Gluttony and Drunkenness

These two sins belong in the same category. You hear very often about drunkenness. There are many temperance societies, and there is much publicity against drunkenness.

Isn’t it remarkable that you almost never hear anything about the sister sin of drunkenness: gluttony!? In all likelihood, the main reason is that one does not think they are the right person to speak out against this sin because they are not so completely free from it themselves.

For example, when you have an ulcer and still eat something that you know is harmful, you are just like a drunkard who would like to be finished with drinking but is unable to leave liquor alone. Both of them are addicted, one to drink, and the other to the food he likes but does not tolerate. Both of them are slaves of sin, who will not inherit the kingdom of God.

When a person is unable to change his diet radically when his state of health requires it, he is addicted to his lusts just like a drunkard.

Paul writes to the church that many have their belly as their god. Phil. 3:19. In one English translation it says in parentheses “their appetite.”

In Romans 16:18 it says, “For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly . . . .”

My impression is that almost no one acknowledges that they eat too much food or too spicy or unhealthy food. There is no salvation, no improvement, without acknowledgment. The situation is not any better in these days than it was in Paul’s days; it is rather worse! It is the same axiom which states, “More people eat themselves to death (sick) than drink themselves to death.”

May this little reflection concerning this dangerous weed be of true and lasting help for some, even for many!

May God give grace to that end. He gives grace to the humble.