The Church's Most Glorified Sin
There is a very disheartening reality in the church today. It’s one that no one, not even me, wants to talk about. Probably because we all struggle with it. I’m talking about the issue of food. Yes, we have a food issue in the American church. Northwestern University did a study in 2011 to examine the development of obesity in people with various degrees of religious involvement. They found that young adults who frequently attend religious activities are 50 percent more likely to become obese by middle age as young adults with no religious involvement. A 2019 report from Duke University showed that black men who attend church almost daily were twice as likely to be obese than black men who rarely ever attend church. A 2006 Purdue study found that the fundamental Christians are by far the heaviest of all religious groups, Baptists being in the lead, whereas other religious groups such as Jews, Buddhists and Hindus had almost no obesity. Not only does this make the Christian' Church look bad to the world, but being overweight can greatly affect one’s ministry and ability to serve.
The Bible actually has a term for this food problem and it’s called gluttony. I’ve been thinking about doing a series on gluttony for a while but haven’t had the courage until now. It’s not a popular topic and I don’t feel as if I’ve fully overcome my struggles in this area. But God can use my weakness much more than He can use my strength. I can’t help but speak up when there are so many misconceptions about this sin and the church remains ignorant or unconcerned. In this series, I want to talk about my experience with gluttony and the 3 major reasons why it is such a deadly sin. These 3 heart issues of gluttony are that it shows lack of control over the flesh, it focuses one’s mind on this world instead of the Spirit, and it can be a sign that one is relying on food for the comfort that only God can give. Before I get into these topics, I want to define gluttony and give you some examples from Scripture.
Gluttony Defined
First and foremost, gluttony is a sin. Reading just a few verses about gluttony in the Bible and you will see that this is undeniably true. Below are the main verses that have the root word “glutton” in them. Notice the types of sins they list alongside gluttony as well as the condemnation that accompanies it.
Ezekiel 16:49 Sodom’s sins were pride, gluttony, and laziness, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door. (NLT)
Proverbs 23:1-2 When you sit down to eat with a ruler, observe carefully what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony.
Proverbs 23:20-21 Do not mix with winebibbers, Or with gluttonous eaters of meat; For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, And drowsiness will clothe a man with rags.
Proverbs 28:7 Whoever keeps the law is a discerning son, But a companion of gluttons shames his father.
Deuteronomy 21:20-21 And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.
Titus 1:12 One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”
Thomas Aquinas describes gluttony this way: “I (Thomas Aquinas) answer that gluttony denotes, not any desire of eating and drinking, but an inordinate desire” (Articles of Gluttony, Roman Zakharii). When desire leaves the good order that God created it to live in, that desire becomes a sin. This concept is easily seen in a sin such as adultery. Intimacy isn’t in itself wrong, but intimacy outside of the good order of marriage is wrong. Just the same, wanting to eat food isn’t a sin, but wanting to eat excessively or disorderly is a sin. Does that mean that any time I over-eat I am sinning? Well, I wouldn’t say that eating four slices of pizza when you could have done with three is necessarily gluttony. As with any sin, it all has to do with the heart behind it. Anything can be a sin when we put that thing on the throne of our lives where only God should be. So when eating or desiring to eat overrides our self-control and our ability to care for and love others, this becomes gluttony.
Pastor John Piper defines gluttony as “the enjoyment of food that has become untethered from contentment in God as the governing love of our life.” When we lose our contentment in Christ and start to replace that contentment with food, Pastor John says that several things will start to happen:
1. We become indifferent to the harmful effects that food is having on our body, the temple of the Holy Spirit.
2. We become indifferent to how we are stewarding our money, as we spend unwisely on wrong foods.
3. We start using food as an escape from our problems
4. We stop enjoying food as a way of enjoying God
What does this discontentment in God look like? Back to Thomas Aquinas, he said that gluttony can look like eating:
Too soon (before meal times)
Too expensively (spending too much on flavor-rich food or convenience)
Too much (past when you are full)
Too eagerly (not patiently)
Too daintily (desiring delicacies and avoiding practicality)
Too wildly (eating in weird, disorderly ways)
In future posts, I will talk about my experience with each of these manifestations of gluttony. For now, I want you to just start thinking of gluttony as not just gorging yourself and start seeing the heart behind it. Does our obsession with food override our ability to be self-controlled? Do we let our palates dictate our thoughts and decisions? Do we habitually eat things we know are harmful for our body, whether or not we gain a pound? We don’t fight this sin just so that we can have an awesome beach body. We fight this sin because we are to bring all things under submission to the glory of Christ, which includes our stomachs.
Now why did I say the American church glorifies this sin? This is a pretty big condemnation and I don’t say it lightly. Here is why: I’ve never heard a church member condone addiction, lack of self-control, or obsession...except when it comes to food.
“I can’t function without my coffee in the morning.”
“I’ve gotta have my Diet Coke.”
“I’m addicted to these cookies.”
“I could never give up chocolate.”
“I can’t stop eating these chips.”
I’ve heard all these things. I’ve said some of these things. And what do I hear brothers and sisters in Christ say in reply? “Oh man, I’m the same way!”
Since when do followers of Christ laughingly accept being controlled by the flesh? We don’t do that with any other fleshly impulse. What if someone said, “I really had to yell at my kids to make it through the day.” You would never see another believer pat that person on the back and say, “Whatever keeps you truckin’.” Maybe I’m taking this to an extreme, but the point is the American church has become too comfortable letting our bellies control our minds and actions and it is having a drastic impact. As I stated before, evangelical churchgoers are more likely to be obese than non-churchgoers. At least in North Carolina, clergy have an obesity rate of 39.7%, which is 10.3% higher than the surrounding population (High Rates of Obesity and Chronic Disease Among United Methodist Clergy, Duke Divinity). Just a glimpse at the average church culture and you will see why. The worst place to go if you’re trying to give up coffee and sweets is a church fellowship hall. Church potlucks aren’t complete without cupcakes, cookies, chips, and lemonade. When I was in elementary school I participated in a pie eating contest at our church picnic. I’m pretty sure I didn’t eat cherry pie for seven years after that. If that isn’t a promotion of gluttony I don’t know what is.
It is GOOD to eat together as believers, just as the early church was devoted to breaking bread together (Acts 2:42). However, our “bread” is usually hamburger buns, donuts, and potato chips. Refined carbs and highly-processed foods should be eaten on a very rare occasion, not weekly. But what is worse than growing waistlines is that these processed foods are usually highly addictive which turns us into slaves of our palates.
Now I do have to insert that I have seen a dramatic improvement in the Church’s mindset toward health over the last few years. My church where I grew up started offering fruit and nuts alongside, and sometimes in place of the cookies and donuts on Sunday morning. Our current church doesn’t even serve snacks on Sunday’s and always has healthy options at potlucks and other church events. We are starting to be more sensitive to those who are trying to choose health, but I think we are at the point where we have to start calling out gluttony for what it is. Gluttony is living to please your palate. It’s giving in to your stomach’s every desire. It’s letting your cravings dominate you. As we fight the battle against our appetite, let’s keep in mind I Corinthians 6:12 “‘All things are lawful for me,’ but not all things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful for me,’ but I will not be dominated by anything.”
I hate talking about these not-so-fun topics but it is just not okay for the church to be behind the rest of the world in the area of health. I pray that you will not be dominated by your flesh but that you would find freedom in choosing what is lawful and helpful. Learning to subdue the stomach is one of the best ways to learn to subdue the other parts of our flesh that war against our spirit. By doing this we can walk in greater freedom and satisfaction in Christ, the sweet satisfaction that we so long for!
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