GRABB086
We Love God!
God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
Does the Bible explicitly condemn or forbid gambling? No. However, I do believe there are certain principles that militate against it.
1. Gambling is poor stewardship. The believer’s responsibility is to use wealth to promote the kingdom of God. The emphasis in Scripture is never on the use of money with a view to increasing one’s personal fortune but on putting our money to use in the service of those who are in need. It simply is not wise and responsible behavior to take what God has graciously bestowed and entrust it to circumstances over which we have no control (Pr. 12:11).
2. The biblical command is that the believer should obtain money by faithful and diligent exercise of God-given talents in work. Gambling is an attempt to obtain money that promotes sloth and is often an excuse for not working.
3. Gambling promotes covetousness and greed, whereas the Word of God encourages contentment (Phil. 4:11-12; Heb. 13:5). If one is seven times more likely to be struck by lightning than to win a million dollars in a state lottery, why do people continue to buy tickets? Greed!
4. Gambling appears to create a condition in which one person's gain is necessarily another person's loss. In other words, in gambling, someone always loses. If so, it would seem to violate brotherly love and justice.
5. There is a fundamental flaw in the character of any government that seeks to capitalize financially on the moral weakness of its members.
6. Gambling appears to violate our belief in the sovereignty of God.
7. Gambling has such a powerful potential for enslaving those who participate that it may well violate the admonition of Scripture that we not be mastered by anything or anyone other than the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:12).
Sam Storms