“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.” 1 Corinthians 6:12 On Being Dominated by Addiction We live in a society in which being dominated by anyone or anything is seen as a great wrong. All authority is questioned lest one be dominated by “the man.” A woman who allows her husband to be the head of the household is called weak because she lets a man dominate her. But, in the midst of this society, people are allowing themselves to be dominated by all manner of things. St. Paul points out that everything is lawful for us because we are no longer under the law. Jesus fulfilled the law for us so the law cannot accuse us, bind us, or guilt us. We are literally free to do whatever we want. We cannot be dominated. So why would a person who has been freed from everything, sell himself back into slavery? That is exactly what so many people do. They allow themselves to be dominated by all manner of addictions. Now we know that addiction is an illness, but what of it? All illness is a product of sin and we fight against all illness to the best of our ability. Satan uses addiction to dominate God’s children. Whether it is alcohol, food, narcotics, shopping, pornography, or any other addiction, every addiction dominates you. You begin designing your life around your addiction. I’ll only go here if I can participate in my addiction. I’ll only hang out with people who also have my addiction. I’ll seek out people who will excuse my addiction and never call me to account for my behavior. On top of that, our society excuses and rewards some addictions! The body positivity movement insists that morbidly obese people are fine because every body is beautiful. It’s not a question of beauty. It’s a question of health. Your body was not meant to carry around that much weight and will start to break down. Addiction to food that leads to morbid obesity and diabetes violates several commandments – 1, 5, and 7 at least. Likewise, in some cities, drug addiction is facilitated by clinics that hand out fresh needles and free heroine so that addicts don’t have to beg and steal for their drugs and so that they don’t get HIV or Hepatitis from sharing needles. Why? Why would society facilitate addiction? I think this is Satan’s grand scheme. If he can get it accepted by the majority that there is nothing bad, then what is to encourage us to choose the good? If all sex is good, why limit oneself to one person and why should it be a member of the opposite sex? If all bodies are beautiful, then why not eat as much ice cream as I want? If drug addiction is just an illness, then I should be provided with what my body needs. We are allowing people to be dominated by substances, by ideas and by base desires and we are excusing the addicted as though we are helping them. But we are only helping them destroy themselves and follow Satan merrily down his path away from Godliness. We saw a time when men dominated women because women were physically smaller and weaker. That was sin and by and large, we have moved past that time, at least in this country. We saw a time when human beings dominated other human beings because of their culture, race, or religion. That too was sin and we are still working to stop that evil. But too many people in our world are still being dominated by various substances and ideas that lead to the destruction of their lives and their bodies and we must work just as hard to stop this as we do to stop sexism and racism. We are completely free, but that does not mean that there aren't many things in this world that will harm us if we take our eyes off Jesus. |
