For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things –Philippians 3:18 – 19.

Perhaps there is no more frequently tolerated sin in America than gluttony. Its gigantic presence is manifest in every church culture from the Catholics to the Anabaptists. It stands as a proud and daunting giant in the valley of intemperance, mocking the sons of grace in their weakness to overcome him. I say this, not as someone who is immune to the attractions of a potluck or buffet line, but as a fellow soldier who needs all the help he can get.

Gluttony is the worship of food. It is an idolatrous tableland where King Stomach rules voraciously and our best intentions too often bow to his mandates. Paul gives direction specifically in regard to food that he …will not be brought under the power of any –1 Corinthians 6:12. The picture presented is that of being sold into slavery. Paul had but one master—Jesus Christ.

Gluttony, then, is submission to a craving for food that conquers you. Over 2/3 of the population in America is overweight, and over 1/3 is considered obese, costing Americans an estimated 147 billion dollars annually. This is not just a mere weight problem or dysfunctional disorder toward food, but a sin problem. We often find ourselves careening between stuffed stomachs and crash diets, while our waistlines show relentless vigilance in extending their borders. The foolish farmer, who,

upon expanding his barns, chose to take his …ease, eat, drink, and be merry –Luke 12:19, will doubtlessly soon need to buy bigger clothes for himself as well. This that some call 'fat and happy' is a myth.

While the grossly obese stand ashamed of their intemperance, there are many who are not obvious food felons yet who also worship the god of gluttony. We are a social people and eating is a wonderful way of spending time together, yet our feasting does not need to be gluttonous. How ironic that the season during which many celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus provides the perfect invitation to idolatry. Who hasn't

come away from such splendid entrees feeling as stuffed as the

turkey we just ate?

I recently stepped on the scales and was surprised to find myself weighing 15 pounds over the weight stated on my driver's license. The kind folks of Toledo unselfishly gave us the “no strings—honest weight” invention, but we struggle to be thankful at the times we find courage enough to climb aboard.

While most would not consider me overweight, I am hard pressed to state how I put on those pounds without partaking in gluttony. While this may not be the ugliest and most dangerous giant in our spiritual world, it certainly ranks among the largest.

While many would rather regard it as only a small crime-against-one’s-body, the Bible defines gluttony as an idolatrous sin against God. Paul describes perilous times that shall come in the last days when …men shall be … lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God –2 Timothy 3:2-4. Food and wine are pleasurable, but they are also bosom partners in the destruction of man’s body and soul. Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty… –Proverbs 23:20-21.

If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all

Israel shall hear, and fear –Deuteronomy 21:18-21. Fortunately, since Christ, we have stepped away from this merciless treatment of sinners. Unfortunately, we have similarly stepped away from honestly dealing with sin.

Some eat to live; some live to eat. The latter are …they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly…–Romans 16:18. It is a matter of servanthood. Food is created to serve the body. The body is made to serve the Lord as the temple of the Holy Ghost—What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you… –1 Corinthians 6:19-20.

The body cannot wholly serve the Lord when it is following the dictates of the belly. Therefore, gluttony is more about the addiction of our affection than about the contents of our cupboards. Our conscience should rebuke us with how often we fall short of glorifying God with our stomachs. But our aim is not to shame ourselves into injecting more kale chips and chia

seeds into our system; …For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats… –Hebrews 13:9.

Both alcohol and food have a profound effect on our mental state. While God created food for us to enjoy and doesn't forbid the use of alcohol, moderation is the key. The problem arrives in that both are prone to abuse and therefore, difficult to control. Some wisely deem alcohol as unnecessary for good living and prefer not to partake in the temptation at all, but abstinence from food is not so accommodating. We do not overeat because we need that much food or like getting fat, but rather we overeat to comfort ourselves. Restaurants advertise “comfort foods” and make no apology for it. Eating is comforting and medicating, but it is also habit forming.

Raynald III was a fourteenth century duke in what is now Belgium. Grossly overweight, Raynald was commonly called by his Latin nickname, Crassus, which means “fat.” After a violent quarrel, Raynald’s

younger brother, Edward, led a successful revolt against him. Edward captured Raynald but did not kill him. Instead, he built a room around Raynald in the Nieuwkerk castle and promised him that he could regain his title and property as soon as he was able to leave the room. This would not have been difficult for most people since the room had several windows and a door of near-normal size, and none was locked or barred. The problem was Raynald’s size. To regain his freedom, he needed to lose weight. But Edward knew his older brother, and each day he sent a variety of delicious foods. Instead of dieting his way out of prison, Raynald grew fatter. When Duke Edward was accused of cruelty, he had

a ready answer: “My brother is not a prisoner. He may leave when he so wills.” Raynald stayed in that room for ten years and wasn’t released until after Edward died in battle. By then his health was so ruined that he died within a year …a prisoner of his own appetite. –Thomas Costain –The Three Edwards – The Life of Raynald III

Many of us are prisoners of our appetites as well. We are digging our own graves with our forks and spoons. After excessive eating, we become overwhelmed with shame, guilt, and regret. We may feel frustrated and depressed, wondering why we seem able to control every other area of our life but this one. It impacts our spiritual life, and we begin to make excuses or perhaps deny our gluttony, but peace is ebbing away like the sunset. In an ever-deepening darkness we return to our convenient and comforting idol again. As the cycle begins to spiral out of control, in desperation we reach out for the next new, exciting, liberating, breakthrough … diet plan. But even as a fifty-billion-dollar industry, the latest and greatest diet can never fix the tendency toward gluttony. It is an external solution to an internal problem. Like the drunkard, the fornicator, the sluggard, and the thief, the ax must be laid at the root of the problem. Nothing will be different until we think differently. We can submit to a food intake restriction, but unless we learn to exercise self-control at the mental level, a relapse is nearly inevitable.

God is our Refuge and our Food

At the foundation of most modern weight loss attempts is a selfish focus. We want to look better, feel better about ourselves, be healthier, or not be judged as lacking self-control. These may provide enough motivation for some to regulate their food intake, but for those with a more acute habit, it often isn't enough incentive. Our cause must be eternal, just like

…Jesus … who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross… –Hebrews 12:2.

He set not the constraint before His eyes but the positive: the joy of helping others and the blessedness of pleasing God. It is very interesting to me that there are so many food and taste analogies in the Bible relating to God Himself:

…taste and see that the Lord is good… –Psalm 34:8

…desire the sincere milk of the word… 1Pet 2:2

And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst –John 6:35

Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness –Isaiah 55:1-2

If we give our minds to being satisfied with spiritual bread, wine, and milk, then our physical desire to be comforted by food will lose its supreme power over our bodies. For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost –Rom 14:17

Jesus saith unto them, My meat (food) is to do the will of him that sent me... –John 4:34. For many, the thought of curtailing their appetite seems impossible, believing that their fate is to be fat. This is their first mistake. God has given us His Spirit without measure so that … I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me –Philippians 4:13

If God has forgiven us of our sins and fills us with the power to overcome sin, then surely, He would like us to conquer our appetites. Though it may take years to restore what the glut ton hath eaten, we start by repentance and reprogramming our minds with the truth that we can lose weight and keep it off because it is God's will and Christ lives in our hearts.

The Truth

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free –John 8:32. There is no more liberating antidote for a besetting habit than the truth. Most obese people have been relentlessly filling their minds with untruths concerning their infatuation: I can't lose weight—My body won't cooperate—I don’t have enough will power—I must eat because I am stressed—I need a new diet plan—My metabolism is off. These misbeliefs come in all shapes and sizes, and some may even bear a small percentage of truth. But it is eating and exercise that governs our

weight. No matter how many fat cells you have nor how fast you get hungry, nothing causes you to overeat and under-exercise except the very decisions you make. If we were asked to spin straw into gold, we could rightfully declare our inability, but willpower is not a substance you inherit. It is the exercise of truth in the inward parts. There is no easy way to lose weight. Weight loss happens as a result of eating less than you want to eat and exercising more than you want to exercise.

We must understand that the battle is not between us and food. It is between the spirit (what we stand for) and the body (what we crave for). The soul (our mind and emotions) vacillates between the two and makes the final decision. In the wilderness temptation, the hungering Christ was confronted with the thought of turning the stones into bread. The temptation was not gluttony, but that of whose will He would follow. His spirit ruled His flesh, and His spirit was subject to …every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God –Matt 4:4. The reason we fall victim to temptations is failure to make a distinctive difference between our thoughts and our imagination in these destructive thinking habits.

Tempting thoughts are not sin, but here is the critical point: the mind must decide if the thought is truthful or deceitful, upbuilding or destructive. As our imagination takes the thought, it expands it in one direction or another – either the truth that our spirit holds, or the emotions dictated from the feelings of our body. Gluttony not only does injustice to our body, but it quenches our spirit as well, determining which God or god we will serve. This is universal for any sin of the body.

…whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart –Matthew 5:28

Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things –Proverbs 23:33

The eyes see the woman and the imagination breeds the desire – the desire influences the decision – the decision prompts the act. This is true for alcohol as well. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright –Proverbs 23:31 Those who allow their imagination to follow their feelings are bound for failure. The longer our imagination is left to bask in the temptation, the more the will is broken down. An attempt to curtail decisions by self-control and a diet plan after arriving at this stage is too late. It is the reason that most diets fail. Once the habit is formed, we may not even be aware that we go through these steps, for it naturally becomes nstinctive.

The Temptation

The temptation must be confronted at the primary level where the rubber meets the road, and the thoughts arise: “I am starving; That dessert looks so good; I am so discouraged; I need to eat something.” …feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint…Behold, I am at the point to die… —Genesis 25:30-32. We must recognize that this is the deceptive voice of our body and feelings. But what does the spirit say? …My…body is the temple of the Holy Ghost …For I am bought with

a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's –1 Corinthians 6:19-20. “Will eating this really satisfy my craving, or will it bring me regret? This promises me pleasure, but I love God more. If this is really so wonderful, perhaps I shall wait until I get to heaven and stuff myself there.” We must tell ourselves the truth about the consequences of eating more calories than we burn, and the guilt associated with it afterward. We act according to what we believe. When

Adam and Eve believed the devil, they literally ate themselves out of house and home. When we look up into heaven and ask God what to do, the grueling decision has been made and we obey the mandate of the Master. This is how we, …through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body... –Romans 8:13

The Triumph

But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof –Romans 13:14. Recognizing our gluttony is only half of the answer. Many people turn to food because they are emotionally 'starving'. Christ wants to fill that void. We need to cultivate a range of appetites for great and good things: prayer, good literature, Christian fellowship, Bible reading, nature, helping others, etc. As we

become 'other' minded, old habits and appetites are replaced by new affections and inner peace. No longer must we be slaves to our appetites

and bodily whims. We are no longer moved by every body-inspired notion that comes across our mind.

We should be ordinary people, who learn to eat ordinary food, at ordinary meals, governed by the Spirit of God. We shall possess the fruit of the Spirit by the virtue of temperance in regards to our daily bread and thus join ranks with the great apostle who says, I beat my body and make it my slave—But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway –1 Corinthians 9:27. Moreover, with the giant lying dead at our feet, we can look up into the heavens toward the God of the universe and hear Him say, …Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord – Matthew 25:23 Rest assured, those who secure God's principles to conquer this colossal foe will possess the grace to rule over many others as well.

I saw few people die of hunger—of eating, a hundred thousand. –Benjamin Franklin

This article was first published in Heartbeat of the Remnant, Fall, 2023.