I'm Going to Quit

There was a recent news report that former NBA star, Charles Barkley, owed $400,000 in gambling debts to Wynn Resorts Ltd, a Las Vegas Casino. Mr. Barkley quickly made public statements accepting all responsibility for his failure to pay the debts by the date they were due. In a television interview, Mr. Barkley said he has paid the debt and that he plans to use this for something good. He vowed to stop gambling. Apparently, this is a major decision for the NBA Hall of Famer. In an interview with ESPN in 2006, Barkley estimated that he had lost a total of $10 million by gambling. He defended his actions by reasoning that he had not put himself in a financial strain, even after losing such a significant amount of money. Now he says he realizes it's time for a break. He plans to stop gambling. However, he doesn't know if this will be for life. He said it will be for at least a year or two.

I heard a recording of the interview on a sports radio station, while driving in my car today. The two hosts of the program then started talking about how difficult it is to give up your worst vice, both of them citing their own struggles to give up vices. One of the two radio personalities said that he had given up two vices with great difficulty: drinking and gambling. I didn't really have time to admire the man for his decision to get rid of such dangerous (and sinful) habits, because he quickly qualified his statement by saying (in all seriousness) he had given up gambling for 9 months and drinking for 32 days.

I applaud anyone who decides to quit bad habits like drinking and gambling. But what is the rationale for deciding to give them up for limited amounts of time? What good does it really do to give up a sinful practice only to take it up again later? Obviously, these men did not view their habits of drinking and gambling as sinful activities, just practices that could lead to bad things if they let them get "out of control."

God calls upon us to rid ourselves completely of every sinful practice. When we become Christians we die to sin (Romans 6:1-2). We are to put to death certain sinful practices (Col. 3:5). The mindset that says, "I'm going to quit this sin for a while," is completely incompatible with righteousness. John said,

God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:5-7, NKJV).

Paul said that we must have "no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness" (Ephesians 5:11). How can we think we are in a right relationship with God while participating in things God condemns?

Let me leave you with the words of Peter. If a person decides to quit some sinful practice only temporarily, consider this:

For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire” (2 Peter 2:20-22, NKJV, emphasis added).