gluttony

There. I said it. It's the one sin that is, somehow, excusable. Or is it? If there is one thing Christians are known for, it's eating. We all love to eat. Somehow, when people gather, there is always food! We joke about being guilty of gluttony, and for some reason not a lot of people take it very seriously. You're probably thinking "Seriously, Hannah? Of all times for you to address this one. It's almost Christmas!" Thanksgiving and Christmas are symbols of what a gluttonous people we are. We threw away so much food at Thanksgiving, and it was heart-wrenching to me as I thought about so many who do not have a meal to eat, much less the luxury of throwing away what would probably amount to 10 or 12 meals. Let me be the first to say that I am by no means innocent. I, too, have been guilty of this sin.

You might wonder what provokes me to talk about gluttony. I realized I had been guilty of gluttony for most of my life during the first week of November. You see, the first week of November was my first week on Weight Watchers. One of the big selling points for those on Weight Watchers is to eat not until you're full but until you're satisfied. When I began tracking my points and keeping up with what I ate, I began to realize that I had been eating much more than my body needed. I realized that I had, in fact, been living to eat more than I had been eating to live. As I began controlling what I ate, I realized that I didn't have to be controlled by food. Upon my realizations, I became convicted about my sin. I realized that I had been guilty of not only gluttony, but a serious lack of self-control that spilled over in to other areas of my life as well. Another big selling point for Weight Watchers is the concept of moderation. It's not wrong to eat your favorite ice cream or your grandmother's famous fried chicken. But you have to eat those things in moderation. You have to learn how to control your portions. You have to be able to make yourself stop eating it.

When I look at what the Bible tells us about gluttony, I notice a couple of things. First, most of the passages that mention gluttony explicitly are in the Old Testament. Well there you go! That means we are excused after all, right? Wrong! Though the New Testament might not mention gluttony as specifically as the Old Testament, the topic is still covered in a broader concept, a fruit of the Spirit known as self-control. Before I talk about self-control, I want to direct your attention to Proverbs 23. While the Proverbs are in the Old Testament, by their very nature they apply to people throughout time, even for Christians who are living under the new covenant of grace. Proverbs fall into the genre of wisdom literature and the wisdom found in them is generally (though not ALWAYS) true.

Proverbs 23:2 states: "Put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony." I don't think the writer is encouraging gluttons to commit suicide, and I certainly am not! But I do believe that his intention is to point out the seriousness of the inability to control your eating habits.

The New Testament addresses the sin of gluttony under the broader concept of self-control. Notice Galatians 5:16-26. Paul writes,

"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, division, envy,drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another."

There are several things I want to point out from this reading.

First, gluttony falls under the umbrella of "works of the flesh." After listing several areas, Paul includes the phrase "and things like these." Gluttony, like the other sins, is an undesirable quality.

Second, if you are not convinced that gluttony is a work of the flesh, let me convince you that gluttony is a sin of idolatry. For a glutton, food is an idol. For a glutton, food becomes more important that God. Idolatry is as real today as it has ever been, without the need of statues and graven images. Anything that gets first place instead of God is an idol.

Third, gluttony can easily be likened to something Paul DOES warn against: drunkenness. We all know what drunkenness is, it happens when a person fails to control their intake of alcohol. On the other side of the same coin, gluttony occurs when we fail to control our intake of food. When Paul includes "drunkenness" and concludes with "and other things like these," gluttony should be one of the first things we think about! Fourth, Paul says that those who are Christians are walking by the Spirit. And if a person is walking by the Spirit, self-control is an evident fruit in their life. There is no denying it here. Gluttony is over-eating. It is eating more food than is needed, sometimes to the point of making oneself sick, because it tastes good. Gluttony is the sin of over-indulging in something pleasurable. If you are guilty of gluttony, self-control is not evident in your life. This should lead you to question whether or not you are really walking by the Spirit.

When I began to ponder my lack of self-control in the area of eating, I started exploring other areas of my life. I found that I had lacked self-control in more areas than I wished to admit, including time-management, money-management, tendencies to procrastinate, and more. Taking control of my eating habits is leading me to consider how I can take better control of other areas as well. You see, when you are guilty of gluttony, it won't take long for you to find a lack of self-control in other areas. It's not a matter of sinning in that one area. It's a matter of lacking self-control in a MULTITUDE of areas. God wants us to take control with the help of the Spirit so that we can have a better quality of life and accomplish more for His kingdom.

I'm not perfect. I still eat more than I should sometimes. I still spend money when I probably should have saved it every now and then. I still procrastinate doing one thing or another. But I am aware. And I am taking small steps to improve.

I've brought it to your attention. It's up to you what you do with it. My prayer is that you, too, can walk in the Spirit a little more each day by allowing God to develop the fruit of self-control in your life.