In a recent edition of Christianity Today, Carolyn Arends addresses addiction, what she (and Gerald May before her) call “the spiritual disease of our time.” While the goal of the article is rightly to direct us to fulfillment in Jesus alone, it is the reflection given to addictive behaviors that first caught my attention. A few quotes capture the author’s thinking:
- “One of the hallmarks of addiction is ‘tolerance’—the experience of requiring an ever-increasing amount of a particular substance or behavior in order for it to satiate us.”
- “Yesterday’s thrill is today’s old news. We always need more.”
- “. . . we are obsessed by unworthy masters who can never truly satisfy.”
Even for those of us who might claim no addictions, these words sound hauntingly familiar. In fact, replace “addiction,” “thrill,” and “masters” with the word “sin” or “sins” in these sentences, and the powerful lure of the devil’s traps becomes obvious. We drink from the well of sin, thinking that our choices will somehow bring fulfillment – only to discover that sin leaves us thirstier in the long run.
There is also a spiritual warfare aspect here that we seldom recognize. For the sake of illustration, imagine a “sin line” that marks the place where we cross from obedience into disobedience. On one side of that line, the Enemy is the enticer (1 Chron. 21:1) who seeks to draw us across the line. He makes sin look inviting, exciting, and satisfying, even as he ensnares us with his messages: “Go ahead and do it, nobody will know.” “Look at what you’re missing.” “Everybody else is doing it.” So alluring is the sin, and so loud are the messages, that we choose to cross the line.
