Gluttony: The Oft Ignored Sin

 

"For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ... their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things." -Philippians 3:18-19  

    In Philippians 3 I came across a verse that just really jumped out at me, a verse I’d somehow never really heard before, where Paul accuses some people of idolatry by saying that their god is their belly. What does he mean by this? I don’t think we see many people going around literally worshipping their bellies. Indeed, in our culture, if anything, we are typically trying to get rid of our bellies, not venerate them. So, clearly Paul is using an analogy here. But what kind? Is this simply a verse speaking out against the sin of gluttony? I think that’s partially the case. But I think Paul has a wider scope in mind here. I think Paul is using this term to refer to all the appetites of the flesh. I think this because at the end of this verse Paul seems to clarify that those whose God is their belly are those whose minds are set on earthly things instead of on heavenly things. So those who worship their belly are those who prioritize their bodily, earthly urges over the things of God. Paul calls these urges in Galatians the desires of the flesh. So when I think about those whose God is their belly, I think about those who life motto is basically, “Let’s eat and drink for tomorrow we die.” Those who, for them, life is about squeezing in all the pleasures we possibly can, while we can. The term for this is hedonism. Those whose God is their belly are those who inordinately focus on perhaps the pleasures of eating, gluttony, but also perhaps on the pleasures of lust, or greed, or sloth; any appetite of the flesh. 

            But we’re going to focus in first by commenting on the most obvious analogy from Paul’s language of ‘their God is their belly’ by talking about gluttony. And we’re going to do this because this is something you almost never hear mentioned in church anymore. Occasionally we hear it when it is listed among the seven deadly sins, but that’s about it. We hardly ever talk about gluttony... Why? Perhaps because it hits too close to home. It’s always way easier to talk about sins that you know those other people over there struggle with, and much harder to talk about sins that are a real issue in our own lives and the lives of our community. And basically anywhere you go in America, it is a big issue. If you compare food portion sizes at McDonalds from the U.S. to other countries, for example, the drink sizes in the U.S. are almost double the size as other places and the fries’ size is about 1.5 times larger in the U.S. This reveals that there is something cultural about our culture that can encourage gluttony. It’s no secret that most of us consistently eat much more food than our bodies need.

Another reason we don’t talk about gluttony is perhaps because it feels kind of rude to talk about weight, and gluttony can sometimes be associated with being weight. And the last thing we want is for people to feel judged more for their weight. So let me say that the goal of this sermon as with every sermon is not to instill a judgmental attitude in us that zeroes in on the sins or shortcomings of others, but is to encourage introspection and self-reflection. Because I guarantee you that every one of us here has some areas where we need to reevaluate our relationship with food.

And just because someone is overweight you can’t automatically assume they are struggling with gluttony. Weight deals not just with overeating, though that’s often a factor, but it deals with many other factors like genetics, and whether one has a fast or a slow metabolism, and how much one exercises. So, while gluttony and obesity can overlap, they really aren’t synonymous at all. And the best way to illustrate this is to make it quite clear that one can be skinny, and still be a glutton.

This is because gluttony is not so much about maintaining a healthy weight as it is about maintaining a proper relationship with food, and that sometimes overlaps and sometimes doesn’t. Avoiding gluttony is about making sure we don’t inordinately prioritize pleasure from eating, and about making sure we are able to exercise self-control in our eating habits.

So, again, there can be a skinny glutton. And I’ll demonstrate this quite clearly with a story from when I was in sixth grade. At that age I couldn’t gain fat if I tried, but that doesn’t mean I was able to exercise self-control around food. Just look at what I would do on Halloween and the week following: I would just gorge myself on candy every night until it was all gone. I had zero self-control, and the desire within me to eat the sweet, tasty candy was so strong that I was prioritizing eating the candy over other good things I could’ve been doing. I was more interested in eating the candy in excess than I was in making sure I didn’t eat so much so that I couldn’t go play outside without feeling sick. And during Halloween week I became selfish with my candy. I had an extreme excess of candy, and yet I’d hate the thought of sharing any candy with my older brothers who were too old to trick or treat. And my desire for candy led me to be impatient. Instead of going trick or treating with my parents who would walk slowly door to door I opted instead to go with friends where we could sprint between houses, and we were impatient towards the slower kid who lagged behind. All this to say we can have an improper relationship with food at all weight levels.

So again, what exactly is gluttony? Interestingly enough, if you read the early church fathers on gluttony, they knew that gluttony was far more than just eating too much food. They identified other possible areas that counted as gluttony. One was eating too soon. A modern example of this is perhaps that if you can’t wait patiently and let yourself be hungry for an hour as your family finishes making dinner, if you catch yourself complaining to the cook, “is it ready yet? is it ready yet?”, you might lack self-control around food, you might be a glutton. Trust me, you can wait an hour for food and you’ll be just fine, you won’t die, you’ll survive. Another area of gluttony they identified was eating too quickly. If you scarf down your food as soon as it’s on your plate, you might lack self-control around food, you might be a glutton. It is bad to your digestion to eat too fast, you risk acid reflux. Further, it takes our stomachs time to get full after eating. If you eat too fast you will overeat and not realize you overate until 10 minutes after dinner when you feel all bloated. Use self-control and eat food at a reasonable pace.

And one other interesting area of gluttony that they identified was in eating food that was too expensive or too elaborately prepared. What’s this about? Is it wrong to treat yourself to a fancy meal every now and then? Absolutely not. Jesus was accused in the gospels of being a glutton, and it’s because Jesus wasn’t afraid to feast. There are definitely times and places to feast and to treat yourself to more food or nicer food than your normally would. But Jesus didn’t just know how to feast, he knew how to fast.

So what’s this type of gluttony about that is dealing with food too expensive or too fancy? It’s basically saying don’t be a food snob. If you’re the type of person who insists upon only the best stuff, I need to eat at five-star restaurants, I couldn’t possibly eat McDonalds or eat plain bread and butter, you might lack self-control around food, you might be a glutton. You might be focusing too much on pleasure in wanting only the best food that you’re spending more time and money on food than you should be, when you could be using that time and money elsewhere. Jesus ate a lot of loaves and fishes in the Bible, basic food, local to his region. He didn’t demand to always have the best stuff. I think it is probably a good exercise of self-control to be able to eat tasteless oatmeal or simple rice and beans every once in a while. The issue with the person who demands only the highest quality food is that it often leads them away from gratitude and contentment and more towards snobbery. They might get mean and nasty with a waiter, for example, when they are served food that is below their standards. Or, they might get cross with their spouse if they accidentally burn the toast just a little.

            Another reason why gluttony is rarely talked about in church is probably because it’s just not that big of a sin compared to so many other ones. It feels like it deals more with our bodies than with our souls. And what’s more important: our bodies or our souls? Our Souls! And what’s more important: not being mean, or not being gluttonous? Not being mean! And so on. Right? Compared to many other commandments in the bible, gluttony seems like not as big a deal. And it might not be as big a deal as others, but guess what? We’re called to holiness, which means trying to live in perfection in every aspect. And here’s why gluttony matters more than we think: because gluttony is ultimately about whether or not we know how to exercise self-control over bodily matters. And that has huge implications for many other areas of our life. If we don’t know how to restrain our appetites for food, how do we know how to restrain our other fleshly appetites? If in our eating habits we train our body to satiate every desire and appetite we have, what happens if our lustful appetite desires a person who is not our spouse? The same self-control that teaches us to be content with our spouse and to restrain our lustful urges is the same self-control that we use when we restrain our appetite for food and say, you know what, I don’t need a second dessert tonight. The same self-control that says dinner tonight was just kind of plain and basic and not the tastiest thing ever, but you know what, it nourished me, and I’m grateful, that’s the same self-control that can prevent greed and let you say, you know what my house isn’t as grandiose as I’d like, but it does provide me shelter and so I’m grateful, I’m grateful with what I have.

            You see, in some ways gluttony is not that big a sin compared to others. But in other ways gluttony is very important because gluttony is just one facet of a bigger picture, a bigger picture of learning self-control. In Proverbs 25:28 it speaks of a man who lacks self-control as a city that doesn’t have walls. As in, if you’re not seeking to exercise self-control, you’re basically putting up zero fight against the devil and his temptations, you have no walls, no defenses. And learning self-control in one area will benefit you in self-control in many other areas.

            So again, gluttony is just one facet of a bigger picture, but it all adds up to an important big picture where we recognize that we must hold each earthly pleasure in its proper place. When Paul says set your minds on the things of heaven and not the things of earth, Paul isn’t saying that the things of earth are inherently bad. No, the things of earth are good gifts that God gives us, but what Paul means is they must be held in their proper place, they must not be the main priority; Paul knows that they must be used in moderation to be used rightly. Food is good, we need it to live, we’re meant to enjoy it, but food can become an idol, the belly can become one’s god. It’s similar to how rest is good. We need to rest to live, and God even commands us to rest with his sabbath commands. But one can rest too much and become slothful and lazy, and being lazy will harm both yourself and your family and community.

            So, as we stated at the start, those Paul is criticizing whose God is their belly are those hedonists who are prioritizing earthly pleasures above all else. Now it’s not wrong to pursue pleasure per se, but I think where these people go wrong is that they pursue pleasure in ways that will not truly fulfill, and pleasure in ways that are short-sighted and do not account for long-term consequences.

            Solomon learned in Ecclesiastes chapter 2 that the things of this earth aren’t enough to satisfy us. There he lived out his life as if his God was his belly, as if the purpose of life was merely to satisfy all his many appetites. He called it the test of pleasure. He gave himself to greed, to lust, to gluttony. He gave himself to any pleasure he could think of: great wealth, beautiful women, power, all of it. And in the end, did it satisfy him? No, he called it vanity, a chasing after the wind. You see, we have heavenly appetites that can never be satiated by earthly pleasures. Our appetite for food, for bread, cannot compare to our appetite for the bread of life, the bread of heaven. We desire God more than all else whether we know it or not.

So they’re pursuing pleasure in ways that won’t truly fulfill, but also, they’re pursuing pleasure in short-sighted ways. Paul hints at this when he says of those whose god is their belly that their end is destruction. If we can’t restrain our desires for pleasure through self-control, we will not live long on this earth. In pursuing pleasure in material things, we could waste through all of our savings in the snap of a finger by buying all sorts of cool gadgets or things. Saving money for the future is boring compared to what we could use it on in the present, but it is necessary self-control. Similarly, lust may be fun for the moment, but long-term it will tear apart your marriage, or even if you’re not married, your lust will slowly create a wreckage of many relationships around you. Similarly, who doesn’t love just gorging on candy or ice cream or chips, it’s fun in the moment, but if not done in moderation, long-term it may lead to serious health issues. Paul is not wrong when he says that for those who worship the god of the belly, their end is destruction. Lack of self-control is dangerous to our wellbeing.

It is dangerous to focus on short-term pleasure over long-term planning. And guess what is the most important long-term planning of all? Planning for our future in heaven. If you want the most pleasure in life you have to plan for your future, and that takes delayed gratification, that takes restraining yourself with self-control, but don’t just plan ahead for retirement, plan ahead for heaven. That is the message for today, set your eyes on the things of heaven, not the things of earth, and I say this not because I want to deny you joy, but because I want you to experience joy that lasts and endures for eternity.