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iQuestions Faculty, Dr. David Eckman 
 
 
Question: 
 
Isn’t addiction the worst possible sin there is? 
 
Answer: 
 
Addiction is not the worst possible sin there is.  
 
One of the terrible things that’s happening within the churches— and 
sometimes within our culture— is people get so preoccupied, say, with 
pornographic addiction that things are thrown out of balance. 
 
Let me tell you a quick story. It’s a famous story. It’s called the story 
of the wasteful or prodigal son. This is a son who asked his dad, 2,000 
years ago, for his inheritance, and then he took his inheritance and he 
went and spent it, wasted it on— according to his older brother—
prostitutes, on wasteful living. And he finally impoverished himself, 
and he had to come back to his dad, fess up to what he was doing, 
and to his surprise, his dad welcomed him back with open arms, and 
treated him with great dignity and kindness. 
 
Now, you know the story, probably. The older brother got upset with 
the younger brother who had wasted all of this money, and he 
wouldn’t come to the welcome-back party his dad was throwing for the 
younger brother.  
 
It’s very interesting, this story, because when the younger brother left, 
the father refused to chase him. However, when the older brother 
wouldn’t come to the party, he was outside the tent pouting over the 
welcome the younger brother received, the dad chased him, went after 
him. 
 
 
 
This illustrates an important point. The older brother was in far more 
danger than the younger brother, because the older brother was 
prideful, censorious, religious, critical— and the dad recognized the 
problem with that kind of spiritual sin, the sin of pride. 
 
There are far worse things than sins of the flesh. They are sins of the 
spirit. The refusal to have compassion upon the addicted, the refusal 
not to be judgmental— those kinds of refusals are really vastly worse 
than sins of the flesh, because the spirit goes deeper and is closer to 
the heart. When someone refuses to show mercy, love, and 
compassion, that’s far worse than any addictive behavior.  
 
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