Temptation and addiction

And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

God speaks to Cain before the murder, describing sin as something crouching at the door that wants him and that he can master. It is the earliest picture in the Bible of a pull felt and named before it is acted on. Cain acts anyway.

Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.

The most direct description of drinking in the Bible: the wine looks good in the cup, bites afterwards, and the drinker ends up beaten without feeling it, asking when he will wake so he can go find another. It names the returning, not only the harm.

He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.

A proverb comparing a person with no rule over his own spirit to a city whose walls are down. The point is exposure — what someone without that restraint stands open to — rather than any promise about acquiring it.

And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

In Gethsemane Jesus finds his closest disciples asleep after asking them to stay awake, and says the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. He is describing them sympathetically, at the moment they fail the simplest thing he asked.

For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

Paul writes that he does not do what he wants and does the thing he hates. He is arguing about the law and what it exposes, not describing a clinical condition; even so, the sentence is the closest thing in scripture to a divided will.

Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Written about idolatry in one specific congregation. It says the pressures on them are ordinary rather than unique, and that a way through will exist alongside the pressure. It does not say the way will be easy, or that someone who fails has been abandoned.

Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

Paul's instruction for what a community does with a person caught in a fault: restore them gently, watching yourself while doing it, and carry each other's loads. The assumption throughout is that this is handled by other people, not alone.

Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

James takes the blame off God and lays out a sequence: desire draws a person and entices, desire conceives, the act follows, and the end of it is death. It is a description of mechanics — how a wish becomes a pattern — stated coldly.

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

The letter claims the high priest it describes was tested in every respect as people are, so coming to him does not require pretending otherwise. Mercy and help in time of need are what it says are found there. It makes no claim about the craving itself.