Smoking and 1 Corinthians 6:19

Now, I admit I'm coming at this from a biased perspective, being a smoker. But, being a smoker, I am a common recipient of an argument of this type:

"You know, the Bible says that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and so you shouldn't smoke because you're damaging the temple. Tsk tsk."

The "tsk tsk" is never added, but always subtly implied. The "temple of the Holy Spirit" quote comes from 1 Corinthians 6:19. This is the "go-to" verse for nearly every argument that smoking is a sin. But what people who quote that verse never seem to consider is the verse before it.

"Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body." (v. 18)

So, if you contextualize the verse, what actually damages the "temple" in that regard is sexual immorality. Not smoking, not alcoholism, not gluttony and ensuing obesity, and the last two are actually mentioned as sins in scripture.

So if someone you love smokes, then don't call it a sin and try to guilt them with out-of-context verses. You can call it what it is, an admittedly stupid habit that does damage health, and you can express your concern, but as someone who even now is working towards kicking the habit, you do NO GOOD by throwing accusations at people who smoke, especially Christianized accusations wrapped up in a poorly-used verse. Love them, help them, encourage them, don't nag, don't patronize, don't look on them judgingly, especially because for some smoking is an escape from other issues in their lives, and what they need is the love of Christian community to show the gospel and help them heal in Christ, not people wagging the finger because of their "dirty habit".