Real Change is a Transformed Heart

Many Christians have looked to psychology and behavior modification to overcome sexual addiction. In this interview, Steve Gallagher points to the impossibility of overcoming sin through human effort and shows us the need for a transformed heart.

Mike: Steve, we want to deal today with a question which we often hear when we are out on the road speaking. It has to do with the book, Every Man's Battle by Steve Arterburn as well as the workshops that are based on that material. The question is this, how does that material compare with what we are doing here at Pure Life Ministries, in our Residential Program, Overcomers at Home Program, and in our Call to Purity weekends?

Steve: First of all, comparing the two really is a matter of apples and oranges. Steve Arterburn did a great service for the American church, writing Every Man's Battle, in that it really brought sexual lust to the forefront, along with Promise Keepers. Those two things really helped to bring the issue of just the regular guys out there dealing with the sexualized culture and what they face. I appreciate it for that. But we've got to remember that Steve Arterburn's a psychologist, and his answers are largely based upon the concept of behavioral modification. Our approach here at Pure Life is really, completely different. We see sexual sin and lust as a spiritual issue primarily. And if that's the case, what must happen for the person is a real change of heart. Something must transpire within their heart to set them on a new course.

Mike: I know it's very often true Steve, that the men who come to us, and most of them are men that have been involved with sexual sin for years, that they have tried changing their behavior but then find themselves slipping back into sin because real heart change didn't occur.

Steve: Right, as a minister my greatest concern is that a person's heart is where it needs to be with God. I'm not so much concerned about the outward actions nearly as much as I'm concerned about what's going on in their heart.

Mike: We certainly live in a very sexualized world. The men that are in the church today are constantly going to be bombarded by temptation and sexual images. They really do need to know how to deal with that at the heart level.

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Steve: Yes, I feel like God can do such a work inside a man, that he can at least more effectively handle the kind of imagery that he's going to face in this culture with a changed heart, with a renewed spirit, a passion for God and a passion to live a holy life. When those things are in place inside Him and then he gets confronted by images, it's not a matter of snapping a rubber band or something. It's a matter of the desires of his heart, and what is really the driving passions of his heart.

Mike: It's so often that if we approach this from the wrong perspective, when we're looking at the issue of sexual sin and of temptation, it can become a list of do’s and don'ts, as opposed to getting those things out of my life that get in the way of my relationship with God.

Steve: The bottom line I can say is this Mike, you cannot win the battle with the flesh by the flesh. We need something outside of ourselves to win this battle. If we are left to our own devices, our own determination, we're in trouble. Because our flesh nature, which is very much part of us, desires sin and will always desire sin. We need God's work inside of us and His Spirit working within us, to help us live a life of victory.

Mike: Amen. Steve Gallagher, thanks so much.

Steve: Great to be here with you Mike.