REWARD FOR NOT SMOKING

Recently I read of a businessman from Saudi Arabia who rewarded his son for quitting the smoking habit.  The amount?  An amazing $267,000!  The gentleman explained, “I’m glad that after nine years of smoking, my son finally managed to get rid of his bad habit.”

If you happen to smoke, would you be willing to break yourself from this habit if someone deposited into your bank account the sum of a quarter of a million dollars?  I would think that many people would be eager to do that.  I recall a program initiated by the company where I formerly worked.  They offered a “cease smoking” seminar and then rewarded the employee about $100 if he or she stopped smoking.  I don’t know the success of this offer, but many would not make this effort unless the reward would be high enough.

However, consider this matter in another way.  First, consider the financial cost that comes to the smoker for a life-long habit of using tobacco.  The total cost would be much higher than $100,000—the cost of a house!  If that amount were invested at a good interest rate during his lifetime, the total amount would be more than $500,000!  Doesn’t this prove that smoking is an expensive as well as a foolish addition?

Second, consider another aspect of the cost of smoking.  We have read that the average one-pack-a-day smoker dies on the average of seven years earlier than the non-smoker.  The smoker is committing slow suicide!  Just looking at the monetary angle, if the person earned $50,000 a year, he forfeits some $350,000 in lost wages by smoking!

Third, consider the poor health that comes from smoking.  Consider the lung cancer, the emphysema, the chronic bronchitis, the heart disease, and many other illnesses and diseases.  Consider the physical pain, the cost of insurance, the cost of doctor visits, and the continual hacking cough that comes from habitual use of tobacco.  Consider the premature death that generally comes—shortening one’s life by at least seven years!

Finally, and by far, the most important, consider the spiritual aspect to smoking.  We know that smoking is sinful.  Any thinking person knows that this is the case.  Using tobacco harms the body, ruins one’s influence, makes a slave of the spirit, provides a poor example, wastes money, and wastes time.  All of this—and much more—shows that smoking is a sin (cf. Romans 12:1; 1 Cor. 6:19-20; 1 Tim. 4:12; Titus 2:7; 2 Peter 2:19; 1 Cor. 4:1; Eph. 5:15; etc.).  And we know that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), the lake of fire (Rev. 21:8), and not entering the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:19-21). 

Beyond any financial cost to the smoker, beyond any loss of income to the smoker, beyond any physical suffering from lung cancer or other disease, and beyond any earthly reward from any source, the habit of smoking does have a cost!  Whether you have a rich father who is willing to offer you $267,000 for stopping the practice of smoking, we would encourage you to repent of this sin and forsake it—for your own spiritual welfare!  Forsake it for the sake of your family and friends, and especially for the sake of God your Maker!

Richard Hollerman