Religion Addiction

In His Name Devotionals
A RELIGION ADDICTION

Most of us are familiar with our society's way of referring to certain of life's most destructive behaviors. Drunkenness, habitual lying, compulsive gambling, unrestrained spending—these and other actions are termed addictive behaviors in popular literature and by most mental health experts.

Contrary to the early fears of some, the term is not an attempt to help people avoid taking responsibility for their lives. To the contrary, it identifies a harmful component of one's lifestyle and challenges him to take positive steps to get free of its control.

There is certainly nothing inconsistent with Scripture in this view of human conduct. Jesus spoke of sin's power to enslave (John 8:34), and Paul wrote of a mindset that is not only hostile to God's will but incapable of obeying it (Rom. 8:6-8). Sounds like what we call addictive behavior.

Know what one of the most widespread of addictions is? Religion.

Religion addicts don't believe in God so much as they believe in some system that is supposed to deliver or manipulate Him. According to one theory of religion addiction, there are several types of religion addicts: lazy addicts, who leave everything to God; investment addicts, who believe they have to give something (especially money) in order to get anything from God; and churchaholics, who immerse themselves in religious activity to avoid facing painful realities.

The Pharisees in general and pre-conversion Paul in particular would make good candidates for religion addicts. They believed and taught that God was at the end of a set of legalistic requirements (cf. Phil. 3:2-6). They believed they could wring a blessing of God by observing the detailed traditions they had evolved around Scripture.

Paul's solution to his enslavement to religious tradition and ritual was not atheism but Christ. "I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things" (cf. Phil. 3:7-11).

Working the angles of a religious system produces frustration, intolerance, hypocrisy, and shame. The void in the human soul that can only be filled by God goes begging. Only a personal relationship with God through Christ can satisfy the urgent need for love, acceptance, and security that all people feel instinctively. It's what everyone needs but previous few seem to have.