The Believer's Body Is God's House

I knew a man who was about to die,
His smoker's lungs clogged with tobacco tar;
No more time could he beg, borrow, or buy;
Of the promised span, he was short by far!
I asked was there anything I could do?
He clutched my arm as would a drowning man;
"The man upstairs is a good friend to you;
Ask him for new lungs, as only you can."
I complied, though with a foreboding heart,
Knowing this man had the Lord rejected;
By smoking, he did his own lungs abort;
His body's care willfully neglected!
Each, while weaving through this world of choices,
Must care for his body, so God rejoices!

"Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple." (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)

This truth was told to Christians and applies only to believers. If the smoker (or drug or alcohol user) is an unbeliever, by deliberately ingesting that which is known to be hamful, he is guilty of suicide. God will not likely respond to a prayer asking for such a one to be healed, unless He knows there is a contribution to the Kingdom of God that this person will make in his new body in the future.

If the man is a believer, God expected him to quit smoking immediately when he first believed; a true believer recognizes that his body must be cared for, because it is the temple of the Holy Spirit; he repents of his former sin of smoking, asks forgiveness, and, with all his might and will power, quits smoking. If he continues to smoke, he is continuing to sin. This willful continuation casts doubt on the sincerity of his belief. Others cannot know what is in his heart; only God knows. If we judge him, by concluding that his conversion was negated by his continued smoking, then we are committing sin by so judging. Back to the prayer for healing his lungs, it is unlikely that it would receive a favorable response; but the same proviso discussed for the unbeliever is applicable for him.

As to suffering being a cause for rejoicing, in this case, it most definitely is not, for it is suffering for the wrong reason; it is not suffering according to God's will, for the man brought it upon himself deliberately by smoking. This is what I mean by making right "choices" in this world. Smoking is the wrong choice.