Whether or not Christians should play the lottery or be involved in any kind of gambling reframes a deeper question: Is chance an agency God can use to bless His people?

There is no explicit condemnation of gambling or teaching about the subject in the Bible, so to some degree, we are left with common sense. There are, however, a handful of explicit uses of chance as a mechanism for receiving divine guidance and provision in the scriptures.

For instance, after Jesus' ascension, the disciples chose an apostle to replace Judas Iscariot by first of all praying and then casting lots (an ancient way to discern God's will by drawing straws). In this case, the lot fell to Matthias, and he became the new apostle.

Similarly, in the Old Testament, the roles and duties of the priests and Levites were also determined by casting lots. On another occasion, Joshua cast lots to divide the Promised Land among the Hebrew tribes.

It would be wrong to take these examples as a mandate for gambling, but they certainly indicate that chance is not, in and of itself, something God would never use to provide for his people. It can be convenient to define moral questions as either black or white, right or wrong, but such an approach rarely considers the nuance of people's lives.

God is more interested in the heart than our behavior.

In more general terms, the Bible warns against the love of money, greed, and hoarding wealth, all of which could inform a biblical view about gambling, depending on the individual's motivation. Motivation is the key factor in so many moral questions—when Jesus warned against hoarding wealth, his rebuke was for a person who "stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God."

Does this imply that a person who is rich towards God (i.e., uses their wealth to bless the poor) can be trusted with great wealth? Can great wealth be a blessing given to some for the sake of an entire community? Surely Jesus' warning against the love of money is about an attitude of the heart rather than a condemnation of money itself.

God is always more interested in our hearts than our behavior, as the condition of our hearts drives our choices and steers our lives. A person caught up in fear will act in fearful ways, such as hoarding money, while a person with a heart full of love will be habitually generous.

Personal freedom versus considering others.

At the risk of stating the obvious, if a person suffers from a gambling addiction, they should steer clear of all monetized games of chance, including the lottery. Not because of a religious rule, a right or a wrong, but because gambling is harmful to them and to their loved ones, and God is fiercely protective of all of us. He always wants to protect us from harm.

Similarly, if a person's partner has a gambling addiction, playing the lottery would be a cruel choice if it troubled or tempted them in some way. In Romans 14, Paul writes of 'disputable matters' and how to approach them:

"One person's faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not be treated with contempt by the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand" (Romans 14:2-4).

It goes on to list other disputable matters, including whether or not a person celebrates a Sabbath day or considers all days alike, urging us to stop passing judgment on one another. This list of disputable matters is not exhaustive but rather offers a few specific examples of how to behave towards each other while exercising our freedom. If a person wants to play the lottery and their conscience is clear, then they are free to do so and should not be on the receiving end of judgment. That said, in keeping with Romans 14, they should do so without tempting others to judge them. In other words, it would be an act of kindness to keep it to themselves.

Is all gambling wrong?

Let's be realistic about the many forms gambling takes. A stockbroker is always flirting with chance, however experienced they might be. The same is true of those who invest in stocks and shares, and especially those who prefer high-yield investments that carry more risk. Arguably, anyone with a pension fund is involved in gambling to a degree – just ask those whose pensions have shrunk or disappeared due to poor investment choices. What is the price of a lottery ticket compared to that?

Some say that all gambling should be avoided because believers should only gain money through their own efforts, and God blesses those efforts – for example, through promotion at work or the success of a person's business. This might sound praiseworthy, but this idea of meritocracy is arguably based on a set of unrealistic assumptions:

1. We all get what we deserve in life, and the wealthy deserve their position.

2. That a person from an underprivileged background has the same opportunities in life as a person from a wealthy background.

3. That education and opportunity are equally available for all.

Playing the lottery can be a source of hope for people whose financial position is precarious – just a small, harmless hope, a faint glimmer of optimism, a moment to dream of financial freedom. Why would we want to take that away from anyone?

Is it possible that we've made a small, disputable matter a moral absolute? Do we perhaps take some aspects of life a little too seriously? Perhaps the simplest, most biblical approach to take is to refuse to judge anyone for playing the lottery, to keep it to ourselves if we do.