Defeating Gluttony
“Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.” -Philippians 3:19
Gluttony is an over-indulgence, usually in food and drink. Gluttons have difficulty showing self-restraint and are unable to refrain from moderation. Gluttony worships food to feed one’s own self-love. Gluttony sets one’s mind on earthly things and not on the things of heaven.
We cannot talk about gluttony, without first talking about the human body. We need to understand that Christianity is the most pro-body religion in the world. First of all, God created us with a human body and God deemed it very good. Second of all, our Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, became a human body. Not only did God become man on Christmas, but at the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God redeemed the human body. Third of all, when we become Christian, our body becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit. Christianity is all about loving the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit with our soul, mind, and of course our body.
Gluttony gets in the way of our worship of God because it worships food or drink instead of God. When we don’t worship God but rather our sensual appetites, not only is it idolatry, but we also damage our body and warp our spiritual life. Our relationship with God and our relationship with food gets complicated when our god becomes our stomach.
The narrative of the Holy Scripture can be summarized by two meals. The first meal where Adam and Eve eat without God and the second meal where the disciples had their last meal with God’s Son. The first meal was selfish, the last meal was selfless. The first meal was gluttonous, and the last meal showed complete obedience to the will of God. The first meal is a reminder of humanity’ separation with God. The last meal is a reminder of how God reconciled humanity back to Him.
There have been many theological interpretations on the original sin and why Adam and Eve ate from the Forbidden Tree of Knowledge. But at the end of the day, they saw it pleasing to the eye (Genesis 3:6). They could have eaten the other fruits and vegetables, but they couldn’t resist and ate that extra piece of food. Gluttony is the inability to show self-restraint and going for the extra forbidden food.
The second meal, the Last Supper, is a reminder about how much God loves us. Every time we gather as disciples and partake in communion, we show our gratitude to Jesus Christ who became our atoning sacrifice for our sins. When we look at the bread and the wine, we focus on Christ. When we focus on Christ we see what true and perfect worship to God is; we see perfect love. Communion is a reminder of the great love of God: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).
The key to victory over gluttony, or any addictive behavior for that matter, is to first acknowledge there is a problem and seek help. It will be a process, but the process will be worth it. To have victory, one must replace bad behavior with good behavior. Or as the Apostle Paul puts it, “Set our minds on the things of heaven and not on earthly things.” When we rely on the grace and power there is in Jesus Christ, we can free ourselves from sinful patterns and worship God with all our mind, soul, and body