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Should a Christian drink soda, eat chocolate, or smoke?

     Is a Christian allowed to drink soda, eat chocolate, or smoke?

  The Christian is clearly forbidden to do anything that knowingly harms his body. I Corinthians 3:16,17 says, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” I Corinthians 6:19,20 says, “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”

Smoking clearly harms the body, and is thus forbidden for the Christian to do.

As to the other matters of eating chocolate or drinking soda, the results there are more questionable. A lady in our church had to have a hip replacement some years ago. After surgery, the surgeon said to her, “You do not drink a lot of soda pop, do you?” She said, “No, why?” He said, “Because your bones are not full of holes.” He seems to believe from his experience as a surgeon, that people who drink a lot of soda pop suffer adverse affects from it in their bones. I have never seen a technical study done on that subject, but it should make the Christian stand up and take note.

As to chocolate, I have heard people say that chocolate is bad for a person; and then not too long ago, I heard that a study was done that stated that people who ate some chocolate had some health advantages. The chocolate argument has gone back and forth ever since I can remember.

With the latter two things (soda pop and chocolate), the Christian just has to be honest before the Lord. Do you notice some ill effects in your body after drinking or eating those things? If so, then the Lord is trying to tell you that you should stay away from those things, because they are hurting your body. Or, it may be that you normally feel fine after taking a little of those things, but that you find that your real problem with those things is that you easily over-indulge, and then have adverse affects. The difference is knowing from which things you need to abstain, and from which things you can eat/drink in moderation. The Lord will show you by the effects, if you pay attention.

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