Opioid painkillers are a modern marvel that we often don’t think about until we are enduring back pain or recovering from knee surgery. But, these miraculous drugs have a dark side. Morphine and laudanum, two of the first widely used painkillers made from the opium poppy, were effective but addictive. Modern prescription opioids like oxycodone (OxyContin), hydrocodone (Vicodin), and fentanyl are mostly based on the same substance that gives morphine its punch, but chemists have tweaked these drugs to be even stronger than morphine.

There were signs in the early 2000s that prescription opioids were more addictive than doctors had thought. During 1999, there were fewer than 10,000 deaths due to opioid overdoses, but deaths rose steadily each year. In 2014, opioid overdose deaths started rising rapidly each year until around 50,000 people had died during 2019; this is about 30% more deaths than from car crashes in 2019. Now in 2023, opioids are by far the largest cause of deaths by overdose in the United States, with an estimated 100,000 deaths from opioid overdoses in 2021. Drugs that are legal, effective, and safe when used correctly are now literally destroying lives.

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While Scripture is clear in some areas, in others it gives us only broad principles. The growth of the Internet in the last several decades has brought an onslaught of situations for which we are not given specific applications in Scripture. How do we decide to handle something the Bible doesn’t specifically address? Should we allow the Internet but place restrictions on its use? What about smartphones, social media, videos, or online news? Maybe the safest thing to do is to ban the Internet entirely? Each church group has applied Scriptural principles in their own way and have drawn their lines at a slightly different place.

The Apostle Paul addressed many issues in 1 Corinthians, but two significant issues were sexual immorality and eating food offered to idols. The Corinthians believed that freedom from the Old Testament Law allowed them to do things that had been previously forbidden. Paul acknowledged they were free from that Law, but that didn’t mean they were free to do whatever they wanted. He listed various sins in 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10 that would keep them out of the kingdom of God. He then gave more direction in verses 12 and 13.

“All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” (1 Corinthians 6:12-13 NKJV)

Paul said all things were lawful now that the Corinthians were free from the Old Testament Law, but not all things that were lawful were helpful to their spiritual lives. Those things that could be considered permissible also carried the danger to dominate them.

A few chapters later, Paul wrote a similar warning related to eating food that had been offered to idols.

“All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being.” (1 Corinthians 10:23-24 NKJV)

To the previous statement from 1 Corinthians 6, Paul added the warning that not all things that are lawful are edifying (upbuilding) to our neighbor or to ourselves. From these verses, we learn three things: what is lawful is not always helpful, what is lawful can still bring me under its power (dominate me), and that which is lawful is not always upbuilding to me or my neighbor.

When deciding whether we use something that is not clearly forbidden by Scripture, we should ask ourselves three questions:

• Will it help or hinder my spiritual life?

• Could it dominate me?

• Is it upbuilding to me or to my neighbor?

These questions help us determine whether the benefits of something will outweigh the costs. Is the amount of time I’m spending on social media worth the benefit that I’m getting from it? Or is it taking time away from my family or from God? Are my online interactions with other people strengthening my relationships? Or are they harming them?

It is easy for us to blindly adopt something while thinking only of the supposed benefits and not realizing the very real costs to ourselves and to others. We must think seriously about the things we do. Ask yourself the three questions and honestly consider the impact of your phone, the Internet, or anything else on the spiritual health of yourself or of your family and friends.

A church can recommend what their members should or should not do, but each member must decide what he or she values. It is completely acceptable and even necessary for a leader of a home to make applications of church agreements that go beyond what the church has specifically asked.

Jesus told us we must act radically if we determine that something is causing us to sin. If that thing is harming our spiritual life, we must cut it off and throw it away. At the moment, it may feel uncomfortable, and others may question why we are so drastic, but the cost of removing something that is lawful yet deadly is worth the eternal benefit (See Matthew 5:29, 30).