When Eating Becomes Sin (Conclusion)

This is Part V of Jack Hughes' excellent biblical series, "When Eating Becomes Sin, Part 5". Again, the original links to the entire series at Calvary Bible Church's site are found here. (Scroll down to the bottom).

Spend some time reading these insights and as always, be a Berean - hold it up to the light of Scripture. You will find, as I did, that what Pastor Hughes is saying is true, and it is convicting. Examine your own heart in the light of God's revelation about sin in this area, and remember that every day is a new beginning and opportunity to repent and start anew!

It just so happens we are addressing one of the sacred cows of the modern day church – eating (pun kind of intended). There is so much being said about eating, exercise, and dieting today, but very little is being said about these things from a biblical perspective. Our plan has been to first examine the wide range of Scriptures to determine the instances when eating becomes a sin.

At this point you may be feeling a bit overwhelmed if you struggle with exercising self control in your eating. And you may be thinking to yourself, What is my “godly weight?” Or “How much can I eat and not sin?” or “Is dieting biblical?” Or “Is exercise a proper solution for obesity?” Or “If someone has practiced indulgence and has become obese, would true repentance require them to lose weight?” Or “If I have gained weight slowly over many years am I in sin and should I lose weight? Or “Can you be skinny as a rail and still be a glutton?” These are just the kinds of questions that need to be asked because they force us to apply the text of Scripture to real life situations, which is what studying the Bible is all about. Let’s start off with some encouragement.

God’s grace is sufficient for you!

The Apostle Paul in Rom. 6:14, speaking about how salvation frees us from sin said, “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” Salvation releases you from the grip of sin so that you do not have to obey its lusts. You now have a choice. You can say “Yes” to God and “No” to sin.

In I Cor. 10:13 Paul explains this when he says, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” In the preceding context Paul lists several instances when Israel fell into sin. His point is clear, God always provides a way of escape for believers so they don’t ever have to sin.

Speaking to the Galatians, Paul said in Gal. 5:16, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” Every believer has the Holy Spirit dwelling within him (Rom 8:9) and because the Holy Spirit abides in us we do not need to carry out the desires of the flesh, in other words we can say “No” to temptation through the power of the indwelling Spirit.

James reminds us that when a believer sins, it is the believer’s fault. James 1:14-16 reads, “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.” James reminds us that no one makes you sin, you choose to sin. Others may tempt you to sin, but whenever you do sin, its your fault. Sin always begins within your heart and when your heart lusts, it often gives birth to sinful actions. James even says, “do not be deceived” because many are quick to blame their sin on someone or something else. Our sin is always our fault.

Finally, we come to a very encouraging Scripture, II Pet. 1:3. Peter is speaking about our resources in Christ and says, “seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.” What this means is that a believer has everything he needs to live a life of godliness and self control. Christians have the answers to living a godly life in the Word of God.

Before we start into the practical aspects of the Christian and eating, I think it would be helpful to think through some of the worldly ways people try to deal with their sinful eating habits. This will help us, by contrast, apply biblical principles to sinful eating habits.

Worldly Methods for Dealing with a Spiritual Problem

The Apostle Paul speaking to the Roman’s in Rom. 13:14 said, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.” Do you know why Paul gives this exhortation? Because he knew every Christian has every resource to “make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lust.” Christians don’t have to accommodate their fleshly desires.

Yet there are always those who don’t recognize their sin for what it is and end up trying to address a spiritual problem by dealing with its symptom. The Colossians were being tempted to do this very thing and in Col. 2:20-23 Paul told them this, “If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, ‘Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!’ (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.” Here Paul condemns man made religion that attempts to produce holiness in the believer. Paul’s point is that man made religion does not sanctify us or make us more godly. It has no power against fleshly indulgence. Worldly solutions are at best temporary fixes of symptoms but do not touch a sinful heart. Let’s say a Christian struggles with eating too much. They are not exercising self control. They are living an undisciplined life. They are being gluttonous. They are being mastered by their fleshly desires. They are failing to take care of their body which is the temple of the Holy Spirit. They are practicing fleshly indulgence. We have examined all of these sins in previous Calvary Review issues. As a consequence of their sin, they become obese. Others can tell that they are out of control in their eating.

Many Christians may not realize that their obesity is actually the symptom of various sins of the heart. They know others know they are out of control and so their primary desire is to lose weight. So you see the folly of this? Their primary desire should be to glorify God. They should desire not to look good on the outside but to glorify God in their body, exercise self control, master their fleshly desires, and be disciplined. Instead, the fear and approval of man motivates them to address their appearance rather than the spiritual problems of their heart. And the world is more than willing to distract them from glorifying God. Let’s look at how the world often distracts Christians from dealing with sins related to eating.

Some people have their stomach stapled. Is this a cure? Well it may make it so they can’t eat as much, cause them to feel the sensation of fulness sooner, and may even cause them to lose weight. And if weight loss is the primary goal, then having your stomach stapled might be an option. But if your main goal is to glorify God in your body, exercise self control, be disciplined, have mastery over your fleshly desires, then having your stomach stapled does nothing to address the problem of sin. Stomach stapling has no power over fleshly indulgence. It doesn’t sanctify you. It is like locking up a criminal in prison. The prison may confine the criminal so that he cannot do the crimes he lusts to do, but it doesn’t change his heart. The heart problem, the attitudes and lusts that give birth to sin are not dealt with. Hence stomach stapling fails to address the problem. Instead, it attempts to address an outward symptom of the problem, obesity.

Others have opted for plastic surgery techniques like lypo-suction. Fat cells are removed from the body by suction and hence are gone forever. But the suction doesn’t remove the sin of the heart. The person may even feel a new found freedom to indulge like never before because they fear knowing their fat cells are gone. Hence they might increase, rather than decrease their sinful behavior. Their weight may stay down and their appearance remain constant but lypo-suction hasn’t dealt with the sins of the heart. Plastic surgery has no power against fleshly indulgence. It is merely cosmetic.

Diet pills are another approach to curbing our fleshly appetites. This is an attempt at sanctification through pharmaceuticals. The problem is that chemicals don’t solve spiritual problems. Instead, they make them worse. Those who take drugs to deal with their sin end up relying more and more on the drug and exercising less and less self control. When the drug is removed, they go gastronomically postal and eat everything in sight. The drugs allow people to be lazy and not exercise self control. In the end, the person either becomes dependent on drugs or quits taking them and is worse off than ever before.

Others have tried hypnosis or acupuncture to curb their appetites. Hypnosis is wrong all together. God does not want us to give someone else control of our minds and bodies. This is what happens in demon possession. The Scriptures never condone letting someone else take control of our mind. Acupuncture is another technique which cannot deal with spiritual issues of the heart. Both hypnosis and acupuncture may curb the appetite and cause a loss of weight (the symptom of the sin) but they cannot change the heart. Hence they are of no use against fleshly indulgence.

Another very popular means Christians often get drawn into is going on special diets which train people to eat certain foods and to avoid others. For instance, there are low carbohydrate diets that allow you to “eat all the meat and vegetables you want.” There are the juice diets, vegetarian diets and most allow you to “eat all you want” of certain kinds of food. These kinds of diets, instead of teaching self control, self discipline and mastery over one’s fleshly desires, encourage or allow gluttony which is the very sin that needs to be dealt with. Most who try these kinds of diets end up cheating, eating what they want and also being gluttonous in “approved areas.” Even if the person sticks to the diet faithfully, when they get tired of eating a limited food group and go off the diet, they usually gain back the weight they tried so hard to lose. This leads to frustration and exasperation. The real problem is that they have not learned to be self controlled. They have tried to deal with the symptom of the sin, obesity, but have not dealt with the sin that is causing the symptom.

Others try to deal with sins related to eating by buying special foods that are sold by companies wanting to make money off of people who want to lose weight. Of course losing weight is not a bad thing, but it isn’t the problem, it is the symptom of the problem. Eating certain kinds of prepared foods might allow you to lose weight, but they are no cure against fleshly indulgence. Of course the companies that prepare those specialty diet foods and provide training which encourages you to rely on them, hope you never go off their diet. But if you do go off their diet, you will most likely gain the weight back because you haven’t learned to practiced self control. You haven’t learned to say no to the flesh and have mastery over your fleshly desires.

Excessive exercise is another path that some have taken. There is nothing wrong with exercise, in fact, it is good for us. But if you are out of control in your eating habits, exercise is not the solution to your heart problem. It may keep you from gaining weight and may make you look and feel good on the outside, but it doesn’t address the sins of your heart. It merely allows you to continue to indulge yourself, without others realizing you are out of control.

As Christians we must not get swept along in the flood of dieting and weight loss gimmicks in an attempt to deal with our sin. Losing weight is not the solution to our lack of self control and sinful indulgence. Looking good on the outside is a fine goal, but let us be clear, it doesn’t sanctify the heart.

For our next Calvary Review we will discuss how to practically deal with the sins of the heart related to sinful eating habits and the lasting consequences of learning to say no to the flesh and living a disciplined, self controlled, spirit empowered life. Until then, look at your life and consider if you’re trying to deal with the sin in your life with worldly techniques that have no power against fleshly indulgence.

When Eating Becomes Sin, Part IV

Ready for another hard-hitting message from Jack Hughes of Calvary Bible Church? Remember, there is grace when we fail, so do not despair if you recognize yourself in any of these pointed sermons. Just get back up, repent, and ask God for more grace to conquer this weakness. It's all done in His strength anyway; so learn to see conviction as loving and constructive criticism. When we heed the Holy Spirit's promptings and change our harmful habits, we are conformed more and more to the image of Christ...and thus grow in holiness. With that said....

We return to our series “When Eating Becomes Sin.” I have had many people comment on the series. Some refuse to read the series scared of what they might discover and fearful of being accountable to God. Others have been encouraged, some convicted, still others have questions about things I haven’t addressed yet. Well, be encouraged, I only have a limited amount of space and can only address a little at a time. If I run to the end of the series to the application part, there would be no biblical support, no authority from God about what I am saying. When dealing with a complex issue such as eating, especially an issue that has been for the most part ignored by the church, you need to go slow and examine a wide variety of theological topics and texts which either explicitly or implicitly apply to our eating habits. This will give us a well rounded view of the truths which apply to the Christian view of eating and should keep us from jumping to false conclusions or extremes.

For this Calvary Review we are coming to some of the more explicit texts addressing eating in the Bible. But before we start, let’s do a quick review. First, we have talked about eating as an American medical problem which endangers the lives of millions and is a leading contributor to serious health problems. Secondly, we learned that eating is a blessing from God. Food is given for pleasure and to sustain us. Thirdly, we learned that lack of self control is a sin. Fourthly, we learned that fleshly indulgence is sin and those who practice fleshly indulgence are described as those who “shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Fifthly, we looked at the sin of not being self controlled. Finally, we looked at the sin of living an undisciplined life. All of these doctrines contain principles which can be and should be applied to our eating habits.

Now we come to a doctrine that specifically relates to eating – gluttony. Webster defines gluttony as, “habitual greed or excess in eating.” One of the tongue-in-cheek comments I use with my wife before sitting down to a feast is, “I am going to try and stop one bite short of gluttony.” There is a time when acceptable eating becomes eating in excess, this is gluttony. Gluttony is one of the sins of eating mentioned in the Bible.

The Sin of Gluttony

In Deut. 21:18-21 the death penalty is prescribed for a son who is described as “stubborn and rebellious, . . . a glutton and a drunkard.”Prov. 23:20-21 uses the same terminology saying, “Do not be with heavy drinkers of wine, or with gluttonous eaters of meat; for the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe one with rags.” Here we see both excessive drinking and overeating listed together. In one instance the death penalty is prescribed for the wicked son who is characterized by gluttony, among other things. Proverbs also associates gluttony with drunkenness for both are sins of indulgence, and God’s wisdom is to “not be with” gluttons. The reason is obvious, a glutton refuses to use self control, he indulges the flesh, he is a bad example and corrupting influence on those who are trying to maintain self-control and discipline.

The same word translated “glutton” in the two texts above is also used in Prov. 28:7, “He who keeps the law is a discerning son, But he who is a companion of gluttons humiliates his father.” The Hebrew word used in these verses describes someone who squanders or wastes their food by overeating. The word literally means “to pour or shake out.” The glutton pours out or shakes out all onto his plate and then consumes it. He fails to exercise self-control and hence the discerning will not be a close friend or companion of the glutton.

In Mt. 11:19 Jesus said the scribes and pharisees accused him of being “a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” The word “gluttonous” used here describes “an intemperate eater, one who does not use self-control in eating, or one who consumes an excess amount of food.” Of course Jesus wasn’t a glutton or drunkard, though he was a friend of tax collectors and sinners.

Paul, when referencing the reputation of those on the Island of Crete that Titus was ministering to said in Tit. 1:12, “One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, ‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.’” Here Paul uses a different word which the New American Standard translates “gluttony.” It is a word usually used to describe pregnant women who are great with child. But Paul uses the word to describe a person who has a great belly, like a pregnant woman, who has a voracious appetite for food.

All of the verses above tell us that gluttony is one of the instances when eating becomes sin. It is sinful because it is excessive eating or eating without exercising self-control. It reveals that a person is not in control of their fleshly appetites but instead is enslaved to fleshly indulgence. Having an ice cream cone might be fine, but eating a half gallon of ice cream in most, if not all, cases would be gluttonous.

Don’t Forget Who Owns Your Body When Eating

As Christians, we continually remind ourselves when eating that our bodies are not our own. Paul, addressing reasons to abstain from immorality, says in I Cor. 6:19-20, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” This truth is taught in Acts 20:28; I Cor. 7:23; I Pet. 1:18-19. Many Christians live like they own themselves, like their body is theirs to do with as they please. But the biblical perspective is that God owns us. He purchased us and our bodies with the precious blood of Christ. Because God owns us He has the right to tell us what to do with our bodies. He wants us to use our bodies for His glory.

So we can be assured that if we are gluttonous eaters or our eating habits in any way fail to give God glory, our eating would be sin. So as you eat, remember, your body is not your own, it is the property of another and the owner of your body has the right to tell you how to take care of it. Paul in Rom. 12:1 describes God’s will for our bodies in these words, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” Our eating habits must reflect holiness and complete submission to God who purchased and owns us.

The Sin of Causing a Weaker Brother to Stumble

The final category of sinful behavior we want to consider which relates to eating is the sin of causing a weaker brother to stumble. In I Cor. 8:13 Paul says, “Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.” Here, Paul is talking about eating meat sacrificed to idols. His point is that if his eating meat sacrificed to idols is going to cause someone else to stumble in his/her Christian walk, he is not going to eat meats sacrificed to idols. Pagan temples would often sell the meat sacrificed to idols in the local markets. The proceeds would go to support the pagan temple. Paul knew idols were nothing and he knew that meat sacrificed to an idol didn’t have any spiritual cooties on it. But he also knew that some Christians didn’t have that knowledge. Some had been saved out of pagan idolatry and their conscience would be defiled if they, or others they knew, ate meat sacrificed to idols. So Paul abstained if he knew that his eating meat sacrificed to idols might hinder someone else’s walk with the Lord.

A similar text, with a similar context, is found in I Cor. 10:31-33. Paul goes through the same basic reasoning as in chapter 8 and then concludes saying, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God; just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit but the profit of the many, so that they may be saved.” Here Paul exhorts us in several ways. First he tells us to make sure we eat and drink for the glory of God. Second, he tells us not to offend people in the way we eat. Third, he explains that his motive is not selfish. Fourth and finally, he explains that his motive is the salvation of the lost. All of us need to ask ourselves if our eating accomplishes these same goals.

Let’s consider one final text which addresses an instance when eating may cause others to stumble and hence be sinful. The text is Rom. 14:15-23 where Paul is addressing our liberties in Christ and how to use them. He specifically addresses eating and says this in vss. 15-23, “For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles. The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin.”

We all have a right to eat, it is a “good thing” Paul says, but there are certain times when this “good thing” becomes a sinful practice. If our eating harms others, if it is not according to love, if it does not promote peace, if it does not build others up, if it causes others to stumble, if it defiles our conscience, or if we can’t eat in faith, then our eating, a “good thing,” becomes sin. What we learn from the three texts above is that there is a kind of eating that might be perfectly fine in some contexts and yet sinful in others.

One word of caution. Some people interpret the texts above to mean that we should never do anything at any time that somebody, some place might take offence at. This is not what Paul is saying. Paul is saying that if you know someone will be offended or are pretty sure your eating might cause someone to stumble, then don’t eat. He is not saying, don’t do anything, anytime, that somebody, some place might take offence at. If that were the case we couldn’t use electricity or any modern technology because the Amish might take offence or be caused to stumble.

What we have learned is that gluttony is a sin, we need to remind ourselves when eating that our body is not our own, and if our eating hurts or causes others to stumble, our eating becomes sin. Well we made it through most of the relevant texts related to eating and now its time to start applying these truths to the many questions people often ask, 1) Is there a godly weight for a Christian? 2) Is there a godly diet for a Christian? 3) What does it mean to please God in our eating? 4) Are diets biblical? 5) Is exercise a proper solution for those who struggle with overeating? 6) If someone has practiced indulgence and become obese, should they try to lose the weight? 7) If someone has slowly gained weight over many years and become obese, should they lose weight? 8) Can you be skinny as a rail and be a glutton? We will try to answer questions like these in the future. Until then, remember your body is not your own, therefore glorify God in your body!