Six stoneware water pots were there, used by the Jews for ritual washings. Each held twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus ordered the servants, “Fill the pots with water.” And they filled them to the brim.

“Now fill your pitchers and take them to the host,” Jesus said, and they did.

When the host tasted the water that had become wine (he didn’t know what had just happened but the servants, of course, knew), he called out to the bridegroom, “Everybody I know begins with their finest wines and,  after the guests have had their fill and get a little tipsy, they bring out the cheap stuff. But you’ve saved the best till now!”

This act in Cana of Galilee was the first sign Jesus gave, the first glimpse of his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

There are just a couple of things I want to point out here. First, St. John stated that this was the “first sign” of Jesus. Think about that—Jesus’ first sign, the “first glimpse of his glory,” was changing water into wine. And make no mistake about it, this wasn’t grape juice (sorry, my teetotaler friends). No, this was the “best” wine the host had ever tasted.

This, too, gives us a “glimpse” into what God deems good. While I know the context doesn’t support the idea of pipe smoking per se, Jesus did say that he came to give people “life in all its fullness” (John 10.10; NCV2). What I want to point out here is even if Jesus was speaking about “eternal” life, that doesn’t abrogate life here and now. Indeed, I’d say the Life of God is meant to enhance our life in this world’s realm, not detract from it.

I can hear someone say, “You’re body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and you should honor God with your body. You don’t own your body; God purchased it through the blood of Jesus.” Someone might even go so far to say, “You’re body is the temple of God and he’ll destroy anyone who destroys his temple.” The implication here is that God would destroy someone for smoking a pipe because “smoking kills” or “destroys” the body. And before anyone throws a penalty flag, I’m not making a strawman argument here; these very statements have been said to me.

So let’s address them. These are catch-all statements based very loosely on 1 Corinthians 6 and 3 respectively. And, honestly, Paul was addressing two very different things in these passages. Unfortunately, when someone just searches for “temple” in the New Testament, and doesn’t check the context, things can get really distorted.

The context of the 1 Corinthians 6 passage is about sexual immorality. In fact, right before Paul wrote that the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit (verse 19), he wrote, “Avoid sexual immorality! Every sin that a person can do is committed outside the body, except those who engage in sexual immorality commit sin against their own bodies.” (verse 18).3 And a few verses before this he wrote, “I have the freedom to do anything, but not everything is helpful. I have the freedom to do anything, but I won’t be controlled by anything” (verse 12).

Let that sink in…

“I have the freedom to do anything…”

For me, that would include smoking my pipe.

In the verses after this statement, though, Paul states that this freedom does not include sexual immorality (vv. 13ff).

So, again, the context of this verse is about sexual immorality and has nothing to do with smoking, or drinking, or dancing, or over-eating, or whatever. Sure, some of those things aren’t “helpful” and can lead to a person being “controlled” by some of them, but Paul said, because of Christ, we have the freedom to do anything. Let’s put a marker here and come back to this point.

In chapter 3 of 1 Corinthians, Paul addressed division between the followers of Jesus in the Corinthian fellowship to whom he was writing. He starts off stating that he should only address them as infants because they’re not spiritually mature people (verse 1). He then shows that their division is based on their denomination (for the lack of a better term). Some were saying, “We belong to Apollos!” Others were claiming, “So? We belong to Paul!” It’s like some of us today who say, “We’re Baptists!” And others are saying, “So? We’re Catholics!” In both cases, Paul says, “Who flippin’ cares!?!? You’re all acting like children! You’re acting as though you don’t have God’s Spirit” (vv. 3ff). He says that both denominations are just servants leading people to Christ (vv. 4-6).

After addressing the shamefulness of their divisions, Paul states that the people should be unified because they’re a building, a temple, with Christ as the foundation. It’s here where he states that if someone destroys the temple, God would destroy him. Contextually, then, Paul’s talking about people who divide the body of Christ (in the immediate context, the followers of Christ in Corinth). This, again, has nothing to do with smoking or drinking or dancing or eating meat, etc. It has to do with divisions among the people who follow Jesus, divisions within the temple of God.

Click here for the next post in this series.

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In the Love of the Three in One,

Br. Jack+, LC

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1. Scripture quotations marked (MSG) taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

2. Scripture quotations marked (NCV) are taken from the New Century Version®, copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

3. Unless otherwise stated, all scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible. Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible.