Biblical Answers for
Addictions
As I have already discussed, Gibeon was a Hivite city. Hivite means life-giving and stands for those desires and lusts that we see as assisting the quality of our lives and meeting our deepest needs. While the verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual abuser tries to get his needs met at the expense of others, the addict attempts to get his needs met by killing his emotional pain through some form of activity or drug. Because the addict seldom quits his addictive behavior even when it is severely damaging to his life, he is actually abusing himself. Today, addictions are categorized either as substance addictions, like drugs and alcohol, or process addictions, like sex, eating, gambling, or workaholism.
In Joshua Chapter 9, the Hivites of Gibeon were
subtle in their dealings with the Israelites. They convinced the
Israelites that they were to be trusted as friends. In the same way,
the Hivite giants of today present themselves as our friends. It is
only later that we learn the dangers involved in inviting them into our
lives. Some counselors believe that sexual addiction can be one of the
most difficult to treat. It many times has all the traits of a drug
addiction because the pornography, fantasy, and masturbation trigger
endorphins and adrenaline in the body.
Addictions
of all types are very serious problems. Alcoholism is the most
widespread addiction in our society. According to
Taking Control
(1988) by Minirth, Meier, Fink, Byrd, and Hawkins, 70 percent of our society
drinks—the largest percent ever—and consumes an average of 30 gallons of
alcohol each year. Ten percent are heavy drinkers and seven percent
are problem drinkers or alcoholics. Alcoholism is the third leading
cause of death in America and is responsible for 50 percent of highway
deaths. It is also a major factor in suicide. In the church, 81
percent of Catholics and 64 percent of Protestants drink at least socially.
Although the most comprehensive information concerning addictions in the
Bible is found in the story of Samson's life, a number of other addictions
are mentioned in the Bible. Nabal possibly died of an alcoholic
seizure. King Saul was addicted to rage and domestic violence.
Solomon was addicted to work, sex, and possibly alcohol. Eglon and Eli
were most likely addicted to food, and Lot struggled with homosexuality.
In addition, the Bible deals with drug addictions under the more inclusive
name of sorcery.
In 1st Corinthians Chapter 6, we find a list of addictions that can separate us from the kingdom of God. As with most of present tense Greek in the New Testament, I believe that these verses should be interpreted as continuous action. As an example, it is not getting drunk once that keeps a person from inheriting the kingdom of God, but continually being drunk over a period of time. This is substantiated by the verses that follow this list. As we have already seen in the story of Samson's life, either our faith will destroy our addictive behavior, or our addiction will destroy our faith. The good new is that, even though the power of an addiction can be great, each and every addiction—including homosexuality—can be and has been overcome through a deep faith-filled relationship with Christ. Paul, however, strongly advises that we should do everything possible to steer clear of these behaviors so that we will not be brought under their power.
1 Cor 6:9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of
God?
On
the right you will find a chart labeled "The Law of Sin and Death" which
summarizes the addictive process. When our basic internal needs for
love, security, worth, and significance are not met, we are motivated to do
something about it. We select a method of meeting our own needs based
on our prior experiences. If we reach our goal through the flesh,
these methods provide temporary partial satisfaction along with condemnation
(if we believe that what we have done is wrong or sinful). Operant
conditioning suggests that if we do something and it results in immediate
gratification, we will be disposed to do it more often. This is how
desire for something turns into lust. If we choose to protect
ourselves by hiding our shame, our guilt or shame (“I did something bad”)
turns into toxic shame (“I am a bad person”). This is how in the long
run the initial feelings of worthlessness increase. These short-term
gains, which result in long-term shame, set the process of addiction into
motion. After one complete loop of this chart we have: 1.
Increased the desire for the substance. 2. Increased the level
of toxic shame and internal neediness. 3. Increased the level of
denial about being addicted. After each use, all three of these
results increase until toxic shame pervades the addict's life, his
lust is so strong that it overrides his values, and his denial blinds him to
his problem. At this point, when the addict "tries harder to quit,"
his failure to stop only adds to his shame. Finally, out of extreme
despair, he may even turn to self-destructive behavior or suicide to relieve
himself of his intense level of internal emotional pain. This is the
point where most addicts are willing to enter recovery. However, many
go on to their deaths through medical complications or suicide. These
individuals are frequently convinced that they are already too bad, they
cannot recover, or there is no way out.
The Law of the Spirit of LIfe
This
chart is labeled the Law of the Spirit of Life. It depicts the biblical
method of recovery from addictions. This chart contains three separate
circles of flow that end in very different results. By making two critical
choices, we determine the consequences for our life. The choice to believe
God to meet our needs through the Spirit results in a process that increases
our faith and our desire
The Ultimate Answer
from Romans
Romans Chapter 6- 8 provides what I believe is the most biblical, effective,
and rapid deliverance from addictions for Bible-oriented Christians.
Nonetheless, these Chapters are “the meat and not the milk” of the Word of
God. Therefore, they require an excellent foundation in the word of
God. I am making a distinction here because for those with little
Bible knowledge or for new believers a Christian 12-step program is simpler
to understand, although deliverance may take longer. I usually teach
the Roman method of deliverance in five steps.
1.
In Christ, the addict is free to choose what he will do.
This is very enlightening to addicts because by the time they seek help they
have usually reached the conclusion that they are powerless to quit.
They are, but Christ has done something that restores their ability to
choose to overcome every temptation! Romans 6 begins by telling us
that although we, as people, have a selfish sin nature and are powerless
over it, Jesus, by dying on the cross, destroyed the power of the sin
nature. Because we who are saved are “in Christ” and the spiritual
realm exists outside of natural time, we were in Christ when He was
crucified. Since Christ died on the cross, we died with Him to our old
sin nature. Dead men cannot sin. Through Christ’s resurrection
we have now been given power over our sin.
Ro 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is
crucified with [him], that the body of sin might be destroyed, that
henceforth we should not serve sin. 7 For he that is dead is
freed from sin.
Our part is to believe and
“reckon” it so. The Greek word translated as reckon,
logizomai,
in this verse means “to count, compute, or calculate that something is
true.” The fact that we can now choose not to fall to temptation must
become a reality. In 1st Corinthians Chapter 10, the
Bible states:
1 Co 10:13 There hath no
temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God [is] faithful,
who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with
the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear [it].
Understanding exactly how this is done is critical. I teach addicts to
go to God immediately in prayer every time they are tempted. They need
to admit that they will fail for sure if they try to resist the temptation
in their own strength, claim 1st Corinthians 10:13 that God will
provide a way of escape, and trust God in faith to provide the escape from
that temptation. They are instructed to then go about their work
trusting God for their victory. Each time they are able to
successfully overcome the temptation with God’s help, their faith in God
grows. Over a period of time, they eventually become convinced that
anytime they choose to call on and trust God, they will not fail to have
victory over the temptation.
2. He must exercise
his will to call on God. It is not enough for the addict to
realize that through Jesus, he now has a choice; he must exercise his will
in order to choose to be delivered. He must decide that he is “not
going to live in his addiction any longer” no matter how desperate the
emotional pain. If he is overcome by his compulsion and does not
choose to trust in God to deliver him from a temptation, he will relapse.
Romans puts it this way:
Ro 6:12 Let not sin
therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts
thereof.
Ro 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under
the law, but under grace.
4. He must also trust God to make him willing to quit relying on
his addiction. My experience is that willingness is a critical
factor in overcoming addictions. The good news is that God also
provides us an answer based on His ability, not ours. It is our job to
choose and to obey, but He also provides the resources to do both. We
find this most clearly stated in the book of Philippians.
Php 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have
always obeyed…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
If an addict is struggling
with willingness, I instruct Him to again call on God, admit his inability
to even be willing, and to trust God to make him willing.
I sometimes suggest that they pray, “God, I am willing for you to make me
willing to be willing (as many ‘to be willings’ as needed to be truthful) to
do your will.”
5. He must learn to consistently walk according to the Spirit.
In assisting addicts, I have found that even willingness and faith are not
enough. Even after a victory over an addiction has been gained, the
devil will begin eroding the recovering addict’s willingness and finally
cause a relapse if the client does not continue to walk according to the
Spirit. This is not surprising since spirits operate primarily through
influencing a person’s will. If a person walks according to or is
under the influence of the Spirit of God, he will consistently want and
choose to do God’s will. We find this answer in Romans Chapter 8.
Ro 8:3 For what the law could not do, in
that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness
of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4 That
the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after
the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Ro 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also
did predestinate [to be] conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be
the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom he did
predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also
justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Understanding Addictions
The giants of addiction are the result of what the Bible calls the lust of
the flesh. As I have already stated, the average codependent has at
least two addictions. Whether alcohol, drugs, sex, relationships,
eating, buying things, gambling, or even workaholism, the process is the
same. Let us look at the story of Samson, who became a sex and
relationship addict. Judges Chapters 13-16 reveal this
all-too-prevalent psychological problem.
1. Even Christians who are called, anointed, and
come from good Christian homes can have problems with addictions.
As we look at the story of Samson it is very clear by the visitations of the
angel that he was particularly chosen to deliver Israel from the
Philistines. Philistia means sojourners or aliens which stand for the
forces of evil and Satan in this world.
2. The underlying root of addictions is
codependency or an addictive personality. This
modern term, which I have defined as "excessive dependence or independence
on people or things," has already been extensively discussed in the previous
chapters. Codependency is a dysfunctional means of coping with life,
which is passed from generation to generation. Another term for
codependency is an addictive personality. A number of the symptoms of
codependency are clear in this account of the story of Samson:
a. Manoah, Samson's father, was angry (Zorah means to shout or cry
out), judgmental (Dan means to judge) and withdrawn (Manoah means rest).
He did not believe what his wife told him and did not feel adequate to carry
out the directions of the angel without further instruction. He asked
God to send he angel to repeat the message. His legalistic attitude
(which is a sign of insecurity) is seen in his belief that because he had
seen God, he would die. The bondage of the law is an important factor
in the addictive process. When we are forbidden to do something, we
are naturally tempted to do it and often rely on only our own strength to
avoid it. Later, we will see that Manoah did little to influence
Samson to do what was right. In fact, he even enabled Samson's
addiction. On the other hand, he did pray and he had faith enough to
ask the angel whom to give credit to when the prophecy came to pass.
He offered burnt offerings and a meat offering unto God. The irony of
this story is that these sacrifices represent the very things required in
the process of addiction recovery, repentance and dedication to God.
b. Manoah's wife was living in shame (she was barren, which was a
great disgrace at that time), seemed very passive, but was less legalistic
than her husband. Unfortunately, she also became an enabler of
Samson's addiction.
c. God warned the parents to keep Samson away from wine or strong
drink. Nazarites were not even allowed to eat anything from the
grapevine. He was never to cut his hair (his faith) or eat anything
unclean (a type of sin).
3. A Christian can have everything going for him
and still become addicted. Samson means
“distinguished and strong” from a word that means “sunlight.” His
miraculous birth and filling by the Spirit indicates that he represents
someone who is saved. He was to be a light to his world just as each
Christian is to be a light to the world (Matthew 5:16). He was blessed
of God and was moved upon by the Spirit of God.
4. Wrong choices provide the initial opening for
an addiction to begin. Samson seemed to have
inherited some of his father's traits of judgmentalism (Dan) and anger
(shouting out). Yet he seemed receptive to the Spirit of God. We
can only guess why Samson was strongly attracted to heathen women.
Rigid codependent families usually lack intimacy. Relationship
addiction and sexual addiction are found more often in families that lack
intimacy, have an extremely negative view of sex, or in which sexual abuse
has occurred. Lust looks at the outward appearance in order to get its
desires met. Samson went where he should not have been and he saw a
woman from Timnath. Israelites were forbidden to marry people that
were not Israelites. In lust, the thrill is higher if the action is
forbidden or dangerous because adrenaline is added to the power of the
endorphin released by the brain during sex. He chose to meet his own
needs in spite of his values and God's direction.
5. The addict is blinded to his own motivation and
often excuses his behavior. Samson justified
marrying the heathen woman, because he was using the marriage as a means to
offend the Philistines. Even after his parents objected, he still
insisted on the illicit marriage. This is similar to the mistake of
thinking that drinking with non-Christian friends will give an opportunity
to witness to them. Even if our motivation is right, using an
addictive substance can still lead to an addiction, or it simply may be
justifying our wrong actions. Using something external in an attempt
to meet internal needs provides the ground for an addiction to develop.
6. Codependents want to please others so much that
they will actually assist the addict in his addiction.
Although Samson's parents initially objected to his marriage to a
non-Israelite, they eventually accompanied him to Timnath to assist him in
arranging the marriage.
7. In the initial stages of an addiction, the
addict usually still has power over the compulsion.
Samson easily tore apart the young lion (Satan) that tried to attack him.
He did not tell his parents about this. He knew that there was danger
in what he is doing but chose to continue. Addictions begin with a
choice of short-term pleasure and a denial of long-term consequences.
8. Addictions do initially bring pleasure and
relief to the addict. The Bible says that "sin
has pleasure for a season" (Hebrews 11:25). The danger for the addict
is that, according to the laws of operant conditioning, if he does something
that produces immediate, positive results, he will want to do it more often.
This is the principle that turns a desire into a lust. The first step
toward addiction occurs when we choose to meet our needs through the flesh
rather than by trusting and obeying God.
9. The addict convinces himself that he can have
the pleasure of doing wrong without receiving the consequences.
This is the meaning of the parable of the lion and the honey that pervades
Samson's story (Judges 14:8): Can a person really take honey
(pleasurable things) from a dead lion (Satan) and not get stung (by the
bees)? The addict initially thinks that he can. This initial
denial is only the beginning of the addict's increasing attempts to avoid
his shame and deny that he is actually addicted. In taking honey from
the lion, Samson violated his Nazarite vow, which included the requirement
to avoid touching anything that was dead.
12. When the addict experiences the consequences
of his addiction, he blames others for his problems.
When the wedding guests answered his riddle (after threatening his wife in
order to find out the answer), he had to pay the consequences. An
addict's mate is almost always codependent (this is where the word
originated). Therefore, it is hardly surprising that the wedding
guests were able to manipulate his wife, and it is hardly surprising that
Samson gave in to her manipulations. He had only himself to blame, but
the addict clings to his belief that his consequences are caused by others,
especially those close to him like his wife. He was not willing to
admit that what happened was a natural result of his own choices.
15. Sometimes, bringing the addict under authority
and accountability, and refocusing on his calling can bring relief.
I believe that the cords that Samson was bound with by the Israelites
represent authority and accountability. After being helped off the
rock of wild animals by the church, he recovered enough of his strength to
kill a thousand men with a jawbone (preaching) of an ass (burden-bearer or
Christ's anointing). I have observed that addicts who totally focus on
their calling can sometimes temporarily control their addiction.
Samson's needs were met by a spring of water called "Enhakkore" which means
"spring of one calling." The addict's emptiness is temporarily filled
by his accomplishments. I believe that this change of focus works
because God's call is outwardly directed while addictions are inwardly
focused.
2. The real issue underlying an addiction is the
choice by the addict of which god he will trust to meet his needs.
The god of the Philistines was Dagon, the fish-god of fertility or sex.
Dagon represents Samson’s addictions to sex and relationships with women in
whom he had trusted. He was brought to the temple of Dagon by the
Philistines "to make sport of him." Satan will use the Christian
addict to bring disgrace on Christianity just as Samson was brought out by
the Philistines to demonstrate that Dagon was more powerful than Jehovah.
4. The addict must push down the pillars of denial
and toxic shame that support his addiction.
Samson pushed over the two pillars that held up the temple of Dagon (the God
of his addiction) through his faith in God. The addict must come to
believe that his addictive personality and the power of his addiction were
crucified with Christ. The power of Christ within him can be relied
upon to meet his needs, overcome his shame, and give him the strength to
face life without his addiction.
1.
Understand that the underlying
problem is trying to meet deep personal needs through something other than
God.
2.
The client must overcome his belief
that he can meet his needs through sin and not suffer the consequences.
3.
He must understand that an addiction
results in increased lust, denial, and neediness thus making the problem
worse, not better.
4.
The client must understand that he
is powerless over his addiction and that the harder he tries to stop out of
his own strength, the more addicted he will become.
5.
He should realize that either his
addiction will eventually destroy his faith in God, or his faith in God will
destroy his addiction.
6.
It is the client’s choice to meet
his needs either through God or through his addiction.
7.
The client must be willing to build
his faith, die to himself, and pull down his denial and shame.
For videos on this subject select the following links:
2.
Counseling
Addictions Course (Ten lessons on the subject of addictions)
The written material information presented above comes from the book Transformaton! which also discusses our model of addictions--the life of Samson. As a resource for recovery from chemical dependency, I use Conquering Chemical Dependency (1994) by McGee and McCleskey. For Christians with a deeper understanding of the Bible, I sometimes use Freedom From Addiction (1996) by Anderson and Quarles. In dealing with sexual addiction, I use At the Altar of Sexual Idolatry (2000) by Gallagher.