Christians Shouldn’t Participate in Vice

The title of this piece might seem as controversial as saying firefighters should use water or that people scared of heights shouldn’t sky-dive. Of course Christians shouldn’t participate in vice! Is anyone arguing they should? Well, from what I’ve seen, yes. There are in fact Christians arguing that certain vices aren’t that big a deal, vices like gambling, marijuana, or drinking. More specifically, the argument being made is that a Christian could theoretically participate in some of these activities without committing a sin. 

Personally, I’m not convinced of these arguments, but for a few moments let’s consider the possibility that I’m wrong. What if someone could drink, or smoke weed, or gamble, and not be personally sinning? Does that mean they should do it? My argument here will be simple: Christians should not participate in these activities because they are vices. And vices, over time, will rot your culture. 

Can I Do It?

I wrote an article for the most recent Frontline on how to apply biblical principles to questions of Christian liberty, things like alcohol, weed, or similar issues. Frontline also did a whole edition on gambling, so I’m not going to spend a lot of time rehashing these issues. To give a very brief overview, the first question we should ask when coming to any area of Christian liberty is, “Does the Bible forbid it?” The Bible clearly forbids drunkenness because that puts us under the control of something other than the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). This would seem to eliminate marijuana entirely from the question (nobody says, “I smoke weed but not enough to get high.”). But beyond biblical commands, we want  

No, buying a 50/50 raffle won’t immediately lead to the downfall of society. And if a teenager smokes weed a few times in high school, that doesn’t mean they will definitely end up a crack addict living on the streets. But vice, like all sin, has a way of eating away at you so slowly you don’t notice it’s happening until things are really bad. It’s like the elephant slowly pushing its way into the tent. You see the trunk out of the corner of your eyes and decide it’s not that big a deal. You work on something else and by the time you turn around to check on the elephant it’s standing in the tent, and the tent is about to collapse. Vices are destructive to our country, and we should stand up to them rather than make sure we only participate in a safe way. 

You may feel like there’s no point in pushing back. Unlike the famous little Dutch boy, you might not be able to keep the whole dam from bursting by plugging up the hole yourself. But you can be a grain of salt seeking to make a difference. And if your church, and your Christian friends, and churches and Christians across America decided that they were going to do what they could to push back against societal vices, you might be surprised how big a difference that could make. And even if we try and fail and don’t make the difference we would like, at the end of the day, I still remain convinced that we should say no to these behaviors if for no other reason than Christians shouldn’t participate in vice. 

[1] “Vice,” Cambridge Dictionary https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/vice#google_vignette

Ben Hicks is the Associate Pastor at Colonial Hills Baptist Church in Indianapolis. You can check out Bible studies he has written as hearanddo.org.