Is it a sin to play card games?
Is it a sin to play card games?
Answer
There is nothing inherently sinful about playing card games electronically, online, or in real life. Holding information-laden pieces of paper and using them in strategic ways to win a game is not morally inferior to any other game that one might choose. In most cases, it’s the purpose of the card game—i.e., the players’ motives—that determines the appropriateness of the game being played.
Many card games are nothing more than innocent fun. Children playing Go Fish or Old Maid are not sinning. A table of friends enjoying a game of Uno or Dutch Blitz need not fear that their game will offend God.
The Bible doesn’t speak of card playing, so its virtue (or lack thereof) has to do with the ways in which the games are played. If the cards are being used to gamble, for example, the game in question could be sinful. Even then, the Bible does not specifically condemn gambling, betting, or games of chance. The Bible’s warning is against the love of money (1 Timothy 6:10; Hebrews 13:5). Most gambling, including that associated with some card games, is rooted in materialism and money-love. Is it possible to play poker or bridge, for example, without greed? Yes. And in that case, playing cards is not wrong.
Some Christians object to playing cards not because of an association with gambling but because of supposed links between a traditional deck of cards and occult practices. It’s true that some fortune-tellers use traditional playing cards in divination. The four suits (clubs, spades, diamonds, and hearts) are made to st and in for the four suits of the minor arcana in a deck of tarot cards. This form of card reading, using a traditional deck of cards, is called cartomancy.
Of course, the Bible condemns divination and fortune-telling as sinful. The ancient Israelites were warned, “There shall not be found among you . . . anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens” (Deuteronomy 18:10, ESV). So, cartomancy is wrong. The playing cards themselves, though, are most often used in other ways that have nothing to do with fortune-telling. The fact that a psychic might use playing cards does not mean all card games are wrong. Similarly, tasseography (the reading of tea leaves for divination) is wrong, but that does not make drinking tea sinful.
Some believers hold the conviction that they should not play cards, and they may have various reasons for their conviction. Others can play cards with no qualms. It’s a matter of conscience for both groups. In issues involving matters of conscience, believers are to seek peace and make concessions for the one with the weaker conscience. Believers are not to judge one another in such matters (see Romans 14:3). Under no circumstances, Paul says, should a believer encourage another believer to violate his or her conscience: “Be careful . . . that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak” (1 Corinthians 8:9).
Almost anything can be used for good or for evil, and that holds true for playing cards. If card games become an addiction or a temptation to waste resources, then they are wrong. If cards are used to bilk others out of money or for divination, then they are likewise being used in sinful ways. But the recreational use of cards in a game is not inherently wrong.