Addiction and the Bible: Is it a Disease or a Sin?

As a Christian addiction counselor, I oftentimes hear individuals struggling with compulsive sexual behaviour disorder, substance use disorder, internet gaming disorder, or alcohol use disorder refer to it as a brain disease involving their prefrontal cortex. In other words, they were born with this impaired ability to regulate behaviors like porn/sex use and therefore it is much harder for them to navigate it in their daily lives.

I have also heard other strugglers say addiction is not a disease, but just a moral issue. In other words, they do not have anything wrong with them like a disease and they simply lack self-control and inner healing. Clearly, there are many beliefs about the topic of addiction. How does biblical counseling speak to these two models? How does God view addiction in other words? Knowing how the Bible speaks to the models of addiction is important when it comes to having a Christian approach to addiction recovery. This hopefully will help by speaking to opioid addiction, substance addiction, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, or behavioral addictions.

How does God View Addiction: Brain Disease Model

Secular individuals, secular therapy, or 12-step recovery programs are familiar with the disease model approach when it comes to describing aspects of addiction treatment. This therapeutic community tends to emphasize harm reduction services, pharmacology treatments. While the word addiction is never used in the Bible, it most certainly uses terms that can capture addictive behavior by speaking to original sin.

• Jesus calls tax collectors and sinners the “sick” (we are all broken in other words) (Matthew 9:11-13).

• In John 8:34, Jesus Christ says that everyone who practices sin is a “slave of sin”.

• Paul the apostle, in Romans 7:15-17, talks about “sin dwelling in him” and him “doing the very thing he hates”.

These terms--sick, slave of sin, and doing the very thing you hate-- are strikingly relevant to addiction.

One strength of the disease model approach is it allows us to have compassion for those struggling with chemical substances or behavioural addictions rather than condemnation. It allows there to be addiction and grace since there is a biopsychosocial model to it.

One of the problems with the disease model approach is addicts can take advantage of your empathy to dismiss their personal responsibility or moral responsibility. For example, we wouldn't blame someone for having a brain disease as it is a health concern. Yet, God holds people accountable for all their sinful decisions even though he knows they are broken and in need of redemption (Romans 14:12).

God never says, "You have the disease of sin and therefore can't be held responsible for your destructive behavior." Yet, I've had clients say, "I'm an addict--my wife shouldn't be so hurt or disappointed; her expectations were too high."

God never lets us excuse our sins due to having a sinful nature or having a hard past.

How does God View Addiction: Moral Model

Sunday school teachers and church leaders are often more familiar with the moral model of addiction from a spiritual perspective. The moral model approach rejects the disease model approach from the therapeutic community thus emphasizing our moral culpability for our choices. This approach would say that addicted individuals do not have the self-will, and some believe people can grow in self-control through effort in addiction.

Some may encourage religious rituals or religious help for replacing the sinful habit, viewing addiction as a worship disorder. Some of the blame can be on their social upbringing.

While it is right that we are to be held responsible for our choices and we can grow in our self-control in Christ (Galatians 5:23), the moral model alone does not fully align with biblical counseling and the Bible due to verses about the power of the sinful nature, which shed light on addiction's depth. Brain scans for struggling addicts display that it is not just a self-will problem since the nature of addiction messes with your mind similar to a brain disease.

Biblical Worldview: Disease Model vs Moral Model

As a therapist who practices biblical counseling, the biblical response to these models is that we have a sin nature (Romans 7) that makes it difficult to do right while also holding us responsible for our choices.

The good news is that Jesus offers us forgiveness and newness of life where these destructive desires can be transformed as we enter into the recovery process (Romans 6:1-14).

There is always hope for us in the person of Jesus Christ through his Holy Spirit to transform us into people of self-control even if we have compulsive behaviors. Persons with addiction can find freedom in Christ through his Holy Spirit to change into the person they desire to be!

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