Why the church is against smoking. Orthodox Church about smoking: attitude and opinion. Benefits of quitting cigarettes

How does the passion of smoking harm the soul? What happens to the soul when smoking? Various diseases the holy fathers define souls by the concept of passion. Exist various classifications passions. Man combines the carnal and spiritual principles. Therefore, in accordance with this, passions are divided into bodily and spiritual. The former have their ground in bodily needs, the latter in spiritual ones. It is difficult to draw a clear line between them, since the "epicenter" of all passions is in the soul. The most common bodily passions: "gluttony, gluttony, luxury, drunkenness, different genera sensuality, adultery, debauchery, impurity, incest, child corruption, bestiality, bad wishes and all sorts of unnatural and shameful passions ... ”(Philokalia. V.2, Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, 1993, p. 371). The sin of smoking refers to an unnatural passion, for chronic poisoning self poison is not rooted in the field natural needs body.

All passions are stumbling blocks on our path to salvation. By its origin, human nature as a creation of the All-Wise God, as His image and likeness, has perfection. The goal of all our Christian life- unite with God and only in Him alone find bliss eternal life. Performing the work of salvation, we must restore in ourselves the image of God, distorted by various sins, and acquire the likeness of our Heavenly Parent.

While a person is in captivity of passion, his soul cannot restore the distorted image and return the original god-likeness. The sin of smoking is the most real captivity. If a man overcome by passions, then his soul is defiled, his mind becomes dead, his will turns out to be powerless. The Holy Fathers call this state the second idolatry. Man worships his passions like idols. An idolater cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven (Eph. 5:5). “Without purity from passions, the soul does not heal from sinful ailments, and does not acquire the glory lost by crime” (St. Isaac the Syrian).

Any passion, being a disease of the soul, is linked by invisible links with other ailments. There are no impenetrable walls in the soul. Rooted passion contributes to the formation of other vices. Egoism is grossly manifested. It is terrible when the sin of smoking captivates a woman who has become a mother. A mother who smokes while walking over a stroller in which a baby sleeps puts the satisfaction of passion above the health of her child. Parents who smoke tend to teach it to their children. Children are not their property. When they infect them for the rest of their lives with this destructive habit, they act not only against the Christian conscience, but also contrary to universal morality.

If a person has realized the perniciousness of smoking, he often loses heart, seeing that he has become a prisoner of this habit and does not have freedom. The sin of smoking is also closely related to the sin of self-justification. Having come to terms with this passion, a person forgives himself and other weaknesses, for the power of precedent is great.

The passion of smoking is a sin also because it destroys health. According to the general teaching of the Holy Fathers, life and health are given to us by God as a gift. To shorten one's life by bad habits and unhealthy lifestyles is a serious sin. A person subject to the passion of smoking harms his health and the health of those present. There is probably not a single vice and perversion that they would not try to justify. Attempts to talk about the "positive" aspects of smoking look pitiful in comparison with the data available in medicine.

Tobacco contains nicotine (up to 2%) - a strong poison. Sulfate of nicotine is applied to destruction of wreckers of page - x. plants. When smoking tobacco, nicotine is absorbed into the body and soon enters the brain. A person smokes every day for many years. The average smoker takes about 200 puffs a day. That equates to roughly 6,000 per month, 72,000 per year, and over 2 million puffs in a 45-year-old smoker who started smoking at age 15. Such a protracted nicotine attack leads to the fact that the poison eventually finds a weak link in the body and causes serious illness. For 30 years, a smoker smokes about 20,000 cigarettes, or about 160 kg of tobacco, ingesting an average of 800 g of nicotine. One cigarette contains approximately 6-8 mg of nicotine, of which 3-4 mg enter the bloodstream. For humans, the lethal dose of nicotine ranges from 50-100 mg (2-3 drops).

IN tobacco smoke a number of carcinogens have been identified cancer causing. A huge amount in tobacco and radioactive substances. When smoking one pack of cigarettes a day, a person receives a dose of radiation that is 7 times higher than the dose recognized as the maximum allowable by the International Agreement on Radiation Protection. Smoking is a terrible problem. It has been proven that radiation from tobacco origin is main reason occurrence of cancer.

The passion of smoking is the result of the addition of human sinful will and the activity of demonic forces, although invisible, but very real. The demonic forces carefully try to hide their complicity in the fall of people. However, there are types of destructive vice in which the special role of the devil is obvious. The most impressive illustration is provided by the history of tobacco smoking. Spaniard Roman Pano in 1496 after the second voyage of H. Columbus brought tobacco seeds from America to Spain.

From there, tobacco enters Portugal. The French ambassador in Lisbon Jean Nicot (from his surname got the name nicotine) in 1560 presented tobacco plants as a medicine to Queen Catherine de Medici (1519 - 1589), who suffered from migraines. The passion for tobacco quickly began to spread, first in Paris, and then throughout France. Then began the victorious march of tobacco throughout Europe. The devil strives to impose everything destructive for a person on people under the guise of “beneficial”. Among 16th-century physicians, many considered tobacco medicine. When evidence of the harmful effects of smoking appeared, the hobby went so far that it was no longer possible to stop the infection. At first, smoking was persecuted, and smokers were severely punished. In England, smokers were led through the streets with a noose around their necks, and stubborn ones were even executed.

The English King James I in 1604 wrote the work “On the dangers of tobacco”, in which he wrote: “Smoking is disgusting for the eyesight, disgusting for the sense of smell, harmful to the brain and dangerous to the lungs.” Pope Urban VII excommunicated believers from the church. Other measures were also taken. However, each time the winners turned out to be people prone to the passion of smoking, tobacco manufacturers, tobacco dealers - all those who made the spread of destructive vice their profession. Whip, executions were powerless before this destructive passion, rapid spread which strongly resembles an epidemic (or rather a pandemic). Some kind of power, superior to human, makes people slaves of the most harmful habit, from which the vast majority do not part until death.

In Russia, the passion for smoking appeared at the beginning of the 17th century in Time of Troubles. It was brought by Poles and Lithuanians. Tsar Mikhail Romanov severely persecuted lovers of the devil's potion. In 1634, it was published, according to which smokers received sixty stick blows on the soles. The second time the nose was cut off. According to the Code of 1649 Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich provided for punishment for those who had tobacco found: to beat with a whip until it was recognized where the tobacco came from. Severe measures were envisaged against traders: cut their noses and exile them to distant cities.

The import of tobacco into the country was prohibited. Efforts to stop were futile. Tsar Peter I was a smoking lover. All prohibitions were lifted in 1697. Peter I granted the British a monopoly on the tobacco trade in Russia. The swiftness with which this destructive vice began to spread among the people leads to the saddest thoughts. Now about 250 billion cigarettes are produced in Russia every year and another 50 billion pieces are imported. Thus, the country consumes 300 billion. Russia currently ranks first in the world in terms of smoking growth. A significant number of smokers are teenagers.

And another bleak feature of our country is the feminization of smoking. According to World Organization health care, in Russia 70% of men and 30% of women smoke. On female body the sin of smoking is especially destructive. Based on the materials of the annual conference of the Radiological Society North America, smoking women ceteris paribus (researchers took into account the age of patients, the length of smoking, the type of tobacco products used and other factors) get lung cancer about twice as often as men.

Canadian doctors, based on statistics collected in Vancouver and Quebec, argue that in women whose passion for smoking began before the age of 25, the chances of developing malignant tumor breasts increase by 70%. Specialists in the field social psychology the power of influence on a person of the environment is well known. Now a significant part of our urban environment is made up of huge billboards advertising a poison that destroys health. At least for a second, at least for a moment, do the people involved in the mass poisoning of people think that the Last Judgment everything will have to be answered.

Is it possible to quit smoking? Can. In England, about 10 million people have stopped smoking over the past 10-15 years. Almost 2,000 people quit smoking every day! The passion of smoking is not easy to fight, but it is possible and 99% succeed. According to the general teaching of the holy fathers, a person with the help of God can overcome any passion. The great elder Ambrose of Optina gives advice in the fight against the disease of smoking: “ Write that you can't stop smoking tobacco. What is impossible from man is possible with the help of God; only one has to firmly decide to leave, realizing the harm to soul and body from it, since tobacco relaxes the soul, multiplies and intensifies passions, darkens the mind and destroys bodily health by slow death. Irritability and melancholy are the consequences of the sickness of the soul from smoking. I advise you to use spiritual medicine against this passion: confess in detail all your sins, from the age of seven and throughout your life, and partake of the Holy Mysteries, and read daily, standing, the Gospel chapter by chapter or more; and when anguish sets in, then read again until the anguish passes; attack again and read the Gospel again. - Or instead, put, in private, 33 big bows, in memory of the earthly life of the Savior and in honor of the Holy Trinity«.

Why do so few people part with the sin of smoking, with this "gift of the devil"? Because most smokers don't want to leave the passion of smoking. And those who want to quit smoking and take steps to do so do not really have the inner determination. Despite impulsive efforts, people who repeatedly quit smoking, deep down, are related to this passion. God is always ready to help a person in this saving work, but he expects a feat from him. " When, out of love for God, you desire to do something, put death as the limit of your desire; and thus, in fact, you will be able to ascend to the level of martyrdom in the struggle with every passion, and you will not suffer any harm from meeting you inside this limit, if you endure to the end and do not relax. The thought of a weak mind makes the strength of patience weak; and a strong mind to him who follows his thoughts, even gives strength, which nature does not have"(teacher Isaac Sirin).

Father Afanasy Gumerov

Everyone knows how dangerous smoking is for physical health. Is there a spiritual danger? Why is this bad habit considered a sin? Look, in Orthodox Greece, even priests smoke. For clarification, we turned to the pastors of the Russian Church.

Nicotine smoke takes the place of God's grace in the soul

Undoubtedly, smoking is a sin. I will share my priestly experience: I communed the dying, attended funerals and saw that the death of many people was directly related to smoking. And it is very difficult to get rid of this evil. Once I gave unction and communion before her death to a woman who was dying of cancer of the larynx, and in this state she could not quit smoking. Even before Communion, I took a few puffs! But since she was dying, I could not help but give communion to her. And how many people die from lung cancer caused by smoking! But not only the respiratory organs are destructively affected by tobacco - others too.

If you get up at night to smoke, if you take a drag in the morning, then how will you go to Communion later?

The perniciousness of this habit, which causes serious addiction, is also in the fact that many smokers cannot take communion because of smoking. If you get up at night to smoke, if you take a drag in the morning, then how will you go to Communion later? Or even you endured, took communion, and then what? When you leave the temple, do you greedily inhale? So this sinful pleasure deprives the smoker of the Sacrament.

The inability to quit smoking is a myth. I personally know several people who, being smokers with serious experience - 30-40 years, managed to quit smoking. WITH God's help everything is possible. If a person turns to God, He helps him to quit this infection.

Elder Siluan: “It’s better not to do any work before which there is no undisturbed prayer”

Even on the packaging of cigarettes they officially write: "Smoking kills." How is it not a sin that kills, that torments, deprives of health, causes suffering to the smoker himself and upsets people close to him?

All our sins are divided into three types: sins against God, against neighbors and against ourselves. So smoking is, of course, a sin against oneself, a conscious shortening of one's life, that is, the destruction of the priceless gift of God given to us for the salvation of our souls. But in a sense, it is also a sin against neighbors who are forced to inhale cigarette smoke into in public places.

Smoking is an addiction. It enslaves the will of a person, makes him again and again seek his satisfaction. In general, it has all the signs of sinful passion. And passion, as you know, delivers only new torments to the soul of a person, deprives it of its already small freedom.

Sometimes smokers say that a cigarette helps them calm down and focus internally. However, it is known that nicotine acts destructively on the brain and nervous system. And the illusion of calm arises because nicotine also has an inhibitory effect on brain receptors. Not a single person has ever benefited from smoking even a minimal amount, and I am sure that there is no such smoker in the world who, at least once in his life, has not regretted that he was so addicted to nicotine.

To justify smoking, they often refer to Orthodox Greece, where even priests smoke. Indeed, in Greece the most high level in the world consumption of cigarettes per capita. But there is nothing good in this. Perhaps smoking spread there under the influence of Islamic traditions that allow smoking. But if we look at Athos, this example of a strictly spiritual life both for Greece and for everything Orthodox world we will see that there is no smoking there. Reverend Paisios Svyatogorets treated smoking unambiguously negatively. And the venerable elder Silouan of Athos, too.

- Is smoking a sin? - Yes, sure. Although now in Greece smoking is not considered a sin. Yes, what is there to be wise! Even intuitively, smoking is perceived as something negative: smoke, stench, harm to health ... And most importantly - it's a passion, and there can be no doubt about it. To be honest, I used to smoke when I was younger. Not for long, about five years, but so thoroughly that even "Belomor" smoked, "Prima" did not disdain. Who knows, he will understand... So, having been drawn into this pernicious passion, I very soon felt: I need to tie up with this matter - although I was not yet baptized at that time. But conscience felt. And out of the five years of my smoking, I “quit” for three years and could not quit. I distinctly remember my feelings. I woke up in the morning good mood with the determination not to smoke anymore, but by dinnertime the mood goes out, the world around grows dim, and everything without smoking seems empty and meaningless - the first and sure sign of the action of passion. So after dinner you wash and wash and ... oh, just one! - you smoke with pleasure, “you will enjoy life”, and after a minute you already think with longing: well, you broke again. And indeed - you start smoking again. Or it even happened like this: you can last a week or two without smoking and already feel like a “hero”, and then you find yourself somewhere in a company, relax and allow yourself the thought: “One cigarette does not solve anything”, smoke it - and then you understand: everything , broke. And for sure - you start smoking again and suffer from the fact that you cannot cope with this destructive passion. Moreover, even when I quit smoking, I dreamed for several years: I lit a cigarette - and with horror and longing I understand that now, I broke loose and everything starts all over again. This suggests that passion continued to nest in the soul. So how can you say after that that smoking is not a sin?

The Apostle Paul says: “Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial; everything is permissible to me, but nothing should possess me” (1 Corinthians 6:12).

Smoking is contrary to God's plan for man, like any nonsense

Of course, smoking is a sin. Like all meaningless things. What's the point of smoking? What good does a person get from him? No sense and nothing good. And the Lord created everything wisely and meaningfully. “And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). This means that smoking is contrary to God's plan for a person, like everything that is senseless and unnecessary.

Let's not forget that smoking brings many different harms to a person. And everything that harms a person, torments him, is also displeasing to the Lord. What harm it is, we all know very well. This is the destruction of health, given by God for the work of saving our souls, and material damage when we spend money on nonsense, but we could spend it on good things, for example, give alms.

But the main harm of smoking, of course, is spiritual. “Tobacco relaxes the soul, multiplies and intensifies passions, darkens the mind and destroys bodily health by slow death. Irritability and melancholy are a consequence of the soreness of the soul from smoking,” teaches us Saint Ambrose Optinsky. And yet we become slaves of this sin. “Whoever commits sin is the slave of sin” (John 8:34). And we are called to freedom in Christ: “And you will understand the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). The Gift of Love can only be accepted by a free person in Christ.

Therefore, help us, Lord, to get rid of everything harmful and unnecessary, so that we can be in joy and love, and not in torment here and in eternity. And they depended only on the Holy God, and not on cigarettes, sinful pleasures and, ultimately, on the devil, who is behind all this.

Who are you if you deliberately destroy the gift of God?

Each of us roughly knows what a pack of cigarettes looks like. It says in large letters: "Smoking kills." From this we can already conclude whether it is a sin to use something that kills us. Of course it is.

Often people turn to the Lord with a request for health. And most of our prayers are also about health to some extent. And we wish each other good health. And do we keep the health that the Lord has given us? How many of us go in for sports, do exercises in the morning? I think few. We eat before bed, although we know that this should not be done. We consume food in excess, realizing that this will lead to overweight and to health problems. And we must keep what the Lord has given. The health that is. Smoking will not improve your health.

If a smoker turns to the Lord with a request: “Lord, give me health!” Who will he look like in the eyes of God?

We all understand perfectly well what risks accompany a person who smokes: this and oncological diseases, and diseases gastrointestinal tract, and impaired brain activity ... It was before smokers did not know how tobacco undermines health. And if you know that smoking harms you, but you smoke, you are committing a sin: you are deliberately ruining your health. And if a smoker turns to the Lord with a request: “Lord, give me health!” Who will he look like in the eyes of God? And how to ask God for health with the same lips with which you just smoked a cigarette? This is some kind of nonsense. A glaring contradiction. And the Lord calls us to integrity, integrity of thinking above all. Why do we read the Gospel? So that our mind thinks according to the gospel, so that we are in Christ.

So smoking is a sin. And terrible sin detrimental to God-given health.

Numerous troubles, sins of mankind can be conditionally divided into minor troubles and huge trials. It would seem that it is not worth focusing on minor and hardly noticeable errors, there are more important problems in the world. But it is precisely petty sins and shortcomings in the aggregate that have a truly mortifying effect on a person, gradually destroying him both spiritually and physically. Smoking is one of those vices.

A bit of history

In Russia, the custom of smoking was introduced by Peter I. The tradition took root hard, as well as other forced reforms alien to Russian culture. In the East, the attitude towards addiction is completely different - smoking is a historical tradition. Or, for example, in Greece, a smoking person is perceived calmly, without condemnation and without pretensions. The rite of smoking there is an addition to the usual meal.

A hundred years ago, a tolerant attitude towards tobacco was also in the Russian church. Now, thanks to the peculiarities of the national culture and beneficial influence Orthodox commandments, the situation has changed radically. The fundamental rejection of tobacco addiction has become the norm in Orthodoxy.

Smoking from the point of view of the Orthodox Church

The negative impact of nicotine on the human body has been proven by science. The fact that smoking is a sin, the church says quite reasonably.

Every smoker is looking for an excuse for his habit, it seems to him that he is reasoning sensibly. But there are no real reasons to breathe smoke, to poison organs with poison. Justifying an unworthy act is considered a grave sin.
The person who uses tobacco products spends a lot of time on this habit. In other words, it turns most of life into an empty pastime, called idleness by the church. Idleness is a sin. It breeds laziness and idleness.
Tobacco addiction leads to the corruption and devastation of the individual. There comes a time when a cigarette is no longer enjoyable. This situation provokes the smoker to craving for alcohol, base passions, gluttony. Morality, spirituality are destroyed, the will is paralyzed, responsibility for one's actions, for one's own life and for loved ones disappears.
The sin of smoking promotes depravity and degradation. This, in turn, gives rise to crime, provokes immoral behavior in general.

Orthodox Church, christian faith stand for freedom human personality, for moral health and strong-willed spirit.

A person who is in bondage to a bad habit, according to religious canons, is deprived of freedom, and he does it consciously. That's why smoking, in terms of Orthodox faith is considered a sin.

Is smoking a sin for a believer

The answer to the question of whether the habit of smoking is a sin is unequivocal for a believer. There are many reasons for this. The emphasis is not on physical harm and dependence on chemical processes. Scary and dangerous psychological dependence that destroys personality.

The human body is called to serve as a temple of the Holy Spirit. This temple should be clean and bright. The smoker, indulging his habit, not showing strong-willed efforts to destroy it, erects a wall between God and himself. Base instincts become bricks of this wall: passion, pride, selfishness, debauchery, dirty thoughts and so on. A person deprived of will cannot be strong; he voluntarily refuses the help of the Heavenly Father.

The habit of smoking prevents spiritual development. The smoker often uses lies to justify his actions without realizing it.

He lies to himself, to his loved ones, getting into a vicious circle. Family, friendship and professional ties recede into the background, are destroyed, then disappear altogether.

The sin of smoking is as follows:

a person deliberately harms himself and others;
the smoker is addicted to nicotine, his will is paralyzed, and his spirit is broken;
smokers voluntarily deprive themselves of their freedom, they are dependent on the habit;
personality degrades, becomes inadequate;
passion does not leave a person after death, his soul, not receiving satisfaction, will suffer in the other world.

Benefits of quitting cigarettes

If we compare the harm of the physical and the harm of the spiritual plan, then first of all you should pay attention to the behavior of the smoker. As a rule, irritability, apathy, lack of proper attention and sensitivity are true companions of an addiction. Anyone who wants to end this must remember that peace of mind, harmony are incompatible with the morbid state of the psyche.
Smoking is a sin or not, everyone decides for himself. But when making a decision, you need to know and take into account the positive aspects of quitting a cigarette:

there is a spiritual renewal of the personality;
increased self-esteem;
irritability and depression subside;
physical health is restored;
the quality of life improves;
saving money;
new interests appear;
a person feels under God's protection, gains freedom;
life priorities change.

You can talk for a long time about the dangers of smoking, about the sinfulness of the act, about the benefits of living without tobacco, but one thing remains unchanged: as long as the smoker does not see the sin in the habit of smoking, until he hates this sin, any attempt to get rid of addiction is doomed to failure. .

Attitude towards tobacco addiction in the modern Orthodox world

According to statistics from the World Health Organization, among the adult population of our country, 39% smoke, and 60% of this number are men. The indicator is not comforting, only Bangladesh has a worse figure. Nevertheless, active propaganda about the dangers of smoking is being carried out all over the world, and the Orthodox Church has long joined the fight against evil.

Relying on Christian canons, the clergy strongly recommend abandoning the bad habit, equating it with real suicide. In addition, smoking in front of minors adversely affects their mental state.

The immature psyche of the child is not able to perceive the situation correctly. A teenager can choose the wrong position in life, dooming himself to a bad future.

Cigarette addiction is not only condemned, but also equated with sin. The Orthodox Church identifies smoking with a spiritual crisis, warns every person that even one cigarette smoked can have a strong influence on the spiritual and physical state. According to the church, for a smoker, the main criterion in assessing life priorities becomes a pleasure. False euphoria from nicotine, drugs or alcohol will invariably be replaced by a loss of the ability to make adequate decisions.

The opinion of a smoker that he himself made a choice - to smoke or not to smoke, is erroneous. Orthodoxy does not support such a position, reminding that only a person free from any addiction can make the right decisions. Recognize and eliminate the cause that provokes cravings for nicotine - this is priority for those who intend to get rid of tobacco slavery.

According to statistical research- in our country, almost every second man and every third woman smokes, many of them consider themselves religious, not really thinking about how smoking and the church are combined.

Church commandments have not changed much since the founding of religion, and smoking contradicts several basic church dogmas at once. The Orthodox Church has always condemned smoking - since the days when it was not so common. Back in 1905, priests delivered angry sermons in Orthodox churches, calling smoking the intrigues of the devil and considering tobacco a serious obstacle to the salvation of the human soul.

Such a sharply negative position of the church is quite understandable; modern priests, answering questions about smoking, also speak extremely negatively. And the point is not only that smoking does not bring any benefit to either the soul or the human body, the main reason is the harm that nicotine causes to the health of the smoker and his environment. Thus, the smoker simultaneously violates several important commandments - he destroys own body, sinning against himself, as a creation of God, and in addition, it harms the health of other people, which is condemned in any religion.
In addition to the commandment "do not kill" and "do no harm", smoking people they manage to violate several more church postulates, for example, smoking causes addiction to tobacco, which in itself is a sin and a violation of God's providence.

Some of the church fathers call smoking an “unnatural” occupation, others call for abandoning nicotine as a substance that destroys the body and mind of a person, weakens the soul and intensifies sinful passions.

And if you consider how many prayers exist against smoking and to strengthen the strength of those who quit smoking, it immediately becomes clear that smoking and the church are not only incompatible, but rather opposite concepts, and any sincerely believing person should give up cigarettes.
You can learn more about the issue of smoking and faith, as well as find out prayers and conspiracies against smoking on our website, which contains a lot interesting information for all matters relating to smoking.

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Everyone knows how dangerous smoking is for physical health. Is there a spiritual danger? Why is this addiction considered a sin? Look, in Orthodox Greece, even priests smoke. For clarification, we turned to the pastors of the Russian Church.

Nicotine smoke takes a place in the soul God's grace

If you get up at night to smoke, if you take a drag in the morning, then how will you go to Communion later?

The inability to quit smoking is a myth. I personally know several people who, being smokers with serious experience - 30-40 years, managed to quit smoking. With God's help, everything is possible. If a person turns to God, He helps him to quit this infection.

Elder Siluan: “It’s better not to do any work before which there is no undisturbed prayer”

Sometimes smokers say that a cigarette helps them calm down and focus internally. However, nicotine is known to be damaging to the brain and nervous system. And the illusion of calm arises because nicotine also has an inhibitory effect on brain receptors. Not a single person has ever benefited from smoking even a minimal amount, and I am sure that there is no such smoker in the world who, at least once in his life, has not regretted that he was so addicted to nicotine.

To justify smoking, they often refer to Orthodox Greece, where even priests smoke. Indeed, Greece has the highest per capita consumption of cigarettes in the world. But there is nothing good in this. Perhaps smoking spread there under the influence of Islamic traditions that allow smoking. But if we look at Athos, this example of a strictly spiritual life both for Greece and for the entire Orthodox world, we will see that there is no smoking there. The Monk Paisios the Holy Mountaineer was unambiguously negative about smoking. And the venerable elder Silouan of Athos, too.

Is smoking a sin? - Yes, sure. Although now in Greece smoking is not considered a sin. Yes, what is there to be wise! Even intuitively, smoking is perceived as something negative: smoke, stink, harm to health ... And most importantly - it's a passion, and there can be no doubt about it. To be honest, I used to smoke when I was younger. Not for long, about five years, but so thoroughly that even "Belomor" smoked, "Prima" did not disdain. Who knows - he will understand ... So, having been drawn into this pernicious passion, I very soon felt: it is necessary to tie up with this matter - although I was not yet baptized at that time. But conscience felt. And out of the five years of my smoking, I “quit” for three years and could not quit. I distinctly remember my feelings. I woke up in the morning in a great mood with the determination not to smoke anymore, but by lunchtime the mood fades, the world around grows dim, and everything without smoking seems empty and meaningless - the first and surest sign of the action of passion. So after dinner you wash and wash and ... oh, just one! - you smoke with pleasure, “you will enjoy life”, and after a minute you already think with longing: well, you broke again. And indeed - you start smoking again. Or it even happened like this: you can last a week or two without smoking and already feel like a “hero”, and then you find yourself somewhere in a company, relax and allow yourself the thought: “One cigarette does not solve anything”, smoke it - and then you understand: everything , broke. And for sure - you start smoking again and suffer from the fact that you cannot cope with this destructive passion. Moreover, even when I quit smoking, I dreamed for several years: I lit a cigarette - and with horror and longing I understand that now, I broke loose and everything starts all over again. This suggests that passion continued to nest in the soul. So how can you say after that that smoking is not a sin?

The Apostle Paul says: “Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial; everything is permissible to me, but nothing should possess me” (1 Corinthians 6:12).

Smoking is contrary to God's plan for man, like any nonsense

Let's not forget that smoking brings many different harms to a person. And everything that harms a person, torments him, is also displeasing to the Lord. What harm it is, we all know very well. This is the destruction of health, given by God for the performance of labors to save one's soul, and material damage when we spend money on nonsense, but we could spend it on good things, for example, to give alms.

But the main harm of smoking, of course, is spiritual. “Tobacco relaxes the soul, multiplies and intensifies passions, darkens the mind and destroys bodily health by slow death. Irritability and melancholy are a consequence of the sickness of the soul from smoking,” St. Ambrose of Optina teaches us. And yet we become slaves of this sin. “Whoever commits sin is the slave of sin” (John 8:34). And we are called to freedom in Christ: “And you will understand the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). The Gift of Love can only be accepted by a free person in Christ.

Who are you if you deliberately destroy the gift of God?

Often people turn to the Lord with a request for health. And most of our prayers are also about health to some extent. And we wish each other good health. And do we keep the health that the Lord has given us? How many of us go in for sports, do exercises in the morning? I think few. We eat before bed, although we know that this should not be done. We consume food in excess, realizing that this will lead to excess weight and health problems. And we must keep what the Lord has given. The health that is. Smoking will not improve your health.

If a smoker turns to the Lord with a request: “Lord, give me health!” Who will he look like in the eyes of God?

We all understand perfectly well what risks accompany a person who smokes: these are oncological diseases, and diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, and brain activity... It was before smokers did not know how tobacco undermines health. And if you know that smoking harms you, but you smoke, you are committing a sin: you are deliberately destroying your health. And if a smoker turns to the Lord with a request: “Lord, give me health!” Who will he look like in the eyes of God? And how to ask God for health with the same lips with which you just smoked a cigarette? This is some kind of nonsense. A glaring contradiction. And the Lord calls us to integrity, integrity of thinking above all. Why do we read the Gospel? So that our mind thinks according to the gospel, so that we are in Christ.

So smoking is a sin. Moreover, a terrible sin, causing damage to God-given health.