Being a Christian, is it okay to vape?

In our age, nothing is straightforward. Indeed, everything is subjected to doubt and put under debate; we let nothing pass unjudged and we won't allow anything remain unskinned. In our age we have to have an opinion of our own---it doesn't have to be original, but it has to be confirmed by our own hearts and uttered from our own lips, otherwise we feel thwarted and undermined. In our age we feel we have to explain everything, justify everything, even though most of what we conclude in our authority to condone or to condemn do not belong to our sphere of jurisdiction. In our age we tend to regard God's commandments as ancient, uncivilized, unsophisticated, and in need of revision while we dethroned Him and took things in our own hands. It is so in the case of vaping, as the debate whether it is permissible for Christian to vape has incited heated discussions and deep concerns. 

Many conservative Christians are convinced that vaping is a sin on the ground that it causes damage to our body while the Bible teaches us to "glorify God in our body". They employ the addictive effect of nicotine and unproven harms posed by vaporized ingredients which, though harmless through digestion, may cause unknown mischiefs when inhaled, as their attacking formation and recruit Paul's teachings on glorifying God in everything and avoid doing things that are not beneficial as their strongholds. Yet their attacking formation is unorganized and feeble in spirit and their strongholds are misplaced and weak in foundation. First off, the vice of nicotine is exaggerated to a ridiculous extent, while a similar stimulant named caffeine along with its "harmful effects" is overlooked and tolerated, which implies, if not hypocrisy, at least double standards. Moreover, Paul in his letters to the Corinthians was talking about sex and food, not activities that involve the body in general. If we would extent the application of Paul's teaching to this far, then car racing, surfing, expedition to the South Pole, along with Columbus' great voyages that crowned the Age of Discovery, should all be rejected and banished on the ground that these activities put our bodies in potential jeopardy and may cause fatal casualties, the possibility and severity of which far exceed that of vaping. This group of people, because of their complete inflexibility, can be very persistent in their holding fast a conviction while keeping in love, or they can fall into the great danger of legalism and hypocrisy.  

However, there are many others who rather think that vaping in itself is not a sin, though if by vaping they cause others to stumble, it becomes inappropriate and unwholesome. These more liberal minds do not condemn Christians who vape, though they may exercise harsher requirements on themselves, the reason for publishing this observation being that they, though tolerant of Christian vaping behaviors, hide their own performance of the same behaviors from the public for fear of becoming a stumbling block for those who with regard to this subject are not as flexible. Regardless what the conclusion may be, this group of people are in no danger of hypocrisy nor legalism, though their self-inflicted fear and shame are not justly warranted since their conviction is that vaping is unseemly when and only when others are susceptible to stumbling, while their discretion already marks their kindness, prudence, and wisdom and should therefore crown their head with deserved honor and merited credit. 

There are, in one last category, some people who hold the opinion that vaping is not a sin, neither in itself nor when presented in public. They claim that Christians have the freedom to do whatever we like, since Jesus has redeemed them. Their line of reason goes like this: since I do not feel convicted about vaping, the Holy Spirit must have given me license to remain unchanged and unchallenged. This obviously borders on self-deception and licentiousness in that along this argument the concept of sin is made null and therefore no one may transgress if his feelings do not convict him which renders a person's feelings the sufficient condition for innocence or pardonment. A person would be constantly absolving himself in this case and this whole transaction would have no better name than self-deception. 

No one has a clear idea whether vaping is a sin, since the Bible does not offer explicit teachings on this, and the accusation that vaping harms the body is utterly ludicrous (see my other articles which treat the health effects of vaping) and does not qualify in the sphere of Paul's teaching. But if someone, who does not believe that vaping is a sin in itself, is to obey Paul's teaching of accepting the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters, then he must stepping from this principle, take vaping into his cloisters and avoid as much as possible causing others who are offended by vaping to stumble. And if anyone does certainly believe that vaping is a sin in itself, he should himself abstain from it altogether in order not to commit transgression or hypocrisy, and to avoid legalism he should persist in his conviction without condemning those who are rooted in another foundation and practice vaping. 

Tags: Vaping, E-cigarette