Featured Gluttony

It would be attacking the sacred tradition of church basement pot-luck dinners?

 

I love this question evangelist. I've thought on it a while now, especially since coming to saving faith nine months ago.

The problem I have seen requires me to explain that I have only in the past year or so started to fast, which has altered my whole perspective.

I now see that I am a very, very wealthy man when it comes to food by historical and international standards because I eat standard grocery market fare in America. Another thing I've noticed is that while my church does teach that fasting is up there with prayer and charity (Matthew 6:1-18), it seems that a normal baptist church doesn't really seem all that concerned about getting people to fast.

I mean we have Wednesday night all-you-can-eat suppers at my church, and when the church meets for anything beyond a business meeting on a non-Wednesday there is always plenty of food provided unless it's the Sunday evening activities. I believe they do this for Sunday evening because people at the church have friends they dine with after service on Sundays, and families tend to have dinners at a table Sunday evening before church. Now this is a wonderful blessing from my church in that we always eat a feast. That and I don't want to criticize baptist churches much as I have a hard time fasting myself. But, this way of always providing refreshments and feasts at church when we gather feels tempting, because you want to make the conclusion that feasts are just normal and fasting kind of weird.

 

Please prove that "prohibitionists" ignore the sin of gluttony.

 

Yep, we've all seen the headlines: "Glutton Crashes Into Van, Killing 8"; or known the glutton who neglected his children because he came home late every night from the restaurant; or heard about the glutton who beat his wife and kids every time he came under the influence of food.

And of course we all know the hundreds of references to gluttony in the Bible...no, wait, the dozens of...no wait, the couple of times gluttony is mentioned in the Bible.

 

Carousing is only mentioned once in the bible, but has eternal consequences for the person who continues with it without repentance (Galatians 5:19-21). James 4:3 and James 5:5 paint a picture of the Jewish church that lends me to believe that gluttony, like carousing, is a serious sin before God and one that shows a lack of faith if continued on unto death.

Now I have to admit gluttony is an easy sin in this culture. I must confess in sadness that I ate a whole bag of candy last night despite my weight issues in the irresponsible pursuit of pleasure. I got to this post to repent on my knees. Thank you for the discussion everyone, and thank you for your timing John of Japan, as He used you in a way you did not know till now.

All of that said, the key issue it seems with gluttony is that loving the world means hating the Father (James 4:4 and 1 John 2:15-17 both come to mind).

 

I believe you hit the nail on the head with your use of the word "carousing." Biblically speaking, gluttony is not a single event like getting drunk, but a party-loving lifestyle. Simply overeating is not gluttony, according to what I think the Bible teaches.

I don't consider you to be a glutton just because you ate a whole bag of candy last night. However, if your lifestyle is one of being out of control when it comes to food, that may be a gluttonous lifestyle.

 

For me eating all that candy was a loss of control and acting outside of what I knew to be the right thing. I went against my conscience because of pleasure and I thus sinned. Now I am not going to hell based on that bag of candy, but as a Believer I must always repent of my sins quickly, completely, and readily.

And of course, lifestyle seems to be what the bible is referring to when it talks of those who practice serious sin (Hebrews 10:26-27, 1 John 3:9, Psalm 19:13-14 ). The mere act of practicing conscious sins that the Believer knows better about is strong evidence of a lack of real belief. Especially if church discipline fails to correct the matter. However, that does not mean they are necessarily an unBeliever because there is yet hope they may repent (1 Corinthians 5:4-5 ).

 

Perhaps we must use another word than gluttony, as the word is never used. I would proffer "sensuality" is the better term as it is actually used in the New Testament. It indicates a life given over to the pursuit of worldly pleasures as far as I know from Strong's Concordance.

 

You certainly should obey your conscience. And "keeping short accounts with God," as my pastor/father used to term it, is a good practice.

Well said.

 

Actually, the word "glutton" does occur in the KJV twice: Deut. 21:20 and Prov. 23:21. And the same Hebrew word zalal occurs in other contexts where the meaning is close to the English word, such as Prov. 23:20 and 28:7.

But "sensuous" would fit the bill in the NT, I think.