NEW ARTICLE
“Obsessive” Personalities
The term “addiction” normally conveys a negative impression. It depicts an insatiable appetite, a craving that captivates a person and drives him to an enslaving indulgence. Like the mighty python that slowly but steadily coils around a victim until the life is gone, addictions commonly lead to destruction.
The term “addiction” usually is employed to depict an intense desire for something harmful, such as beverage-alcohol, tobacco products, various other recreational drugs, gambling, etc. But addictions also may involve an unhealthy obsession with matters not intrinsically evil, e.g., food, sex-oriented activity, sports, etc.
Paul dealt with the principle of addiction when he wrote: “All things are lawful for me; but I will not be brought under the power of anything” (1 Corinthians 6:12). The context deals with matters of expediency, e.g., the eating of meats (v. 13; cf. Romans 14:13ff). The apostle’s point is this. He will not allow his Christian liberty to make him a slave of anything! Liberty is not without its limits.
Two guiding truths must regulate even the use of things intrinsically good. (a) One must restrain himself in instances when his actions could be destructive to others. (b) Control must be exercised in the interest of one’s personal welfare. The Christian belongs to Christ and that truth must ever be paramount in one’s thinking.
There is a form of “addiction,” however, not as readily recognized. Paul alludes to it in 1st Timothy.
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EDITOR’S CHOICE
Is It Always Wrong to “Hate”?
“I am confused about the Bible’s teaching on ‘hate.’ Sometimes hate is condemned, at other times it seems to be encouraged. Can you comment on this?”
There are two basic biblical words that represent the concept of hating. In the Old Testament, sane (used about 145 times) means to “to hate, to set against.” In the New Testament, the word is miseo (found some 40 times). It is used with the meaning of “to hate, despise, or to disregard,” depending upon the context.
The easiest way to approach this theme is to note that these terms are employed by sacred writers either in an absolute sense, or in a relative sense. This distinction is paramount in arriving at an understanding of this theme.
Hatred: The Absolute Sense
That there is nothing evil in “hate” per se should be evident from the fact that even God is represented as “hating” in a certain way. We must note in passing, however, that the attribution of strong feelings to Jehovah frequently reflects a biblical figure of speech known as anthropopathism (human passion), by which certain volatile emotions, common to man, are attributed to deity for the sake of emphasis.
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