Are Christians with addictions still Christians

Well, at least I'm picking easy topics lately. :o)

I can't help it really. These are things God has laid on my heart. Both for myself and for friends of mine. So, let's hit it.

First of all, if you want a little more of my background you can go back and look at my introduction post from last December. I wasn't saved as a small child, though I thought I was. I realized I had a problem when I was 19, but I covered it up with a false salvation instead of working it out. It was not until I was 24-25 that I truly starting trying to work out my faith questions and issues. Now, however, I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that I am a Christian as the Bible means it. Simply put, Jesus did die for the whole world, but Jesus specifically died for Nathan Paul Maxwell. That's right. Jesus, being God, knew that Nate would be born in 1983, live a really screwed up life, struggle with a lot of sin (including some addictions) and he still died for me. However, I also picked up some really bad habits. Those habits turned into addictions. (If you want definitions for these, look at my last post here.

Side note: He would have died for me anyway. Whether I would have accepted him in the end or not. Like with my daughter. If she had never come to understand my love. If she had had too much trauma from an orphanage life and too many attachment issues to truly learn how to love me...I still would have done anything for her to give her the best life I could provide. 1). you may be saying "easy to say because she does love you so this is just speculation." That would be true if I had waited to love her until after I'd met and we'd seen how things were going. But I didn't. I loved her before I even knew her and before she ever knew me. Because I had made a choice to love her no matter what. Not because she might love me but because she needed to be loved. I hoped she would love me and I hoped that my own love for her would encourage her to love me, but it was no guarantee. 2). If you think I have any clue about love, imagine how our heavenly father does it. "So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love...there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment...We love because he first loved us." - excerpt from 1 John 4. There is some other great stuff in 1 John 4 too, but this is the key in my rant today. God loved us first. He chose to love us no matter what we were going to do. Did he know what we would do? Sure. He is God and outside of time and space. We still made the choice and we have decided to love God because he loved us first. :o) ...and trust me. God is MUCH better at this than I am. As much as I want to do the same thing for my daughter, I'm not perfect. But that small glimpse shows me a little bit about my relationship with God.               *side note ended*

Side note 2: for those of you who follow the idea of "irresistible grace," what do you do with Acts 7:51? How can they "resist" the Holy Spirit if we can't resist the Holy Spirit? Just curious. :o)

Jesus died to show me his love. Well....he died to save me from my sins because I could never (not then and not now) do anything to pay down the debt of my sin. Not because of how much I had done, but because I had sinned. God's holiness is that perfect.

Two things to wrap this up. Can you be saved while having an addiction and, if you don't immediately replace that addiction, can you lose your salvation. (See, it is actually a really simple topic.)

Eph 2:8-9. If we had to get rid of our addictions before being saved, then it would be "of works" and not of grace that we were saved. Simple as that. So, let's be honest. If you want to "fix" something before going to God then you are dealing with pride. Pride in your desire to have to do something before God will accept you.

Romans 8:38-39. Once you are in Jesus' hands, there is nothing that can take you out. Unfortunately for the one with an addiction that they don't want to get rid of, that includes yourself. Now, if you are saved and recognize what God has done for you and his love for you, will you truly have an addiction and not want to get rid of it? I would question that more. Paul, in Romans 7, has true remorse for what he does and doesn't do that he shouldn't and should do. He's doing the opposite of what is right in some area of his life and he knows it is wrong and calls it a battle. He doesn't give in to that. he fights and resists that.

One more thought from 1 John 4 because this struck me as I was looking it up this morning for the earlier section. Sometimes, I think we have a fear of going to God to confess our sin after we've already done that so many times. It feels like, "God....well....you know. I've said this to you a million times before. I truly mean it...but if I meant it, would I have done it again? I am obviously confessing, but if I was repenting (to change your mind about something) would I still be here again? If I was confessing my sin like 1 John 1:9 says to, and admitting that it is sin in the way that you see it, would I still be doing it? if I saw it as ugly and disgusting as you see would I still do it?" Anyway, in those moments, do we know that God loves us or do we fear that he judge us? This is that fear of losing your salvation again. (I mean, as a parent, would you be angry if your child repeatedly broke some rule of yours and kept saying they were sorry and would never do it again, but they then did it again?) 1 John 4:18 "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love." When this talks about punishment, it is talking about the judgment when we go before God. We will NOT be condemned because of our sin and if we think we will, then we don't understand love. Having said that, we need to have a fear of God.

I'll close with this: God loves his children. That should scare the Christian with an addiction. because, if you love your children you are going to do what is best for them. If you see them getting into something that is ultimately going to hurt or destroy them, you are going to do whatever you can to keep them safe or help them through it. Now, take that concept and give it to a God with limitless resources, timelessness, complete knowledge, and the ability to be anywhere and everywhere at all times. It usually hurts to fight addiction and it is painful to resist something that you've spent more years living with than without. But, God loves us. It would be truly unloving to leave us where we are at and leave us with a sin that will destroy us.

Christians sin habitually/have addictions

If I say, Christians sin habitually, I'm guessing you are either thinking "Of course" or "No way!!"

Let's define some terms first. I have taken the foundation for all of these from Dictionary.com.

1. Christian: "of, pertaining to, believing in, or belonging to (a) religion based on the teachings of Jesus Christ." - I would add to this that m definition is more narrow. That is that a Christian is a person who desires to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. So, they seek to know who Jesus - the historical figure - was, what his teachings were, and how they can model their lives after his life and teachings.

2. Sin: "Transgression of divine law...especially a willful or deliberate violation of (a) religious or moral principle." Sin is universal. Even those who are not Christians sin. If they have a moral code for themselves and they break that moral code, it is sin. Again, to narrow this a little more, as a follower of Christ, or Christian, this would be a willful act of disobeying the commands of Jesus Christ. As a reminder; Jesus gave us things to do and things not to do. I know that the outside impression of Christianity is just a bunch of rules to follow, but it is more than that....but it is also that - to a degree. Just keep this in mind.

Habit: "An acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary."

So, Christians sin habitually. That's my premise. If you want to argue, I can tell you that I struggle with some habitual sins so I can at least prove that a Christian sins habitually. :o)

Now what? One last definition for you.

Addiction: "The state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation (to stop) causes severe trauma."

OK, now that I'm pointing at the elephant in the room, let's talk about it. If you would tell me that anyone who has an addiction is not a Christian, I would tell you that you don't know your Christian friends well enough. I would also argue that you are claiming Paul is not a Christian. I know some people interpret Romans 7 a certain way, but, since this is my blog, we are going to take it as it is. Romans 7 is the section where Paul says a few times that the things he knows to do, he doesn't do; and the things he knows not to do, he does. That sounds like a problem to me. If we then look at Romans 8 we see a great reality. Here is a little snipit of Romans 8.

 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Romans 8 1-4

There it is. Because of Jesus Christ, we are not eternally condemned for our sin. Paul says this within the context of mentioning his own "willful" sin.

So, now what. Since we aren't condemned for our sin, do we just wallow in it? God forbid. There are many places we could turn to in order to see that this isn't the case. Paul himself addressed this in saying that we should not sin more so that God's grace could be poured on us. That doesn't make sense to anyone who is being honest with themselves anyway.

Another thought: what motivates us to stop sinning. What is the motivation to break addiction and change these habits-of-sin into habits-of-relationship-with-God?

Is my motivation my wife? Is it my daughter? My job? My ministries? My health? My desire to not be enslaved to sin anymore? Notice the one word found in all of those sentences: My. This is very me focused. Even if you want to argue that thinking about other people isn't self-centered....this is still a self-centered approach to breaking a habit. In fact, how often is our main motivation to stop sinning a desire to feel better about ourselves and to stop feeling guilty for our sin? Is that a problem? Kind of...it ignores the relationship.

When I work with M.K. about things to do that are right and ways to not be selfish she can respond in a few ways. She can obey simply because she knows that's what I want and for no other reason. She can obey because she doesn't want to get in trouble. Those are legitimate ways to obey. Sometimes though, she responds and obeys because she know that we love her and want whats best for her. I want to have a deep relationship with my daughter and part of that is that we do things for each other to show our love. Sometimes I'll let her have XYZ because I know that she enjoys it. Sometimes she will do XYZ chore without us telling her to because she knows that it will please us. (Not in those words, but that's the idea in her mind.) Trust me everyone: God is a MUCH better father than I will ever be. He wants a relationship and he wants that to be a motivation for us.

So, the verse that drove most of this thinking for me is 2 Cor 7:10. "...Godly grief produces repentance that leads to salvation without regret..." First, the commentaries I've read (anyone with original language knowledge can correct me if this is wrong) have said that this grief that comes from God is a "remorse caused by having lost God's approval" and that the repentance then is "the consequent resolve to reverse one's conduct and live for God."

See, when we sin, God isn't angry at us. If that's your image, get it out of your head. God hates sin, he loves sinners. He sent his son to die for sinners. No, God loves us and when we recognize that we have lost God's approval and desire to have that back, that motivates us to continue in the struggle against our sin.

Another practical piece. If your motivation is all the things I listed first (spouse, children, work, ministry, etc.); every one of those things can be taken from you. Every one of those things is confined by space and time so that they aren't always with you even when they are in your life. So you can have moments of slipping and sinning "against" them. However, God is outside space and time and he is always with us. What better motivator than to not want to sin against someone you can't get away from? :o) (I know, kind of creepy and yet reassuring at the same time.)

So, Christians have addictions. Guess what. Christians are people too...and God loves people.