For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

Romans 7:15

I recently read a true story of a man who we’ll call “John,” who had been a drunk for many years. One day he was privy to a conversation that took place that changed his life. John was in a shop of a friend who was a pawnbroker when a man dressed in ragged clothes walked in. The man was holding a pair of almost-new baby shoes that he wanted to sell for ten cents. “Why do you want to sell them?” the pawnbroker asked. “I’ve gotta have a drink,” the man replied. “My wife bought these shoes for our baby, but the baby is at home because she died last night. This is all I have left to sell, and I’ve gotta have a drink.” The pathetic scene so affected John that he never touched strong drink again.

Nothing is too low or to disgusting for someone enslaved by the habit of strong drink. Proverbs 23:32 says, In the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper. However, some other sinful habits can be equally binding and destructive. Scripture is clear about the fact that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and habits such as overeating – leading to obesity, and smoking both work towards destroying this temple called the body. But it’s not just physical things. Wrong speech in the forms of lying, cursing, slandering and gossip are very destructive. I have seen churches absolutely destroyed and pastor’s lives, ministries and families severely hurt because of this. In James 3:6 we read, “The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire.” We are called to the opposite in Colossians 4:6, “ Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt.”

Jesus taught that we will be held accountable for every idle word. This should have a sobering effect that encourages us to speak with a great deal of caution. We cannot allow ourselves to be enslaved to drunkenness, hurtful speech or other sinful habits. If we find ourselves bound by any kind of sin such as this, we should remember the Apostle Paul’s struggle with sin when he cried out in Romans 7:24, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?”

He then turned to God who is our deliverer and “mighty to save!” and said, “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Romans 7:25. God was able to do that for him, and he’s able to do that for us.