I’m old enough to remember when smoking cigarettes was cool. All the beautiful actresses and handsome actors in movies and on TV smoked. It was considered both sexy and elegant. Many of my relatives smoked cigarettes and used other forms of tobacco. I recall commercials in which even doctors promoted certain brands of cigarettes. Some said that menthol cigarettes could even improve certain aspects of your health.
Then, in 1964 there was a landmark study. The Surgeon General determined that cigarettes were terrible for one’s health. Nicotine is addictive. Cigarettes were associated with certain types of cancer. Two years later, a warning appeared on every pack of cigarettes sold in the US. It simply said: Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health. In later years, this warning would add that it has been shown to cause cancer.
I also remember people talking about that warning. The vast majority of my relatives said it just wasn’t true. They told stories of their parents and grandparents who smoked for seventy years and lived long lives. They told about an uncle who was the picture of health until the day he died, and he smoked two packs of cigarettes a day. They might add that the uncle was “strong as an ox.” In those conversations, they noted that many doctors disputed the findings of the Surgeon General. Their private physicians even told them there was nothing wrong with smoking and that smoking relaxes people and helps them control their weight. Many people, no doubt, didn’t believe the warning because they enjoyed smoking. I can still hear them saying, “Nothing is greater than smoking a cigarette after a big meal.”
Those in my generation know what happened. We all lost relatives to cancer because of smoking. Those who didn’t die from cancer developed a host of other health problems. These include COPD, heart issues, high blood pressure, headaches, addiction to caffeine, and the effects of smoke on the skin. The beautiful actresses we saw in the movies developed raspy voices and discolored skin after years of smoking. They didn’t look attractive or elegant. You would hear one speak and conclude, “She’s a smoker.” Even if they didn’t admit it, smokers found out that smoking was indeed hazardous to their health.
Based on Mark 2:17, the Lord is sometimes called the Great Physician. Just as the Surgeon General in 1964 was concerned about the physical health of Americans, our Physician is concerned about our spiritual health. Through His apostle Paul, He issued a warning in Romans 6:23. It is a simple statement: The wages of sin is death.
Paul is talking to believers. He is not telling them how to be saved from hell or the lake of fire. He is telling them how to avoid the deadly consequences of sin in their lives. Sin brings all kinds of trouble. It is deadly. It can result in physical death, but it can also cause other destructive problems. It will rob the believer of intimacy with the Lord and cause him to lose the fruit of the Spirit in his life. The disobedient believer will also lose rewards in the eternal kingdom of Christ. Our sins are bad for our spiritual health.
But many Christians don’t believe the warning. They know of many upstanding church members who don’t live godly lives. Many of them are their relatives. They have heard of many “successful” Christian leaders who fell into gross sins. As long as we’re going to be in the kingdom, what difference does the way we live make? Aren’t we all sinners? The Lord’s warning can’t be all that serious. Besides, sin is so much fun that it can’t be all that bad.
That sounds like all those people I heard talking about cigarettes in the 1960s and 70s. They thought it couldn’t be that bad. But it was. They should have listened to the Surgeon General.
As believers, we need to listen to the Great Physician. In the past, millions of Americans couldn’t see the destructive nature of nicotine and smoke on their health. We can easily fail to recognize the dangerous effect that our sins have on us.
Many of my older relatives eventually admitted that they were dumb for not listening to the Surgeon General. May we not say the same when we stand before the Great Physician who will evaluate our spiritual health and determine our rewards in His kingdom.
