1 Corinthians 6:12-13 “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. (13) Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.”
This section on addictions also falls under the heading of that which God requires of us, because it deals with sin in the body. In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul talks about not allowing himself to be brought under the power of certain things, and in context Paul is speaking about sin in the body, of which he names two i.e. gluttony and sexual immorality. And so we see that the bible clearly teaches us that the body has the ability to wield power over the saint if they allow it to. In modern terminology such power would be referred to as an addiction. Addictions take on many forms, of which some examples are drunkenness, substance abuse (e.g. drugs), gluttony, anorexia, sexual immorality (e.g. pornography), smoking, etc. Obviously all forms of addictions are sinful in nature and are thus ultimately destructive to the believer. Not only that however, for saints that are controlled by various addictions cannot present their bodies to God as living sacrifices that are holy and acceptable to Him. And so clearly all believers should do as Paul did, and not allow their bodies to wield any power over them, for we have seen in an earlier passage that Paul disciplined his body and brought it into subjection. When we come into the kingdom of God we don’t get new bodies, and so it is possible that addictions that were present before salvation may still be present after the believer is born-again. Quite often the believer is set free from any addictions they may have had the moment they are born-again, but this is not always the case however, and so some saints are only set free from addictions gradually over time as the believer becomes stronger in their spiritual walk.
James 1:14-15 “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. (15) Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”
So what is an addiction? Ultimately an individual becomes addicted to something when they consistently give in to whichever temptation their body craves. In other words, in these areas the body controls the individual instead of the other way around. In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit refers to temptation as being drawn away and enticed by our own desires, and He speaks of sin being birthed when the desire is conceived. When the Holy Spirit speaks of our own desires in this passage He is referring to our fleshly desires. And so we see that addictions always start out with one initial transgression of God’s laws, but as the individual continues to submit to the body’s craving, their body gains more and more power over them until finally the person becomes completely enslaved by the addiction. I also want you to notice from this passage what the ultimate outcome of any addiction is, for the Holy Spirit teaches us that it produces death. And so we see from this passage that all addictions start out when the individual gives in to the temptations of the flesh, which also means that the key to breaking addictions lies in resisting temptation.
Michael E.B. Maher
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