Is it a sin to play poker?

"L. M. B. C." We would just ask you one or two plain questions, Can you engage in a game of cards, or any other game, in the Name of Jesus, or to the glory of God! Can you ask God's blessing thereon? Are you, when so engaged, redeeming the time?

I remember many years ago being asked to take a shilling ticket in a raffle to help a sick man. To take a ticket would be to join in gambling. To refuse to help would lay oneself open to the charge of meanness, which would have reflected on Christ. The way out of the difficulty was plain, and it served to teach two lessons—that a Christian would not gamble, and that a Christian was ready to do good to all, as Scripture exhorts. I gave some money to the man who was getting up the raffle and asked him to present it to his sick comrade. I only mention this as a practical example of how a Christian should act.

There can be little doubt that all gambling is the outcome of the lust to possess, which is covetousness.

Question: I feel sure in my own mind that the principle of gambling is wrong. What Scriptures would you quote to support that?

I know a man in London who, thirty years ago, was described in the evening papers as 'one of the four greatest bridge players in the world', he had been selected to play the great Americans in 1932. He was rich and lived in Monte Carlo. He did a bit of gambling, but he was more often playing cards. What a change occurred in him when he was converted! I hope to see him next Lord's day at another meeting in London, the converted card player. He has found other things, his whole outlook has changed, he has been brought to God, the card playing and the rest of it has left him, he is reconciled. These are real things, we are not theorising, these are not airy-fairy notions, and we want every one of you to experience them for him or herself, being brought to God and reconciled, finding your joy in Him and the old loves and fascinations gone.

Shocking must it be to those who tremble at God's word, and are the pure in heart, who see Him by faith, to witness the sinful liberties that are too often to be met with under the excuses of "play." So it is play: but remember "The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play." And this scripture is quoted by the apostle in warning to us, immediately before the scripture of warning from the scene at Baal-Peor. "Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand." In this scripture they who hold the doctrine of Christ are warned against the deeds maintained in the doctrine of Balaam: for the saints need to watch against the flesh in those things which their spiritual judgments and consciences condemn.

This is commonly the case where young persons of opposite sexes mingle much together. There is no reason why Christian young men and women should not meet and enjoy one another’s company in a pure and holy way. But often it is otherwise. If you feel there is a snare in such commingling, then be honest with your own souls and avoid what might dishonor Christ and hinder spiritual growth. Timothy was exhorted to treat elder brethren with the reverence due to fathers, “younger men as brethren; the elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity” (1 Timothy 5:1,2). The last three words are important, and if overlooked, will lead to many a snare. Young people need recreation; older ones, too, for that matter. It is a mistake to suppose that body and mind must always be keyed up to serious pursuits. “Bodily exercise profiteth [a] little” (1 Timothy 4:8)—not a great deal, but a “little.” Therefore beware of giving it an undue place, but do not neglect it. And in all your recreation see that there is nothing that hinders godliness, for godliness is of profit both in this life and the next.

Anyone in reading the epistles can observe that in Paul’s many references to athletics, there is no suggestion that he in any way disapproves of the exercise in itself. The dangers are two: first, associations; second, excess. Be temperate in all things (1 Corinthians 9:25), and be as careful of your companionships in your recreation as in the other affairs of life.

There are, however, many games and amusements of an entirely innocent character which we may freely enjoy without joining with the world. I am not too old to heartily enter into and thoroughly enjoy recreation with young people. Our homes should be bright, happy and attractive.

We have read your letter with deep interest and we can enter into your feelings. We believe the Christian is bound to provide for his family, day by day — bound to educate his children and put them in the way of earning an honest livelihood. All this is so plainly commanded in the New Testament as to admit of no question. But these sacred duties leave wholly untouched the question of hoarding up and of speculation. We do not believe in these latter at all. We believe that hoarding covers the soul with rust and speculation fills the heart and mind with care and anxiety.

We love and honor diligent and honest toil, but Scripture tells us that “the love of money is the [a] root of all evil” and we do not believe that God's blessing rests upon His children when they become shareholders in worldly companies. You yourself, dear friend, have proved this. We think you would have done better had you purchased a house, either to live in or rent, than to invest your money in such a company as you describe. But all these matters must be arranged between the Lord and one's own conscience. We merely add that there is a vast difference between committing actual sin and falling short of a high toned discipleship and personal devotedness. For ourselves, we earnestly long for the latter. We believe there is a sad lack of it in our day.

On all hands are people who earnestly desire to become rich; the making of money is to them the chief end of life. The Christian may all too easily become infected with this spirit to his great loss. Verse 9 does not speak of those that are rich, as does verse 17, but of those that "will be rich" or "desire to be rich," that is, they set it before them as the object to be pursued. Such become ensnared by many lusts, which in the case of the man of the world plunge him into destruction and ruin. This is so whether they succeed in their aim and amass wealth or whether they do not, for the coveting of money it is that turns men aside from the faith and pierces them through with sorrows, and not the acquisition and misuse of it only. The love of money is declared to be the root of every kind of evil. It is not that every bit of evil in the world can be traced to the love of money, but that the love of money is a root from which on various occasions every description of evil springs.