I Corinthians 6:12-20
All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. (v. 12b) I like that ESV translation of this verse – dominated! We could easily translate the concept of addiction to these few words, but we all too often think of addiction in terms of “bad” things – alcohol, drugs, smoking, gambling, pornography, etc. But there are other mostly good things that can dominate us, like work or MLB or NFL or golf or sports-binging in general. These are great examples of Paul’s comments – activities that are lawful, but troublesome if taken to an extreme. On December 31, 2003 I played my last computer video game. I can’t say I was “hooked”, but I played A LOT of Minesweeper, Free Cell and one other game that escapes me now. They were good diversions after a full day of work, but when I found them dominating my time, I quit. By contrast, Carol and I had a CPM computer game (way back when!) called “Ladder” that we played for short breaks after working on our thesis or dissertation. But a few games and we were back at it. Let diversions be diversions – just that, nothing more!
And as for all the sexual immorality stuff – I don’t need to comment on that. But I will note that some weeks ago I cited verses 19 and 20 with reference to my own eating problem. Taping those two verses on the refrigerator and snack cabinet definitely helped me to bypass food that I surely did not need!
Finally, someone at CCNB with whom I have conversed over our church’s financial matters sent me a verse yesterday for today’s times: Isaiah 26:20. Look it up. Very timely!
Slava Bohu!