“Well, he’s at it again!”

Who? What?

“My counselee, that’s who. And what? He got drunk again last week.”

“Told him it would have to stop. If it didn’t we’d have to discipline him.”

OK. Pastor—what else? Did you give him any help?

“Help? What he needs is to quit drinking. It’s that simple.”

What led to it this time?”

“Had a fight with his wife over something about the kids, and went down to the local watering hole and drank with his buddies.”

What have you done about helping him deal with the total restructuring that his life-dominating sin requires?

“Well, I guess I haven’t worked on it as hard as I should. Where should I begin?”

For one thing, he needs to get a new set of buddies—Christians. You need to help him work on his relationship to his wife and children, the condition of things at work, his Church participation, etc—all slices of the pizza of his life. Every slice needs to become dominated by the Spirit as it now seems dominated by the bottle. You’ll never help him by focusing on drinking alone. Gal. 5: 18 is clear that one must have the Spirit at work in every area of his life (“filled”—as in every chair in the room was filled), as it is now filled (dominated) by drink.

Let me know when you’re able to get the right things started in every area, and we’ll take it from there.