Bible on Addiction

Devastating addictions, fueled by billion dollar industries, include:

• alcohol
• drugs
• smoking
• gambling
• pornography

Lives are filled with various forms of temptations. It’s our forgiving God’s words where people can find the encouragement and strength to overcome these cravings. These Bible verses provide inspiration to overcoming the power of addiction with the faith and spirit of the Lord.

Verses in the Bible which help conquer addiction include 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, 10:13-14 and 15:33, 1 John 2:16, James 1:2-3, 4:7, 1 Peter 5:10, Psalms 50:15 and 95:8 Romans 5:3-5, Titus 2:12, Hebrews 4:15-16, John 3:16-17, Philippians 4:13, Matthew 6:13 and 26:41. And still more verses that help combat addiction: Ephesians 5:18-20, Galatians 5:1, Colossians 3:5, and Proverbs 20:1.

Alcohol

Alcohol is an addiction that destroys the lives and health of about 10% of the population, and higher percentages among people with genetic predispositions, including some minority ethnic groups. Alcohol also kills tens of thousands of innocent people each year in the form of deadly auto accidents by drunk drivers.

Proverbs 23:31 prohibits the use of wine: "Do not look on the wine when it is red,/When it sparkles in the cup,/When it goes down smoothly." (NASB)

The Bible does not mention "alcohol" or alcoholic "beer" or "booze", but the ESV has 236 references to "wine", about 80% in the Old Testament.

The Greek term (γλευκος or gleukos) is ambiguous but suggests the sweet version (grape juice) rather than the sour version of wine. All the New Testament references could be translated as "grape juice," which was highly valued at the time (and even protected by watchtowers), rather than as "wine". Yet the ESV translates the term as "wine" every single time. Only once in the entire Bible does the ESV refer to grape juice, and that is in its translation of Numbers 6:3 where the original text spells things out as to foreclose any mistranslation: "... and shall not eat any juice of grapes or eat ...."

There is ambiguity, however, as to whether the biblical terms are properly translated as "wine" or "grape juice," as the fermentation (or lack thereof) is typically not clarified in the original text.

Hosea 4:11 is typically translated as a reference to "wine" in criticizing it, but the New Living Translation uses "alcohol" as the English term instead.

Drugs

The biblical word for narcotics or bad drugs is φαρμακεια ("pharmakeia"), which was translated as "sorcery" in the KJV but would be better translated today to mean drug abuse.

Smoking

There are no references to (human) "smoking" or "tobacco" in the Bible, as usage did not occur in any significant way until the 1600s.

Gambling

There are no references to "dice" or "cards" in the Bible. The primary reference to gambling is in the "casting of lots" by the Roman soldiers to see who could take Jesus's clothing as some kind of trophy after the Crucifixion. Most modern English translations do not use the term "gambling" to describe that incident, however.

The Prodigal Son offers the possibility of translating the KJV description of "riotous living" to include "gambling", broadly understood. How else does a young man lose his fortune so quickly?

Pornography

The Old Testament prohibited making an image of human beings, and that would prohibit any pornography also. The term is not used in modern translations of the Bible, but the ESV references various forms of the terms "prostitution" 57 times, "adultery" 71 times, and "lust" 22 times. The penalty for adultery was death, typically strangulation of the woman alone or stoning of both participants, under the Old Testament.

Our Lord Jesus Himself and His Apostles condemned "porneia", from which the word for pornography is derived: ""Don't you know that the unrighteous are not going to go to heaven? Don't fall for deceit: neither the promiscuous, nor idol worshipers, nor adulterers, nor men who behave as women, nor homosexuals, 10Nor thieves, nor greedy people, nor alcoholics, nor people who speak ill of others, nor cheaters, are going to go to heaven." (1 Cor 6:9-10, CBT).

"A. The Greek New Testament word translated into English as “fornication” or “sexual immorality” or sometimes just “immorality” (porneia — from which we get the word “pornography”) refers sometimes to sexual relations between unmarried persons, and sometimes to that kind of sexual activity as well as adultery. In either case, the term always includes the meaning of sexual relations between unmarried persons.

Given that definition, we can find cohabitation prohibited or condemned in a number of biblical passages, such as Matthew 15:19; Mark 7:21; Acts 15:20, 29; 1 Corinthians 5:11; 6:9-10, 18-20; 7:1-2; 10:8; 2 Corinthians 12:21; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 5:3; Colossians 3:5-6; 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8; and Revelation 21:8, 22:15."

The New Living Translation interprets Hosea 4:11 for a statement that prostitution destroys people's minds, much as modern pornography does.