A few years ago, I was speaking with a friend of mine who is not a Christian, and we have a good relationship. He picks on me for being a pastor, but I never feel it crosses a line. And one time, he goes to me, “So what are you indoctrinating your people with this week?”
I said, “Well, if you’re asking me what I’m preaching, this Sunday I’ll be sharing God’s good word on his plan for our holiness in terms of marriage and sexuality.”
And he went right for the jugular. He says, “Oh, is that what you’re preaching on? And let me ask, how many sermons on homosexuality do you think you’ve preached on?” I said, “Not a ton, a few in my time.”
And he says, “Hmm, okay. Let me ask you… Do you think, in your American Evangelical and Conservative church, your people are more likely to be gay… or to be greedy?”
He says, “You’re bold enough to preach on homosexuality, but have you preached on God’s good word about gluttony?” And I just look at him and then he says, “I think your people know what your Bible says about being gay, but do they know what it says about being a glutton?”
And – because I want to be a humble man, I said to him… “Point taken.”
Now listen, if you think gluttony is simply a food problem, then you don’t understand what the Bible says about gluttony… gluttony exposes a lifestyle, not simply eating habits…
Gluttony is one of those secret sins – not secret as in its hidden, but secret as in it’s not talked about…and gluttony is a multi-faceted problem stemming from greed and no discipline…
Here’s a snapshot to help paint a fuller picture…
Americans discard 400 million electronic devices every year…
Each American generates about 1 pound of trash every single day… 1
Americans use 25% of the global energy, when we are only 5% of the global population
American homes eat $200 worth of candy each year…
The US throws away about 1/3 of its food supply…that’s 550 pounds of food per person every year… which costs each American home almost $2,000 a year in waste… 2
And the carbon footprint of U.S. food waste is greater than that of the airline industry.”
These stats I’ve shared with you show us that all this waste is a product of our problem with over-indulgence, which is a great indicator of gluttony…
Gluttony is a great spiritual problem before it is a physical one.
This is the first of a 4-part series on gluttony, and we’ll use Philippians 3:17-21 as a guide as we consider the sin and destructiveness of gluttony.
We’ll start with this first idea:
Gluttony gives us a wrong model (v17)
Proverbs 23:21 tells us that, “the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty…”
Gluttony and drunkenness are often paired together because they both deal with excess of things that are good in moderation. Drinking in moderation, and food in moderation, are not sinful, but those things rule over us when we can’t say no…
We think it’s freedom to do what we want, but if we can’t say no, that’s not freedom, that’s slavery… addiction, that’s bondage, that’s something we are trapped in; this is the opposite of freedom.
Did you know that the book of Deuteronomy includes gluttony as the type of evil that should not be tolerated among God’s people (Deuteronomy 21:18-21) because God’s people are to have a full life, a beautiful life marked by boundaries of holiness and health, where self-control is a staple of society.
We don’t have that. We are a people who have used our freedoms to say yes to everything and no to nothing. A common phrase of ours is, “You can’t tell me what to do.” And so, we turn around and tell ourselves we can do anything. We are people who say, “Anything goes as long as what you do doesn’t affect me…” Meaning, we are free to overindulge ourselves to the point of death… and so we do…
But in a world of keeping up with the Joneses, in a world of freedom, in a world of “you do you,” we have all around us, a wrong model of living… and yet, Christ shows a better way…
Philippians 3:17: “Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.”
Let me ask you… not in a prideful sense, but in a faithful sense, would you tell others to follow your example? Would you tell others, “Live as I live, do as I do, eat as I eat, enjoy life as I enjoy life, for I follow the model of Christ?” Christians, can you say that?
See, gluttony is the selfish life, but godliness is the selfless life… not meaning that our lives are worthless, but that our lives are best lived not when we are in bondage to the excess available to us, but when we are free and disciplined to say no…
And Christ leaves for us a model to follow, and those who follow it give us an example to watch… but the gluttony of the world around us gives us a poor model…
Just look at our lives… I already said, every American gets at least one new electronic device a year, we throw out 1/3 of the food we get, we use 4 times as much of the world’s energy as is our share… we are people that have too much, waste too much, and use too much… and yet, for a people that have it all and more than we need… happiness in America is on the decline…
A study(3) in early 2024 found that when looking at the average, stretching back 45 years, we are 5 points under the average in being very to somewhat satisfied with life…
Or put it like this, only 47% of American, less than half of us, are very satisfied with their life – this is just one point above the record low which was during the great recession of ‘08 – ’09.
And guess what… no surprise here, but the study found that those who are happiest are those who have a good job, are married, and go to church regularly… imagine that… God’s plan results in a greater happiness…
The notion here is that to follow the world’s trends does not result in greater happiness, but the plan we have in Scripture produces that happiness, found in having the right purpose to our lives, not the right pleasure. We are a society that has all the pleasure, and yet, happiness is dwindling, because while we may have wealth of material, our lives are empty of meaning. Gluttony gives us a poor model indeed…
But it’s not just the wrong model… It’s a wicked master. We’ll find out more in part two.
