By Prof. Barry Gritters
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Addiction
But the consequence that has sometimes been overlooked is addiction. The article in Christianity Today highlights this. It does not quote Proverbs. It should. The man (or woman) who commits this sin eventually "is holden with the cords of his sins." The world calls that "addiction." Sometimes "mental illness." Or "disorder." Scripture calls it slavery to sin.
If the church has known this, she has not talked about it very much. Sin ensnares. Every sin can entrap a person. This is why the public health professionals' list of "Mental Disorders" grows in our generation. The believer recognizes the "disorders" as the enslaving power of sin. From Scripture's unique treatment of sexual sin, it appears that sexual sin has a power to enslave greater than most sins.
The mental image is pathetic: the man (or woman) who so hates the sin, but has no power to overcome it. So powerful is the addiction, men risk losing everything for the sake of the sin. So strongly does it hold them, that the thought of losing their marriage, their occupation, their children and grandchildren, cannot make them resist. So Proverbs warned when it said: "Many strong men have been slain by her." Strong men have no ability to resist. Having given themselves to the sin, it "has dominion" over them (Rom. 6:12).
In the end, if he is impenitent, the enslaved sinner goes to hell. "...as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life."
That's why it's so important to see the evil of this sin. And, that's why it is so important to show the ensnared believer that there is hope. And what that hope is. But that waits for next issue, God willing.