Sermon Tone Analysis

We are continuing our series on “Respectable Sins”, and we are going to cover one today that, just when looking at the title slide for the sermon, may make all of us shift in our seats.

The sin of gluttony.

This is an uncomfortable subject because we like to eat.

Eating is an enjoyable thing.

Food is such an important part of our lives.

Every day we have it.

It is part of just about every celebration that we have; birthdays, holidays, weddings, etc.

It is something Christians often do when they get together in each other’s homes.

But it is amazing how Satan has a way of taking what God creating as a good thing that we are to receive with thanksgiving, and turn it into a weapon to ensnare souls.

Just think about this for a moment.

The first sin ever committed had food involved, and since then, Satan has done a lot of work in using food to keep millions of souls away from God and to cause even God’s people to stumble.

In regards to the sin of gluttony, many people believe that it is perhaps “the most tolerated sin in American Christianity.”

I don’t know if this is true or not.

What I do know is that this is a subject that you don’t often hear about in the pulpit or hear God’s people talk about.

I think I have only heard one sermon on this subject during worship since I became a Christian 11yrs ago.

That is one of the reasons why I decided to put it in this series of lessons.

We all need to be reminded of what God’s word says about this sin so that we can be pleasing to God in every area of our lives.

Paul says, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” ().

If we desire to glorify God and to be fruitful in His kingdom, we need to, even in the subject of food, need to make sure that we are thinking and acting in a godly way.

Defining Gluttony

Let’s for a moment begin by looking at some different definitions of gluttony.

Webster’s defines gluttony as “excess in eating or drinking; greedy or excessive indulgence”.

We see something in the first part of this definition that the word that gluttony is what we commonly think of when we hear the word (overeating).

But you also see that gluttony includes other things as well.

It also includes drink in this definition.

Based on this definition, it would include over-indulging in pretty much anything that would be in our diets.

The second part of the definition shows more of a general principle of being given over to excess in almost anything.

We hear the word used in this kind of way often, like when we may say someone is a “glutton for punishment.”

But this more general definition could also include an excess or addiction to things like drugs, shopping, video games, watching television, sexual sin, money, etc., etc.

This is pretty much the definition you get no matter the dictionary you look at.

The question is though, what do we see in scripture regarding the sin of gluttony.

I believe as we look at the 7-10 main passages that deal with this sin, we come away with something pretty similar to what we see in dictionary definitions.

Bringing our passages together, I would personally define gluttony in this way:

Gluttony is a failure to show self control by over-indulging in food/drink.

It also includes having an insatiable craving for or an addiction to food, and at times this sin may also be a sign of a bigger problem: of a life-style that in general lacks self-control, is wasteful, or rejects authority.”

This is the definition that I think we will see as we go through scripture.

Let’s go through this definition.

LACK OF SELF-CONTROL

First, gluttony begins with a failure in showing self-control.

One very important thing we see as we go through the passages that deal with gluttony is that this sin is not a sin that happens by itself.

There are often many other sins that one is guilty of at the same time.

This has been the case with many of the sins we have been talking about in this series, they are hardly ever committed alone.

Immodesty usually is fueled by pride or ignorance.

Gossip is usually fueled by pride, bitterness, impatience, and hatred towards others.

Gluttony is fueled mainly by a lack of self control.

We see this idea regarding gluttony in a passage such as

“Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way.

20 Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, 21 for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags.”

There are a couple things in this passage that show this idea of a lack of self control.

First, there is a contrast between “being wise and directing your heart” and what happens if you surround yourself with drunkards and gluttons: you can become like them.

There is such a loss of control within them that you end up broke.

You spend all the money you needed to sustain yourself to binge on food and drink.

We also see that gluttony is a lack of self control in eating because it is coupled here, and in other passages, with drunkenness.

Drunkenness is characterized as a loss of self-control or a failure to control the amount of alcohol one drinks.

Gluttony is the same in regards to food.

But just think about this for a moment… This is pretty sobering: because of food, we can be unfruitful for the Lord!

Because we are giving ourselves to the works of the flesh, we make it so we no longer are giving ourselves to the Lord so we can bear the fruit of the Spirit.

OVER- INDULGENCE/ EXCESS

We have been influenced by the world around us to have hearts of excess, hearts that do not desire to be controlled.

We find a way to appease our appetites for more of everything!

We want more clothes, we buy them.

We want more toys and fancy electronic gadgets; we indulge ourselves with them.

And if we don't have the money to get them, we spend more than we have by charging it on the credit card.

Instead of being trained by God's spirit to show self-control, we have been trained by the spirit of this age to fulfilling every desire of our flesh.

We have allowed our desire for the things of this life, including food, to severely limit, or even at times quench the fruit that God’s Spirit can bring to our lives!

Another passage to consider: .

I believe this passage shows this idea of not being one to over-indulge yourself as you sit at a feast:

When you sit down to eat with a ruler, observe carefully what is before you, 2 and put a knife to your throat if you are given to appetite.

This verse does not mention the word gluttony in the ESV.

I think the NIV may be the only translation that translates the Hebrew word in this verse as “gluttony.”

That is fine, because I do believe this verse does show us in part how the Bible would define the term.

Just imagine sitting at a king’s banquet table.

This would be a difficult situation.

You have the finest foods sitting before you.

You have quite the spread… It would probably remind you of some good church pot-lucks at Larry’s shed!

The proverbs writer gives a very sobering warning whenever you are in this situation.

It is at this kind of time that it is dangerous for your soul to be a person who will be given to excess.

When there are such delicacies before you, this would be when one would be tempted to over-do it!

The instruction here is alarming… In other words, it is better to put a knife to your throat than to the steak on the table if you are someone given to appetite!

This is similar to what Jesus says in where it is better to have a heavy millstone tied around your neck and to be thrown into the sea than it is to cause one of His little ones to stumble.

Same kind of “shock and awe” kind of warning here in Proverbs.

For one who is given over to appetite; one who will lose control and focus on fulfilling the desire of the flesh and end up eating too much, this is a dangerous situation worth staying away from so that you 1) don’t make a fool of yourself before those who let you sit at their table, and 2) so that you don’t fall under the judgment of God for gluttony.

ADDICTION/CRAVING

And this idea of being “given over to appetite” also includes in it, I believe, the idea of having insatiable cravings for food that cannot be controlled.

Another way of putting this idea would be, in my judgment, having an addiction to certain foods.

This seems to be the picture that is painted in .

One who is unable to control themselves whenever they are before the delicacies, and are consumed and enslaved to their cravings.

Whenever our craving for different foods and drinks gets out of hand, to the point where it is an addiction, it becomes, not just a self-control issue as we have already seen, but an idolatry issue!

We will talk about idolatry more in a later lesson, but it is worth bringing up here also.

There are some commentators that define gluttony from these passages in this way: A glutton is “one who is held hostage by food or has a craving for food that conquers them.

They use food as a way to “escape.”

Another way of putting it is a glutton is “One who, instead of eating to live, lives to eat.”

This definition shows how we can at times have a dysfunctional relationship with food; how we can corrupt its purpose for being given to us by God, and how it can become our master; how it can become an ultimate thing, an idol.

This definition mentions the idea of using food as an escape.

I think an example of this is stress-eating.

many people stress eat thinking that it will give them fulfillment or make their problems go away.

The more they eat when they are sad, the better they feel.

For many who stress eat like this, it becomes a big problem.

Every emotional time brings about desires to eat, and gluttony is a common occurrence.

We need to be careful to make sure food is not something that consumes our thinking and our lives so it does not become something we are enslaved to.