Q: How is it that people that are unsaved are able to overcome addictions (drugs, alcohol, porn, etc) and stay clean without Christ helping them? I've meet non-Christians how have overcome drugs, alcohol, and porn.
A: Thanks for your question. There is an assumption that you seem to be making that people can only overcome sinful lifestyles and stay clean if they have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. Any addiction one may have, whether it is drugs, alcohol, porn or something else, is a behavior. And any behavior that one engages in can be stopped. When it comes to overcoming addictions apart from Christ, the motivating factor is usually when a person believes that the perceived benefit they are getting from the behavior is less than the risk of continuing in that behavior. Drugs and alcohol often lead to severe health problems, including death. Pornography can lead to problems with things like masturbation. And all the addictions can have a devastating effect on families and careers as the addiction masters the one engaged in it. The Bible says that "people are slaves to whatever has mastered them (2 Peter 2:19)." When a person begins to realize that their addiction is costing them everything in their life, they usually seek help to overcome this addiction. That help often comes in the form of recovery groups like Alcoholics Anonymous, Sexual Compulsives Anonymous and various drug addiction recovery organizations.
One thing you will see in common with all these organizations is that they offer a "Twelve-Step" Program, or something similar, designed to help a person overcome their addiction. All of them are designed to change a person's behavior through strict adherence to the program. For example, one program encourages "learning to live a new life with a new code of behavior" as one of its steps to recovery from addiction. Thankfully, many people have found success in overcoming their addictions and gone on to live healthy, productive lives. I am sure those individuals you have met would attribute their success to one of these types of programs. Therefore, the answer to your question is that finding the right system, program or code to live by would be how these people are overcoming their addictions apart from Christ. They simply exchange one behavior for another. Unfortunately, many of these programs miss the real reason behind addictive behavior. That reason is that people will engage in addictive behavior, sin if you will, because they are looking to fulfill the desires of their heart through dependence on the sin that is enslaving them. While people may have found freedom from their addiction in these programs, they will always be at risk of falling into those addictions again because their spiritual needs are not being met.
The reason why these people will always struggle with falling back into their addictive behavior is because they identify themselves with their addiction. "Hi. My name is ________ and I am an alcoholic." That phrase is popular amongst people who have struggled with an addiction to alcohol. However, as long as you identify yourself with the sin you are trying to stop, you will always struggle with that sin. For example, if an alcoholic is someone who habitually drinks alcohol to the point of intoxication, why would you call yourself one if you are trying to stop? No wonder a person struggles with alcohol, or any addiction, if they continue identify themselves with the addiction they are trying to overcome. If you don't want to be addicted to alcohol, stop calling yourself an alcoholic because an alcoholic is addicted to alcohol. The same goes for drug and porn addiction. However, unless you address the spiritual need of a person they will not have an alternative to fully overcoming their addictions. Proverbs 23:7 says, "For as he thinks within himself, so he is." What we are physically addicted to is usually an attempt to address the spiritual desires of our heart. And those desires can only be met through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
I used to struggle with alcohol. For years, even after becoming a Christian, I could not stop drinking. Eventually, God revealed to me that who I am is not an alcoholic, but a child of God. "Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God (John 1:12)." As a child of God, I have been given an eternal identity that will never change. Eventually, I discovered that habitually drinking alcohol was inconsistent with who I am in Christ and the habit eventually went away. It can be the same with any addictive behavior. When you change who you are, your behavior with follow. God, through the indwelling Holy Spirit, meets the deepest desires of my heart through faith in Jesus Christ. He does that because He made me that way. He created mankind to be recipients of His life. "Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being (Genesis 2:7)." It is God's very life, restored to us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that leads us from within.
As we allow the Lord to live His life through us we learn two things. First, we learn that these systems, programs and codes may change our behavior, but do not change our heart. "Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence (Colossians 2:23)." Secondly, while our addiction to a particular sin may stop, we discover that there are countless other sinful temptations not addressed. "For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age (Titus 2:11-12)." It is God's grace, the indwelling Holy Spirit reminding us of His love for us, what we have and who we are in Him, that teaches us to avoid addictions. Why? We understand that what those addictions offer us cannot compare, much less replace, the love of God our hearts are receiving through faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, we not only overcome addictions we replace what we thought they gave us with the love of God. It is not just about overcoming addiction, but receiving the life of God, which meets the deepest desires of our heart, through faith in Jesus Christ. Be blessed.
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