How Should Christians Overcome Addictions?

To gain a deeper and more biblical understanding of these issues, consider listening to the following sermons by Dr. Caldwell: The Certainty of New Life:    • The Certainty of New Life   The Application of Doctrine:    • The Application of Doctrine   Salvation's New Abilities:    • Salvation’s New Abilities   The Outcome of Our New Slavery:    • The Outcome of Our New Slavery   God-Given Motivations for Spiritual Growth:    • God-Given Motivations for Spiritual Growth   The Believing Life:    • The Believing Life - Colossians 3:1-17   The Mercy of Warnings:    • The Mercy of Warning   Such Were Some of You:    • Such Were Some Of You | 1 Corinthians 6:9-11   A Love the Christian Must Reject:    • A Love The Christian Must Reject - 1 John ...   How should Christians think about addictions? What should Christians do to battle and overcome addictions? Can we be completely healed from our addictions? Is there real hope for those caught up in bondage to drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex, pornography, food, smoking, etc.? This week on the Straight Truth Podcast host, Dr. Josh Philpot approaches Dr. Richard Caldwell with these questions regarding addictions. He asks Dr. Caldwell is it possible for someone to overcome being held captive to their addictions? How would he offer hope to someone who struggles with addiction? Dr. Caldwell says where we must begin when speaking with the person dealing with these kinds of things in their life would be with the genuineness of their salvation. Because, before we can even start to discuss dealing with the issues at hand, we must know if the person has access to the things in Christ to overcome patterns of sin. So first, is, do they know Christ, do they have the Spirit of God, are they a new creation? If the person knows Christ, they must understand and recognize that addiction issues are sin issues. Dr. Caldwell says people need to stop thinking about addictions as diseases. An addiction is a habit we have formed; it is what we do. While diseases can and may develop in our bodies by reason of the things we do to and with our bodies, disease is not the action; disease is the consequence of the action. The action we choose and then do that forms the addictions is sin. Even though one may have predispositions toward certain sins or genetics that would easily explain an individual's failings, they are still sin issues. These things must be identified, discussed, and handled biblically, using biblical language and thought of in terms of biblical categories. The Bible doesn’t deal with these things as diseases. The Bible deals with these things as sins against God. So we must deal with them as the sins that they are. How then does a believer deal with and overcome sin? The answer, Dr. Caldwell says, is progressively and not in isolation from other believers. The believer must be faithful to the Lord’s Church and to the means that He has provided for growth and sanctification; His Word and prayer. Dr. Caldwell offers some practical insights regarding accountability for help and encouragement, the importance of vulnerability, honesty, and transparency, along with the absolute necessity of putting away pride. Dr. Caldwell says it comes down to this: there are no magic bullets! There is not some prayer that we can pray for it all to be gone. God in His sovereignty has chosen to deliver some people almost instantly from certain addictions they have had, but that is not true for every person. We must take the disciplines spoken of in the Word of God and practice them. We must confess our sin, repent of it, and we must turn from it. However, it isn’t just a matter of stopping the sin we’ve been doing and now saying no to it. We must also be pursuing the will of God by saying yes to something else. Sometimes we lack the strength to say no because we aren’t pursuing the right things. Lastly, Dr. Caldwell says that there is another area of dealing with our sin that is related; our thought level. He asks, are we dealing with sin artificially? Are we attempting to deal with it according to human philosophy, the best that man can offer? Any lost person can approach dealing with sin in these kinds of ways. But, there is no therapy, number of steps, or quick fix remedies that will heal or alleviate our sin problems. As Christians, we want what God gives. We want what is explained by the Spirit of God and the Word of God. If we pursue dealing with addiction this way, the result is that there is long-term help concerning our sin issues.