Where Your Treasure Is
Posted 04 Mar 2025
One question we’re frequently asked is how the Bible is relevant to those struggling with addiction. We believe not only that Scripture provides everything we need for life and godliness, but also that it speaks directly to the experience of addiction. This becomes especially clear when we observe Jesus’ interactions with people in the Gospels and how these interactions can retell the life of the addict. One such encounter involves a rich ruler who asks Jesus a question about how to gain eternal life.
Much like the addict, the rich ruler:
Came to Jesus seeking help, he recognised there was something lacking in his life and something needed to be done about it.
Was unable to spot the real issue. His encounter with Jesus revealed a deeply flawed self-assessment. He thought he kept the law: to love God and his neighbour.
Had no idea how attached (addicted) to his wealth he was. He was blind to the power it held over him. Jesus called him to surrender the one thing he couldn’t let go of; something he treasured above all else.
And when the rich ruler couldn’t comply, Jesus allowed him to walk away -something that mirrors the difficult reality of our work at HFA. Letting people walk away is often the hardest part.
It’s only when we encounter Jesus and recognise that our deepest need isn’t drugs or alcohol, but sin itself, that true transformation can take place.
The rich ruler had a desire for eternal life. He came to Jesus asking what he must do to inherit it. But when faced with walking away from his vast wealth, he faltered. The cost to him seemed impossibly high and his desire for life seemed so weak and powerless by comparison. And yet, what Jesus was en route to accomplish on the cross would make it possible for all to not only desire life but have the power to walk away from all its rivals.
Perhaps you too have been at this poignant crossroads in your life where Jesus is asking you to walk away from something you hold very dear. This is often the case with an addiction issue as with any sin. To cling to it is to do what the rich ruler did; walk away from Jesus. And yet as Jesus watches this man walk away; he encourages his disciples with the astonishing promise that no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life (Luke 18:29-30).
This is welcome investment advice indeed. But we are reminded that even to choose such a path is impossible without Jesus. The things that are impossible with people are possible with God (Luke 18:27). Only Jesus can give us both the desire and the power to follow Him over all other rivals. When we are discouraged at the seemingly impossible grip of any addiction or sin in our lives and are tempted to despair of ever being free from it, we can know that coming to Jesus and following his commands will make the impossible possible.