Christian Family Services Ministry

12-7-2019 – A Word to the Wise – Now consider addiction. It should be noted that man has been working desperately to find a cure. For some, the belief is that education is the answer. So for example in an attempt to stop drug abuse among teens, there has been a dramatic increase in the advertisements aimed at this segment of society. Does education work? The reality is that there has been a tremendous increase in the use of both alcohol and drugs among young people. So what about treatment? Rehabilitation centers are popping up all over the country with magical cures (if you have money or insurance) the chief aim of which is to soothe the panic ridden family that has reached its “wits end.” The ultimate failure of rehabilitation lies in its failure to recognize the basic biblical principle that abstinence is no cure for addiction. But man rejects that abstinence is not the answer. The concept is difficult to comprehend because it goes against our natural inclinations. It would seem abstinence is the only answer. Say one has a smoking problem, and then just stops smoking, either by cutting down or laying the cigarettes aside. If that does not work, try aversive therapy, or psychotherapy. The therapies are endless, and the success rate is small. For instance, over 90% of cigarette smokers return to smoking the first year. Even if the abstinence works, nothing has been done about the underlying causes. A new object eventually replaces the present object of addiction.
Alcoholics Anonymous is one type of philosophy that focuses on abstinence. This organization is up-front with addiction; one is always an addict, and one can never drink again. The support groups replace the alcohol, or the drugs, or the overeating with group meetings.
In contrast to these philosophies, God’s word offers hope. Hope that also not only can one be released from the symptom—chemical, objects whatever– but that this whole nature can be washed away. But it is not achieved through abstinence. The Apostle Paul introduces the subject of abstinence and its failures in Colossians 2:20-23. He states that severity to the body such as do not taste, do not touch, while seemingly wise, is actually of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh.
Even in the natural world man is beginning to learn what God taught centuries ago. Take weight loss. In a study by Johnson and Drenick, which looked at the results of long-term, therapeutic fasting, they noted some dramatic results. Of two hundred patients virtually all lost weight at the onset of fasting. Even a majority maintained the loss for over a year. But fifty percent of the group returned to their original weight within 2 years and by the time nine years had passed, only 5.8% weighed less than they did originally. More startling was the observation that 42% of the child onset and 26% of the adult onset patients weighed more than before the fast began. Many similar studies indicate that rarely do more than 5% maintain weight loss for longer than 2 years. Why is it that abstinence does not work?
There was a major study done several years ago that suggests reasons for the failure of abstinence at solving addiction. This study was conducted at the University of Minnesota. The experiment involved restricting the caloric intake of 36 young, healthy, psychologically normal men who had volunteered for the study as an alternative to military service. During the first three months of the experiment, they ate normally while their behavior; personality and eating patterns were studied. During the subsequent 6 months the men were restricted to about half of their former food intake and lost on the average 25% of their original body weight. This was followed by 3 months of rehabilitation during which the men were gradually refed. These men experienced dramatic physical, psychological, and social changes because of the starvation. In most cases, these changes persisted during the rehabilitation phase.
What were some of these changes? First, there was a dramatic increase in the preoccupation with food. Concentration on usual activities became increasingly, more difficult due to persistent thoughts of food and eating. Food became the principal topic of conversation, reading and dreams. For some the fascination became so great, they actually changed vocations: three became chefs, and one went into agriculture. Essentially, the results produced an abstinence-induced addiction.
Attempts to handle addictive behavior with self-control are doomed to failure. True, one may actually give up the behavior; however the character problems remain. The problems are magnified because we focus on a physical desire (being thin) as opposed to setting our minds on Christ.
These principles hold true whether the addiction is to food, chemicals, sex, or any other object man might deify. There is a heavy price to pay for abstinence. Abstinence alerts and shuts down every physical, psychological, and spiritual function. Abstinence, instead of taking the mind off the addiction, focuses and concentrates on it. If abstinence fails, what succeeds? We are not ready yet for the answer. One must get to the root of the problem first.
The principle critical to understanding addiction is what I call insatiability. Actual this is a physical warning experienced through our spirits warning us of impending danger. Danger in the sense that we are turning our attention from God to the material. Because the principle is most clearly seen in biblical passages when dealing with eating disorders we will use this area as an example. However, like the other principles discussed this one holds true of any type of addiction, or addictive thinking. In the opening passages of Genesis we find the roots of addictive thinking and the subsequent maladies. The Lord warns Adam and Eve not to partake of the fruit of two specific trees. But the woman looked at the tree “saw that it was to be desired, that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise.” These are the traits of addictiveness and its appeal. The sin was exalting one to the level of God or idolatry, which is the root difficulty with addictiveness. In disciplining Eve the Lord tells her that part of that discipline will be a desire or taking into account the intense form of the Hebrew word being used “a violent craving for” her husband. Thus very early the physical experience intense craving is introduced as a consequence of idolatry. In Lev. 26:26 the Lord again reiterates the consequences of idolatry when He says, “if you walk contrary to my ways, that is have other gods before me then as discipline “when I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and shall deliver your bread again by weight and you shall eat, and not be satisfied. Idolatry carries with it then this intense craving which cannot be satisfied or put another way one loses the ability to enjoy what God has given. In describing the sensation of intense craving one client put it, “I eat until I feel like I am going to burst, and I still feel famished.” Food has become to this person the object of attention. The Lord is displaced. The consequences for this idolatry is insatiability. This insatiability is discussed several times in scripture. Hosea the prophet warns that the consequences of rebellion and idolatry shall be, “they shall eat, but not be satisfied.” The prophet Micah reaffirms the same principle saying, “you shall eat, but not be satisfied, and there shall be hunger in your inward parts.”
Solomon has much to say about the problem and sheds further light on the source of insatiability. In Ecc 2:24 Solomon is telling the godly person “there is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also is from the hand of God.” For apart from Him who can eat and have enjoyment? So the source of pleasure is God and is given as a reward. It’s taken from him who turns to other gods. Solomon reaffirms this in the next chapter when he says “that it is God’s gift to man that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in his toil….in fact he says God has made it so in order that men should fear before him” Solomon then turns his attention to the insatiability aspect in chapter 6 and says…This is an evil which have seen under the sun land it lies heavy upon men. A man to whom God gives wealth, possessions land honor so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires yet God does not give him power to enjoy them. Why does God take the pleasure…because of idolatry. Another passage which reflects on this phenomenon is addressed in Haggai: 6. An appalling situation has occurred the people have forsaken God and are only interested in their own pleasures. Haggai tells them, Is it time for you to dwell in your paneled houses while this house—that is God’s house lies in ruins? Now therefore thus says the Lord of hosts consider how you have fared. You have sown much and harvested little: you eat but you never have enough, you drink but never have your fill…”What these passages are saying is that the power to enjoy food is a gift from God- and it is withheld when a person focuses their attention on something other than God. What we have been talking about is the driving force behind addictions where and when that force originated and how we give it ruling power in our lives. It accounts for why the cocaine addict never gets enough of his drug and why he must keep coming back for more. It reminds us of the fatal attractions in our relationships and why we continually return to another person or drugs, alcohol, or sex desperate for assurance and affection and find no satisfaction When one turns away from the giver of pleasure then fulfillment is lost. Once lost we are doomed to an eternal struggle for satisfaction….which never comes. These principles hold true whether the addiction is to food, chemicals, sex, or any other object man might deify.