How do we as individuals manage temptation/addictions? And, do we manage all the same?
I will begin with a temptation that I have, which is ice cream.
Do we avoid the issue by not keeping ice cream in the house at all?
My dad struggled with tobacco addiction all his adult years. He would quit smoking by hard work and later return to it. He was a three-packs-a-day guy. At one of his successful times without cigarettes, he kept a pack of cigarettes in the freezer. I thought someone had mistakenly put them there, but he had them there purposely. He said just knowing they were there helped keep him from focusing on it so much. Lust/desire is so very powerful in our human makeup. It has to reside in the soul, the seat of our emotions, together with our will. Of course it strongly affects the flesh/body.
Interesting that they make sure to point out in parentheses “choices” under the will. We use different “tools” in our box of resources to strengthen our will/help us make better choices. See that our will does involve the nervous system, the endocrine system, and the immune system. And you can see there are both conscious and subconscious aspects involved. There is plenty of medical evidence, for example, of psychological connections to some physical illnesses. If you want a “listing, you can “google” psychosomatic illness and get references. But this is not the point of the discussion, so I’ll not go there.
The aspect I am looking at is the tools that we choose to use. And hopefully
share with you some clear pathways to Scripture that relate to some our recent discussions.
I will begin from my own biased perspective, which you can accept or reject. I’m not trying to hide it. You can look at the world through a “black and white” lens or through a lens of nuances in between. I’ll go into this in more detail first, and then connect to the temptations/addictions connection and the Scriptural connection. Please just keep the “3-Part Whole” diagram in mind (and I ask myself if this three-in-one concept relates in any way to the idea of a “3-Part Whole God? – the thought just now came to me 😲, and also reminded me of a book The 12 Secrets of the Kingdom I helped my friend Harold Wafo write a few years back where we often referred to the “Triune God” 🤔?).
Let’s be very concrete, like the Hebrew language. Remember that light and pigments are different. If you get a white automobile it will tend to reflect all colors of light and thus be cooler in sunny climes, whereas a black vehicle will absorb all colors of the light spectrum and thus tend to be warmer inside. Here is a Google AI response about black and white:
“Black is the absence of light, while white is the presence of all colors of light. When dealing with pigments, black is the result of mixing all colors together, and white is the absence of pigment. In both systems, black represents the absence of something (light or pigment), and white represents the presence of everything (light or lack of pigment).
- In light (additive color system):
- Black: is the absence of all light.
- White: is the presence of all colors of light combined.
- In pigments (subtractive color system):
- White: is the absence of pigment; it’s the color of the surface itself (e.g., a white canvas).
- Black: is the result of mixing all pigments together, which absorbs all light.”
(We’re not yet to the part of Scriptural connections, but just keep in the back of your mind the first three verses of the Bible. The Hebrew word for black is שחר, and it is present in cognate permutations form in the first two verses, but not in verse 3, when God created light. ארץ land; earth ראש head שחר black cognate permutations(decisive action) see it in בראשית, “In the beginning.”)
So, a common American idiom is to say that for X person, “everything is black and white,” meaning it’s all or nothing, or as Google AI puts it:
The idiom is a reference to a situation being clear and straightforward, with no ambiguity or “gray area”. It means something is either right or wrong, or that the facts are so obvious they are like “ink on paper”.
- Meaning: The situation is easy to understand and there are no complexities or nuances to consider.
- Example 1: “The rules of the game are black and white; you either follow them or you get disqualified,” explains a clear and simple rule.
- Example 2: “He was caught red-handed with the stolen goods right there in black and white,” refers to clear proof in a written or documented form.
A world of all or nothing, with no “nuance,” has either all the colors at one end of the spectrum or no colors at the other end of the spectrum, and nothing in between, no nuances or colors are appreciated by the human eye. (It is an “interesting coincidence 😉” that the retina has two distinct types of receptors, rods and cones. Cones are for discerning color. Rods do not discern color, but even rods see nuances of grays. 🤔)
It is so hard to keep away from the Scriptural connections as I move through the process. We will come back to it, but know that (again, MY perspective) the instruction in Torah given by Moses (as he heard from the LORD) to the Israelites lays out the structure of (as the AI quote refers to it above) “right and wrong,” but some (mis)interpretations by mankind were later painted with a more nuanced palette by the Prophets, the Writings, and the followers of Yeshua/Jesus. The LORD clearly endorsed the nuances that were painted, by giving, for example King David as a model. We’ll get into that more later.
In the three-part diagram that reflects our make-up, let’s look at the heart. We will connect to David’s heart in a moment. The heart is placed in the diagram so as to bridge the spirit and the soul. Let’s be perfectly clear that we are not talking about the organ that pumps blood (and Scripture is not either). Think of the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz. The ticking-clock heart is a representation in the Tin Man of lovingkindness, tenderness, compassion, mercy, as we will see in Scripture. Actually you might see the three travel companions of Dorothy over the rainbow is reflected in the three parts of the soul in the diagram (not counting Toto, who probably is a good instructor for both the Lion and the Tin Man 😉).
The idea of the giving of “The Counselor,” the Holy Spirit, was to help the Spirit of God to meld with our own spirit, to help direct our will in its choices. That is the purpose of a guide or counselor. Thus, the Holy Spirit in a way functions like the heart in the diagram, with the intent of helping to strengthen our will in its choices (acting as the “second witness” within).
There is so much overlap within our souls between our emotions and our will/choices. If we are too ruled by our emotions, we may not make wise choices. If, on the other hand, we block out the emotions altogether, then we live in a sterile world, the world of the “Architect” in the Matrix series. That is the black-and-white world, the world of no nuance, no color. As in all things in Creation, it is about appropriate balance. In a linear way of thinking, the go along a road until there is a dead end (such was the great flood). In a cyclical world there is waxing and waning, there are smaller, incremental stops and starts, slow-downs and speed-ups. In a cyclical world are nuances, subtler changes.
How does this relate to how we make choices? To our temptations? To our addictions? Much of it has to do with who we are inside, our “personality,” our “character.” (See that they equate Soul with Personality in the diagram.)
Black-and-white appears to work in some addictive circumstances. See the idea of the Twelve-Step program. The first big hurdle is the acceptance, “Hi, I’m XXX and I’m an alcoholic.” Then, there is total abstinence AND there is a sponsor/mentor to assist with the way forward. The sponsor is someone who has gone through the process before.
According to the teaching of mentors at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco (and no doubt others), we are all addicted to something. Let’s take my example of ice cream. I have learned the black-and-white method works, with ice cream. If it is not in my freezer, I won’t eat it. But that does not exercise my will very much. When I have bought some ice cream for visiting granddaughters and it does not all get eaten, then it may remain in the freezer for weeks/months, my only finishing it off on some special day. That is exercising my will, my self-restraint. When we exercise our self-discipline, like anything else, it gets stronger. If we use the avoidance technique, the results may be good, but we haven’t gotten any stronger.
My friend Christina noticed that I keep some Starbucks Espresso and Cream 6.5 oz around. She and I both are sugar-avoidant for health reasons. I let her know the little cans do have sugar, but I don’t drink them every day. They are very tasty, indeed. She said she could not keep them at her house because she would not have the self-discipline not to drink them daily.
The avoidance/black and white technique is much harder to accomplish if it is people if a woman is tempted by men or a man is tempted by women it is a different story. In such a situation, one would be talking about excluding half of the world. Hmmm 🤔, well, perhaps that has been the purpose of “Men’s Clubs” in our history, or why churches might have “Men’s Groups” and “Women’s Groups.” Is it an attempt to avoid temptation? It certainly take a lot of the nuance, the “color” out of conversations/discussions. In my opinion (accept or reject) it tends to make us more and more exclusive the more we separate in that manner. As Bessey says in her book we have been mentioning, we tend then to live in an “echo chamber,” not hearing that other than our own way of thinking. That (my opinion again – take it or leave it) is the downfall of exclusivity – we begin to forget that there are other ways of thinking, other viewpoints of life. Remember the multiple witness Scriptural tenet in order to establish Truth. Yes there can be false witnesses, but how do we learn to discern which witnesses are “true” or “false,” that skill called discernment, unless we are exposed to different ways of looking at things? We like our own ideas. Hearing our own thoughts reflected by others is very reassuring. And it is very challenging when others’ thoughts are not like ours. Perhaps your desire at that point is simply to avoid those thoughts, not keep the ice cream in your freezer. Confrontation is painful, to be sure.
Here is a temptation/addiction that seems to be worldwide:
Presence of smart phone
AI Overview
Studies show that having a smartphone present, even when not in use, can negatively impact cognitive performance by reducing available cognitive capacity. Participants consistently perform better on tasks when their phones are in another room, with worse performance when phones are on the desk. This effect is not altered by having the phone powered off or face down, suggesting that the mere presence of the phone is distracting and can lead to a “brain drain”.
- Reduced cognitive capacity: Studies have found that the mere presence of a smartphone reduces a person’s available cognitive capacity, which is crucial for learning, reasoning, and problem-solving.
- Performance differences:
- Best performance: Participants performed best on tests when their phones were in a separate room.
- Intermediate performance: Performance was slightly worse when phones were in a pocket or bag.
- Worst performance: Participants performed worst when their phones were on the desk.
- No difference by phone status: The negative impact on performance occurred even when the phone was powered off, suggesting the distraction is not from notifications, but from the phone’s mere presence.
- “Brain drain” hypothesis: Researchers call this effect “brain drain,” where the cognitive cost of having a smartphone nearby can lead to a significant but not always realized impairment in thinking and problem-solving.
Some scientific articles:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7425970
https://news.utexas.edu/2017/06/26/the-mere-presence-of-your-smartphone-reduces-brain-power
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/691462
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I’m not certain exactly how my dad’s keeping a pack of cigarettes in the freezer fits, perhaps a mixture of methods. Mainly he was depending on his self-discipline, but it may have been somewhat of a mind-game rather than knowing it would mean a trip to the store at a moment of particular need? 🤷🏼♂️
My point is that we manage these things differently. These are part of the nuances of life. You could talk about many different related topics: the kind of food our food industry puts before us 🤢 and the obesity epidemic; the government experiment with Prohibition 1920-1933; abortion laws. If something is desirable/addictive like eating, alcohol, sex, we have a challenge in the choices we make; making choices exercises our self-control, our self discipline. Abstaining is an answer but frequently not the choice that we make as “desiring” creatures. “Wouldn’t a scoop of ice cream make me feel better right now?“ “Wouldn’t a cigarette right now just calm my nerves?” “Would I feel closer to my partner if we had intimate relations?” (Or the flip side, if I wanted to put pressure on my partner to see my way of thinking, maybe I should refuse intimate relations.) You see, things get complicated very quickly when it’s not just a container of ice cream in the freezer. Human relations are very messy. The answers are not easy, but they do begin with communication between people, and managing what is inside of us.
⦁ Galatians 5:22-24
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Here, Paul suggests that the cross that Yeshua/Jesus asks us to bear might well be the addiction of the flesh, whether that addiction is money, power, drugs, sex, gluttony, etc. Passions and desires. And of course the flip side is that with no passion, no desire, life is sterile and has little meaning. So it is our role to make choices with self control so that our passions and desires do not destroy the fruit of those around us, the love, the joy, the peace, and all the others in the list. Does my passion/desire help to bring about the fruit of others or cause them to lose their fruit? Does my passion destroy the gentleness in the “other?” Or the faithfulness of the “other?” We are not to be a stumbling block to others: Leviticus 19:14; Isaiah 57:14; Matthew 18:6-10; Romans 14:13; 1 Corinthians 8:9.
So, my mode of operation in my life has tended to be to challenge myself, which I personally believe was what Yeshua/Jesus did, challenging himself to confront the scribes and Pharisees with healings on the Sabbath, overturning the tables of the money-changers. One method of strengthening one’s self-discipline/self-control is to challenge oneself. My interpretation of the Narrow Gate and the Narrow Way that we recently discussed is just that: we challenge ourself to “do hard things,” to avoid the “Cliff Notes” version.
Following up on the idea of heart, the heart in the diagram, and David’s heart – the most common word in the Hebrew Scriptures for heart is לב.
לב/בל Cognate Permutations (incorporate/reject)
The heart is our focus, and there is no question that it can consume us. The Scriptural answer appears to be balance, waxing and waning, avoidance of extremes/dead-ends.
This is the next most common word for “heart,” and the root that Strong’s lists for לב (we saw the family for לב above).
I’ll just mention one thing here – see reference ⑥ “deep-fried flour cakes,” and draw a connection to the movie series The Matrix. Think of the two characters toward the end, the Architect and the Oracle. And ask yourself why the Oracle is baking cookies… The Architect has defined the structure, but the system only works because of the intervention of compassion, seen in he Oracle and the cookies.
Now let’s look a bit at the heart and King David. There is so much to be learned by looking at David, how he handles the conflict between Saul and him, how he looks to the LORD for guidance in battle. All of this in spite of, or perhaps because he was a sinner in how he managed his desires, re: Bathsheba and Uriah.
⦁ 1 Samuel 13:14
14 But now your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.”
⦁ 1 Samuel 16:7
7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
⦁ Psalms 89:20
20 I have found My servant David;
With My holy oil I have anointed him,
⦁ Acts 13:21-22
21 And afterward they asked for a king; so God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22 And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’
Following are the Strong’s references for words used in NKJV in the Hebrew Scriptures for “heart.” The words are cited with most common occurrence first, least last.
▸ h3820. לֵב lêḇ; a form of h3824. לֵבָב lêḇâḇ; the heart; also used (figuratively) very widely for the feelings, the will and even the intellect; likewise for the centre of anything: — + care for, comfortably, consent, x considered, courag(-eous), friend(-ly), ((broken-), (hard-), (merry-), (stiff-), (stout-), double) heart((-ed)), x heed, x I, kindly, midst, mind(-ed), x regard((-ed)), x themselves, x unawares, understanding, x well, willingly, wisdom.
AV (593) – heart 508, mind 12, midst 11, understanding 10, hearted 7, wisdom 6, comfortably 4, well 4, considered 2, friendly 2, kindly 2, stouthearted + h0047 2, care + h7760 2, misc 21; ;
- inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding
- inner part, midst
- midst (of things)
- heart (of man)
- soul, heart (of man)
- mind, knowledge, thinking, reflection, memory
- inclination, resolution, determination (of will)
- conscience
- heart (of moral character)
- as seat of appetites
- as seat of emotions and passions
- as seat of courage
- inner part, midst
▸ h3824. לֵבָב lêḇâḇ; from h3823. לָבַב lâḇaḇ; the heart (as the most interior organ); used also like 3820: — + bethink themselves, breast, comfortably, courage, ((faint), (tender-)heart((-ed)), midst, mind, x unawares, understanding.
AV (252) – heart 231, consider + h7760 5, mind 4, understanding 3, misc 9;
- inner man, mind, will, heart, soul, understanding
- inner part, midst
- midst (of things)
- heart (of man)
- soul, heart (of man)
- mind, knowledge, thinking, reflection, memory
- inclination, resolution, determination (of will)
- conscience
- heart (of moral character)
- as seat of appetites
- as seat of emotions and passions
- as seat of courage
- inner part, midst
▸ ▸ h3823. לָבַב lâḇaḇ; a primitive root; properly, to be enclosed (as if with fat); by implication (as denominative from 3824) to unheart, i.e. (in a good sense) transport (with love), or (in a bad sense) stultify; also (as denominative from 3834) to make cakes: — make cakes, ravish, be wise.
AV (5) – ravished my heart 2, make 1, made cakes 1, be wise 1;
- to ravish, become intelligent, get a mind
- (Niphal) to take heart, become enheartened, become intelligent
- (Piel) to ravish the heart, encourage, make heart beat faster
- (Piel) to make cakes, bake cakes, cook bread
▸ h5315. נֶפֶשׁ nep̱eš; from 5314; properly, a breathing creature, i.e. animal of (abstractly) vitality; used very widely in a literal, accommodated or figurative sense (bodily or mental): — any, appetite, beast, body, breath, creature, x dead(-ly), desire, x (dis-)contented, x fish, ghost, + greedy, he, heart(-y), (hath, x jeopardy of) life (x in jeopardy), lust, man, me, mind, mortally, one, own, person, pleasure, (her-, him-, my-, thy-)self, them (your)-selves, + slay, soul, + tablet, they, thing, (x she) will, x would have it.
AV (753) – soul 475, life 117, person 29, mind 15, heart 15, creature 9, body 8, himself 8, yourselves 6, dead 5, will 4, desire 4, man 3, themselves 3, any 3, appetite 2, misc 47;
- soul, self, life, creature, person, appetite, mind, living being, desire, emotion, passion
- that which breathes, the breathing substance or being, soul, the inner being of man
- living being
- living being (with life in the blood)
- the man himself, self, person or individual
- seat of the appetites
- seat of emotions and passions
- activity of mind
- dubious
- activity of the will
- dubious
- activity of the character
- dubious
▸ h0990. בֶּטֶן ḇeṭen; from an unused root probably meaning to be hollow; the belly, especially the womb; also the bosom or body of anything: — belly, body, + as they be born, + within, womb.
AV (72) – belly 30, womb 31, body 8, within 2, born 1;
- belly, womb, body
- belly, abdomen
- as seat of hunger
- as seat of mental faculties
- of depth of Sheol (fig.)
- womb
- belly, abdomen
▸ h3629. כִּלְיָה ḵilyâ; root is h3615. כָּלָה ḵâlâ (only in the plural); a kidney (as an essential organ); figuratively, the mind (as the interior self): — kidneys, reins.
AV (31) – kidneys 18, reins 13;
- kidneys
- of physical organ (lit.)
- of seat of emotion and affection (fig.)
- of sacrificial animals
- (TWOT) reins
▸ ▸ h3615. כָּלָה ḵâlâ; a primitive root; to end, whether intransitive (to cease, be finished, perish) or transitived (to complete, prepare, consume): — accomplish, cease, consume (away), determine, destroy (utterly), be (when … were) done, (be an) end (of), expire, (cause to) fail, faint, finish, fulfil, x fully, x have, leave (off), long, bring to pass, wholly reap, make clean riddance, spend, quite take away, waste.
AV (206) – consume 57, end 44, finish 20, fail 18, accomplish 12, done 9, spend 8, ended 7, determined 4, away 3, fulfil 3, fainteth 2, destroy 2, left 2, waste 2, misc 13;
- to accomplish, cease, consume, determine, end, fail, finish, be complete, be accomplished, be ended, be at an end, be finished, be spent
- (Qal)
- to be complete, be at an end
- to be completed, be finished
- to be accomplished, be fulfilled
- to be determined, be plotted (bad sense)
- to be spent, be used up
- to waste away, be exhausted, fail
- to come to an end, vanish, perish, be destroyed
- (Piel)
- to complete, bring to an end, finish
- to complete (a period of time)
- to finish (doing a thing)
- to make an end, end
- to accomplish, fulfil, bring to pass
- to accomplish, determine (in thought)
- to put an end to, cause to cease
- to cause to fail, exhaust, use up, spend
- to destroy, exterminate
- (Pual) to be finished, be ended, be completed
- (Qal)
Recall in the diagram the heart bridging between Spirit and Soul. See that love is of the Spirit, while the emotions are of the Soul. But the thing that I believe the diagram does not get across well is that true love is more an act of the will, a choice that we make. Our emotions/passions/desires may bring us to romantic love, but what M. Scott Peck, M.D. tells us in his well-known book The Road Less Traveled (remind you of “The Narrow Way?” – it should) is that for long-lasting relationships, after the romantic love must come “true love,” which is an act of the will, a choice that is made. So, it must be partly of the spirit and partly of the soul.
Passions/desires can easily become addictions. The certainly are our temptations. In all of the circumstances we have discussed, please recognize that self-discipline/self-control would be the deciding factor in the choices before us.
⦁ 1 Corinthians 10:13
13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as (is) common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear (it).
That “way of escape” is in the gift of the Spirit, especially the self-control fruit of the Spirit, remembering that the Messiah showed us his self control, his willingness to follow the will of the LORD even to death on a cross. Recall that Yeshua/Jesus was of the line of David, one after God’s own heart.
⦁ James 4:7
7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
And I end with the Finnick Odair quotation in Mockingjay, “Better not to give in to it. It takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart.”
Such is a truism about life.
Have a blessed Thanksgiving, PG
Ⓒ Copyright Philip E. Gates; LogAndSpeck.com November 2025. Please cite if you use this material.