Addiction is often discussed in medical or psychological terms. In the video below, biblical counselor Dr. Mark Shaw, founder of The Addiction Connection and author of The Heart of Addiction, presents a distinctly biblical framework. His concern is not simply whether a person stops using a substance. He wants Christians to understand what is happening in the heart, what the person is believing and desiring, and how the gospel and the body of Christ can address those issues.
Get Help Today
Help and healing are possible through our Christian rehab programs.
If you are ready to take the next step and learn more about how a Christian rehab center can aid in your recovery, feel free to reach out to us at any time.
How to Help Others Overcome Addiction
Shaw challenges the idea that addiction is too specialized for ordinary ministry in the local church. He acknowledges that drugs such as opioids, cocaine, and marijuana can involve serious physical issues. When medical care is needed, he recommends involving a physician for that part of the problem.
The church, however, has a different responsibility. Christians can help the struggling person examine the desires, beliefs, fears, and motivations beneath addictive behavior. Shaw describes this as becoming a spiritual “heart doctor”: asking what the person wants, what he is running from, and what he is seeking from the substance that has begun to enslave him.
He also discourages isolated counseling. Because addiction often involves deception and reluctance to be fully transparent, Shaw favors a team approach, small-group support, and trusted believers willing to ask difficult questions. The goal is a community where the person can be known, challenged, encouraged, and loved.
Biblical counselor and author Dr. Mark Shaw answers questions about addiction from a Christian perspective.
Addiction as a Sin Issue
A defining feature of Shaw’s approach is his insistence that addiction is a sin issue of the heart. He does not accept the disease model as the controlling biblical category for addiction. Instead, he directs attention to desires that compete with the desire to honor God.
Drawing from 1 John 2:16, Shaw points to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. In addiction, a person may begin believing that a drug or addictive behavior will provide what God will not: pleasure, refuge, relief, escape, or control. Biblical counseling therefore seeks to expose the lie and replace it with biblical truth.
This does not mean pretending physical or clinical needs do not exist. Shaw explicitly distinguishes those needs from the spiritual work of counseling. A person may require a physician or another treatment setting, while others may benefit from structured outpatient care that allows them to remain at home. For example, someone seeking a virtual IOP in California may be looking for professional treatment that can fit around work, family, or other responsibilities. That type of clinical care should not be confused with Shaw’s biblical counseling model; his focus is the spiritual heart and the church’s role in addressing it.
Biblical Encouragement for Someone Battling Addiction
For Shaw, the Christian’s resources include the gospel, Scripture, the Holy Spirit, and the body of Christ. He cites 1 Thessalonians 2:8 to emphasize a ministry that gives not only biblical truth but also one’s own life.
Helping someone with addiction therefore requires more than advice. It may involve being available, speaking truth during temptation, helping the person recognize false thinking, and reminding him of what God says. Shaw’s confidence rests on the conviction that biblical truth can address the desires and beliefs that drive sinful behavior.
Beyond Behavioral Modification
Shaw is clear that biblical counseling is not simply behavior modification. Stopping drug use matters, but outward abstinence alone does not explain why a person changes or what he will do when temptation returns.
The counselor begins with the heart. What does the person want? What is he believing? What desire has become controlling? From there, the counselor helps him identify lies, replace them with truth, and cultivate desires that please God.
As thinking and desires change, behavior should follow. The aim is not merely avoiding a substance, but learning to respond to temptation with truth and practice righteous alternatives. Shaw’s other resources, including Understanding Temptation: The War Within Your Heart and Relapse: Biblical Prevention Strategies, develop this same emphasis on temptation and lasting biblical change.
Shaw’s podcast covers topics related to Biblical counseling.
Dealing With Guilt and Shame
Shaw also addresses the shame that frequently follows addiction. Memories of past actions can bring guilt back with great force, and the desire to escape that pain can itself become a temptation to return to the drug of choice.
His response is to point the Christian back to forgiveness in Christ. Feelings can be powerful, but they are not the final authority. The counselee needs trusted believers and Scripture that can remind him of biblical truth when shame resurfaces.
As Shaw puts it, Christians must learn to “trust God more at His word rather than our feelings.” In this framework, recovery is not simply sobriety. It is heart transformation: learning to recognize sinful desires and lies, respond to temptation biblically, receive the forgiveness secured in Christ, and increasingly live in obedience to God.
Get Help Today
Help and healing are possible through our Christian rehab programs.
If you are ready to take the next step and learn more about how a Christian rehab center can aid in your recovery, feel free to reach out to us at any time.