(when the good life isn’t really good)
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Living in southern Nevada, one can’t help but notice addiction. Certainly our nation has. Drinking and gambling. Don’t forget drugs. But when you read between the lines, you discover a former poker champion for one year learned his “trade” from high stakes poker games back home—in Wisconsin! And where is all that beer brewed anyway? Golden, Colorado! Before we sink to the level of others and blacken any state or community, let’s realize addictions come in many forms and are common to all communities in our country. No family has an immunity to addiction.
Addiction is any perceived evil which masters human beings so that they are powerless to resist it and suffer for their addiction. Generally, we consider addictions as something you put into your body (drunk, drugs) that affects one’s mind. More recently we have also viewed other behaviors (gambling, binge credit buying) as also addictive. In general, these activities have carried some stigma about them—the old time Methodists were always against “drinkin’ and card playin’. More recently people have been identifying as addictions things which, if not socially acceptable, seem to be a matter of personal choice. We’ll pass on this category since there doesn’t seem to be any well-grounded moral reasoning for such comments (just talk to your neighbor about his consumption of prime rib, coffee or tobacco or how much NFL football he watches).
We’ll stick to what God tells us in the Ten Commandments and, beyond that, will follow Jesus’ words to judge not lest we also be judged.
Recent advances in genetics have allowed scientists to claim genetic predisposition towards certain addictions.
This, perhaps, isn’t as new as we’d like to think. I believe the pioneers recognized at a rather early date that Indians couldn’t hold their liquor and easily became alcoholics. The white traders, longing for the Indians’ furs rather than their souls, the white settlers, loving Indian lands more than their livers, stocked their stores accordingly. Now we know they lack an enzyme to efficiently metabolize alcohol.
The catch is, though, that people are excusing their behavior because of genetic predisposition. Addictions have become morally neutral diseases instead of sins with medical consequences.
Just because it’s in our genes, doesn’t make it natural or nice. Consider something we all have inherited which is actually morally damnable.
Who is the one man who brought sin into the world and how did he do it?
Adam, when he ate of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.
Why has death come to all human beings?
Because all have sinned. God condemned all mankind because of Adam’s sin.
One theologian has remarked that Original Sin is inherited and imputed. Explain his words.
Adam and Eve passed on Original Sin to their descendants, for when they were born they did not have the original image of God that Adam and Eve were created with. Instead, they had Adam’s image, that of sinful and lost human beings. In this way Original Sin is inherited.
Original Sin is impute, that is, reckoned to our account, because God condemned the entire human race because of Adam’s one sin.
What do we earn because of Original Sin?
Death in hell.
What is the answer to Original Sin?
Faith in Jesus Christ by whose obedience we have been made righteous in God’s sight.
This puts words of Jesus in a different light.
Why do people fall prey to addictions?
They have an unclean heart.
What does God call addictions?
Sin.
What is the answer to addictions?
Repentance through which the Holy Spirit makes the unclean heart clean.
“Hi, my name is Bill…”
Millions have heard the story of Bill, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. It is the father of “Twelve Step” programs, aimed at helping people steer clear of their addictive behaviors.
The AA program, coming from a Christian, sounds remarkably Christian—and it is! Some in the clergy have found some problems with 12 Step programs because they are not overtly Christian. Bill wanted to reach non-Christians as well and he knew he couldn’t do it if they had to acknowledge Jesus as the higher power in their lives.
As long as any 12 Step program does not become a religion, a Christian can productively participate in it, always keeping clear who this higher power is and not turning a counseling group into a worship group.
Some tenets of 12 Step programs are:
Admit to a problem.
Admit to personal helplessness to overcome the problem.
Admit to a higher power in one’s life.
Seek help from this higher power to overcome the problem.
Make amends to those you’ve hurt by expressing your sorrow for what you’ve done.
Seek group members to assist in the fight against temptation.
What is Christian repentance?
Christian repentance is sorrow over sin, confessing our sin and faith in the forgiveness of our sins which leads us to do better in fighting that sin in the future.
Discuss where it fits in with this sketch of the 12 Step program.
“Admit to a problem” falls far short of personal sorrow over sin. Admitting helplessness likewise is fully short of confessing our sins to God to forgive them. For the higher power to help overcome the problem, there is no mention of forgiveness being part of the help given. In fact, the expressions of sorrow may easily seem like works of those running afoul to make up for their misdeeds.
“A man is a slave to whatever has mastered him,” the Apostle Peter wrote, in agreement with Jesus telling us we can only serve one master, either God or money. To be addicted or not is a matter of mastery. Paul talks about this too, in regards to the freedom Christian have when they are under God’s mastering hand.
What determined whether something is beneficial for a believer or not?
Whether it masters a person or not. If it masters a person, then it is not beneficial. The person is to be in control of his own life.
If God will display his power in the resurrection of our bodies, how will he display his power already now in our bodies?
The Lord is meant for the body,” Paul says. The Lord provides for our bodily needs, giving us clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife, children, land, cattle and all that I own and all that I need to keep my body and life. Hmmm….where have I heard that before??
Since we are on Luther’s Explanation to the First Article, we might as well continue.
He also defends me from all danger, guarding and protecting me from all evil.
The Holy Spirit also resides in this temple of our body, moving us to live godly lives.
What external evidence do we see proving we are under the mastery of the Lord?
The Lord will raise us from the dead.
Under the Lord’s mastering hand a believer can do whatever they want. They are completely free. What, however, is their prime consideration?
The good of others. I may do well by myself at the craps table, but if I am using money that could be going for my children’s education, I am not doing good for them, so it is not beneficial.
How does this play a part in whether or not we will participate in potentially addictive behavior?
If I will not be mastered by it and it is not harmful to others, I can participate in it. If it is harmful to others, I will choose to forego it.
After Jane left John his life went down the dumper. He hit the bottle again, with a vengeance to make up for his seven years’ absence from the corner watering hole. True to form, he never stopped going to church, worse for the wear though he appeared to be, and never stopped coming into the pastor’s study to confess his shortcomings, especially after the pastor passed him at a restaurant in town on a Friday night when Joe was totally inebriated.
“But I can’t help myself, Pastor. Once I start drinking I can’t stop!”
“I know, John,” the pastor said, “I know. But…”
But what?
John does have control of himself whether he takes that first drink or not. After his first drink the disease kicks in, but before the first drink, that is the area where he has control and is morally accountable. His sin is not the fifth drink, but the first drink.
Discuss how the legality or illegality of a potentially addictive behavior influences our views of it.
Humanly speaking, it makes all the difference in the world. Natural man sees things only in terms of legality or illegality. If the laws say it is all right, it is all right. Unbelievers may have no qualms about seeking an abortion, because it is legal. If marijuana were legalized, there would be the same reaction—one can do it because it is legal. We see this in the world of gambling and in smoking. If it is legal, people can a different view of it. If it is illegal (murder), everyone must have the same view of it.
To a Christian, however, legality or illegality is not the question. Benefits to the person is the question. Does it help me and those around me in my walk with God? If it does, I can do it. If it doesn’t, I have to ask another question—Does it harm me and those around me in my walk with God? If it does, I will not do it. If it neither harms nor helps, I guess I can do it, but maybe I should ask whether it is worth my doing it at all!!