Is Gluttony Sin?
As you may have gathered from previous posts, I continued to be discombobulated and dis-eased. It came to a head towards the end of January, and I knew I had to do something about it. Sometimes I leave things that are rumbling in my mind because I can't be bothered to take the time to deal with them. However, I knew I needed to spend time with God and get all this sorted out. I thought I'd be dealing with one thing but instead, I wound up dealing with another.
I've been doing the course from settingcaptivesfree.com called The Lord's Table. The whole premise is that gluttony is sin but I've had real trouble with this and when I went to find the texts in the Bible about gluttony, all I could see as a negative result was poverty and sleepiness, NOT that it is a sin. [Please! Don't assume from this that it isn't a sin--I'm just giving my personal thoughts.] But I hadn't done a thorough search and so last night I began to do so. Using Nave's Topical Bible at bible.crosswalk.com, I looked up the verses purportedly to do with gluttony. Most of them had very little to do with food and more to do with things like dissipation, dissolution, etc.--big words that I wasn't sure what they meant until I looked them up. Here is the conclusion I drew from my research:
We're not to allow ourselves to become so caught up in pleasing ourselves, wasting, squandering, and indulging, that we forget to watch for the signs of Christ's coming and so aren't ready when He comes.
We need to be "decent and true...so that everyone can approve of our behaviour..." and not look for ways to indulge our evil desires, lacking moral strength or disregarding accepted rules and standards.
Our conduct can show that we're enemies of the cross of Christ. One such way is when we are given up to the pleasures of our palate or to gluttony, when we make THIS our god, rather than following Paul's example.
It is wrong for leaders to pig out at church functions and leave others with little or nothing. It is wrong for leaders to serve only themselves, even when it comes to eating.
Gluttons are lavish squanderers who waste their means by indulgence and, according to Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary, as quoted by dictionary.com, this wasting could be of one's own body.
There are plenty of verses in the Bible that talk about how GOOD it is to eat and be satisfied and full, so if gluttony is a sin it is something that is beyond being sated with food. It would seem that the sin is wasting, squandering, self-indulgence, lacking self-control, making the desires of our stomach our god. And while feasting is commanded in the Bible, there are a number of passages where people were feasting when they should have been fasting or being more circumspect in their eating. I think the thing is to be moderate and self-controlled, not just in eating but in other things like spending and computer use—-two areas where I think I need to begin paying attention—-and to seek God’s face at all times to ensure that one is hearing what He is saying and obeying.
I spent 7 hours in my research and in thinking, praying and sorting things out. It was hard work. I knew I had to work towards the Repent/Renounce/Break/Bless sequence that I did last November. That was so meaningful and powerful for me then and I wanted the same kind of breakthrough this time.
I've been doing the course from settingcaptivesfree.com called The Lord's Table. The whole premise is that gluttony is sin but I've had real trouble with this and when I went to find the texts in the Bible about gluttony, all I could see as a negative result was poverty and sleepiness, NOT that it is a sin. [Please! Don't assume from this that it isn't a sin--I'm just giving my personal thoughts.] But I hadn't done a thorough search and so last night I began to do so. Using Nave's Topical Bible at bible.crosswalk.com, I looked up the verses purportedly to do with gluttony. Most of them had very little to do with food and more to do with things like dissipation, dissolution, etc.--big words that I wasn't sure what they meant until I looked them up. Here is the conclusion I drew from my research:
We're not to allow ourselves to become so caught up in pleasing ourselves, wasting, squandering, and indulging, that we forget to watch for the signs of Christ's coming and so aren't ready when He comes.
We need to be "decent and true...so that everyone can approve of our behaviour..." and not look for ways to indulge our evil desires, lacking moral strength or disregarding accepted rules and standards.
Our conduct can show that we're enemies of the cross of Christ. One such way is when we are given up to the pleasures of our palate or to gluttony, when we make THIS our god, rather than following Paul's example.
It is wrong for leaders to pig out at church functions and leave others with little or nothing. It is wrong for leaders to serve only themselves, even when it comes to eating.
Gluttons are lavish squanderers who waste their means by indulgence and, according to Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary, as quoted by dictionary.com, this wasting could be of one's own body.
There are plenty of verses in the Bible that talk about how GOOD it is to eat and be satisfied and full, so if gluttony is a sin it is something that is beyond being sated with food. It would seem that the sin is wasting, squandering, self-indulgence, lacking self-control, making the desires of our stomach our god. And while feasting is commanded in the Bible, there are a number of passages where people were feasting when they should have been fasting or being more circumspect in their eating. I think the thing is to be moderate and self-controlled, not just in eating but in other things like spending and computer use—-two areas where I think I need to begin paying attention—-and to seek God’s face at all times to ensure that one is hearing what He is saying and obeying.
I spent 7 hours in my research and in thinking, praying and sorting things out. It was hard work. I knew I had to work towards the Repent/Renounce/Break/Bless sequence that I did last November. That was so meaningful and powerful for me then and I wanted the same kind of breakthrough this time.
posted by Magdaleine at 10:21 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home