əˈdikSHən/
n: a condition that results when a person ingests a substance or engages in an activity that can be pleasurable but the continued use of which becomes compulsive and interferes with ordinary life responsibilities, such as work or relationships, or health
synonyms: dependency, dependence, habit, problem
Addiction.
Not my favorite word in the dictionary.
Sure, people can be addicted to things that are perfectly harmless - like coffee, college football or a smart phone. Or people can be addicted to far more destructive things - like alcohol, drugs, pornography, sex, gambling, tobacco, theft, food or money.
Here is what I don’t like about addiction:
The idea of being out of control.
Unable to stop, no matter how bad you know it is for you.
Something that drew you in as pleasurable ... turning on you and enslaving you.
The guilt that comes along with being an addict.
One of the best descriptive paragraphs about addiction I’ve ever read actually comes from the Bible. Paul, one of the New Testament’s biggest heroes, paints the picture in Romans 7:
15 I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. 16 But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good . . .
18 And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. 19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway . . .
21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love God’s law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am!
I’ve always been horribly fascinated with this passage of Scripture. Paul, possibly the most famous Christian ever, a man who risked his life to tell the message of Jesus over and over and over, writes the perfect description of an addict. And he’s writing about himself. In present tense. And he wasn’t addicted to alcohol, drugs, porn, sex, or any of the other “well known biggies”...
He is talking about a sin addiction.
Paul doesn’t get specific, but if he’s talking about things that go against God’s law, he’s talking about things like - lying, cheating, lusting, selfishness, unforgiveness, self-righteousness, pridefulness, unkindness, jealousy, idolatry, bitterness, greediness, etc.
According to Paul’s definition of an addict, who isn’t one? Sometimes we talk about drug addicts like they’re “poor lost souls”who got into the wrong stuff and didn’t have enough self control to get out early. All the while we don’t have the self awareness to see that we are in the same predicament as they are - out of control with sin, unable to help ourselves.
I personally resonate with Paul’s description of himself so much. I know exactly what it’s like to know the right thing to do, be set and determined to do the right thing, only to ultimately falter. I know exactly what it’s like to be determined to forgive someone because I know it’s what God does for me, only to harbor bitter feelings when the time actually comes. I know exactly what it’s like to be ready to say “I’m sorry” to someone that I’ve wronged, only to let my pride get the best of me when we have a conversation. I know exactly what it’s like to tell a “harmless white lie” out of convenience, even though Scripture is clear that God hates lies. I know exactly what it’s like to idolize someone and worship them instead of God when that goes against the first and second commandments.
Paul and I are sin addicts. How about you?
And what do we do about it?
This is actually the point I’m really trying to make in this writing. Something dawned on me the other day. I think recovering addicts who go through a program like AA or NA or FA understand something about life better than the rest of us do. I think we sin addicts have a few things to learn from them. Let’s take a look at the 12 steps to recovery presented by AA (and used by other such recovery groups):
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
I realize that I am not the first person to suggest that these steps have the gospel written all over them. But now I’m looking at them through the lens that I, too, would benefit from these steps. Admitting I can’t do life well on my own, asking for God’s help, taking a great moral inventory of myself, confessing my sins to Him and others, praying for God’s power to overcome the sin addiction, and spreading the message to others.
Paul had it figured out a couple thousand years ago. Here’s a continuation of the passage in Romans 7, into 8:
Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord . . . And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. 3 The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins.
The answer to recovery from a sin addiction is to know Christ, Paul says. And anyone who follows Christ will quickly recognize the similarities between what He asks of us - acknowledge our need of Him, confess our sins, ask for forgiveness, prayer - and the 12 steps presented by AA.
There are two other important things recovering addicts know:
1. Going through the steps is not a one time deal. You don’t go through the steps once and magically become healed. You are a recovering addict for the rest of your life. You repeat the steps over and over. Otherwise, you dangerously run the risk of falling back into an active addiction. So for me, “confession to God at conversion to Christianity” was not enough. Continual moral inventory, confession and prayer is needed to keep me out of my sin addiction. Oh, why is that so hard?
2. You cannot stay clean alone. Not forever anyway. You need the support of other recovering addicts. You need the encouragement, support and constant reminders of why you’re staying sober. You need it often. So for me, Christian community is imperative. Meeting with other Christians, being AUTHENTIC/SPECIFIC about personal struggles and giving/receiving encouragement is the only way I’ll stay anywhere near clean of the sins that lurk in my heart. Again, not easy.
Whatever makes me think that I can follow God’s law on my own or in a lackadaisical way is ridiculous. I should know myself better than that by now. I am not self-sufficient. I need God’s help for my sin addiction. I need His help while I’m on earth, and ultimately, I need His help to make it to Heaven. Without Him forgiving and covering my sins, I wouldn’t get there. And I need other people’s help while I’m on earth. Sin is sneaky, dark, deceptive, tantalizing and often subtle. It’s too tricky for me to fight on my own. I need a team.
Will I recover from my sin addiction? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ my Lord.
