FAQ ID # 4900 - My husband is a"recovering" alcoholic. I feel very hurt that he hid this from me before we married. I was abused as a child by an alcoholic and the very smell of it makes me want to run as fast as I can. He attends Calvary with me on Sunday mornings, but I can't seem to get him to read scripture with me at home. I feel that alcoholism is not a disease, it's substance abuse like any street drug. I believe he can overcome this with God's help. But he believes what he has heard at AA meetings, that it will always be there and it is normal to succumb to it for the rest of his life. He says the 2 things that keep him from drinking is going to the gym and AA meetings. Am I wrong to think that God can cure him if he would diligently seek His help?

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FAQ ID # 4900

Last Update : 2006/10/05
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Question / Issue

My husband is a"recovering" alcoholic. I feel very hurt that he hid this from me before we married. I was abused as a child by an alcoholic and the very smell of it makes me want to run as fast as I can. He attends Calvary with me on Sunday mornings, but I can't seem to get him to read scripture with me at home. I feel that alcoholism is not a disease, it's substance abuse like any street drug. I believe he can overcome this with God's help. But he believes what he has heard at AA meetings, that it will always be there and it is normal to succumb to it for the rest of his life. He says the 2 things that keep him from drinking is going to the gym and AA meetings. Am I wrong to think that God can cure him if he would diligently seek His help?

Answer / Solution

You are right, alcoholism is not a disease, the Bible says it's sin, and a deed of the flesh in Galatians 5. Alcoholism is a serious issue, there's no doubt about that. However, 2 Cor 5:17 says, "Therefore if anyone is in Christ,he is a new creature ; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." And Eph 2:10 reminds us,

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them."

Jesus Himself indicated that Christianity would not be a 'patch' on an old life, but a whole new life:

"But no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results. Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved." (Matt 9:16-17)

This does not mean that there won't be work involved in the recovery, and certainly there will be temptation, but to dismiss these promises about the Christian life is a form of unbelief and it's a mistake. Rom 13:13-14 says,

"Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts."

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