My friends, may I suggest that if any of you gamble (Bingo, Lotto, scratch offs, horses, dice, cards, football boards, casinos, betting, etc.) that you immediately stop for your own good. Gambling is highly addictive and you do want to fall prey to its enslavement (1 Cor. 6:12). Gamblers Anonymous exist for a reason. Many folk have lost their jobs, homes, and families behind the addiction of gambling and ended up on the streets with no place to go. The Bible may be silent on a “thou shalt not gamble” but it is not silent on Christian principles related to and violated by gambling; that is, contentment, love, benevolence, work, and so on. See, silence of the scriptures do not necessarily grant permission and does not in the case of gambling which causes Christians to become un-Christ-like (2 Pet. 2:15).
Gambling has a covetous aspect to it which causes one to trust and crave money instead of God (1 Tim. 6:7-12,17; Heb. 13:5). God endorsed the sure endeavor of an honest day’s work. Working enables one to provide for their household and to help to others (Eph. 4:28; 1 Thess. 4:11-12; 2 Thess. 3:10-12). But gamblers gravitate to games of risk and chance and used an honest day’s gain to support the habit. People do not gamble to help folk but to take what others have. They do to others what they do not want done to them (Matt. 7:15). There are many things wrong with gambling not to mention where gambling takes place. Even in legitimate establishments children are not allowed because they are not wholesome venues. “Abstain from all appearance of evil” (1 Thess. 5:22).
Tragically, the worse type of gambling is gambling with your immortal soul. Anytime a Christian chooses to purposely go against God’s will they are gambling with their eternal destiny. You cannot go to heaven in willful disobedience (Ps. 19:13; Heb. 10:26; Rev. 22:14). Nevertheless, many gamble with lives of transgression. They see profit if they can win the world but fail to perceive the game of life is Satan-rigged for them to lose. My brethren, do not fall for the devil’s deceit (2 Cor. 2:11).
“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36).
Richard Stevens, III
