What Does the Bible Say About Gluttony?
By Kyle Pope
There are seven passages in
English translations of the Scriptures that use forms of the word “glutton.”
Each of these demonstrate principles that help us determine when eating food is
proper and when it has become “gluttonous” and displeasing to God.
Scriptures Addressing
Gluttony
The first
passage comes in the Law of Moses. It commanded that a “stubborn and
rebellious” son was to be stoned after his parents presented him to the
elders of the city as one who “will not obey our voice” and who is “a
GLUTTON and a drunkard” (Deut. 21:20). While this law is not restated under
Christ, we may infer that gluttony is unacceptable before God in that it was
included in behavior worthy of capital punishment. We should note its
connection here with two other things: 1) disobedience, and 2) drunkenness.
This is not a son who enjoys a good hearty meal—it is a rebel who does not
control himself, or yield to his parents’ authority. We see this same focus in
a second passage on gluttony in the book of Proverbs. The wise man declared, “Whoever
keeps the law is a discerning son, but a companion of GLUTTONS shames his
father” (Prov. 28:7). In this text gluttony is contrasted with keeping
God’s law and described as something that compromises family relationships. It
is a type of indulgence in food (much like indulgence in drink) that hinders
proper observance of God’s word and leads to association with behavior shameful
to one’s family and to himself.
The final Old
Testament passages on gluttony focus less on family relations and more (as in
our last passage from Proverbs) on the people with whom gluttony leads a person
to associate. This behavior can have devastating consequences. The book of
Proverbs warns, “Do not mix with winebibbers, or with GLUTTONOUS eaters of
meat; for the drunkard and the GLUTTON will come to poverty, and drowsiness
will clothe a man with rags” (Prov. 22:20-21. NKJV). Once again we see here
the connection between gluttony and drunkenness, to which the Holy Spirit adds
the practical warning about its outcome. When the glutton thoughtlessly
consumes his provision he comes to “poverty” (left without the things he
needs), and “drowsiness” (induced by his excess), leaving him clothed
only in “rags.” Here the glutton does not enjoy food as the fruit of his
labor, but his laziness and overindulgence deprive him of what he really needs.
In each of these Old Testament passages “glutton” or “gluttonous” translates
the Hebrew word zalal (זָלַל)
meaning “to make light of, squander, be lavish with” (BDB). The issue is not
enjoyment of food, but excess and waste.
The first New
Testament passages on gluttony are probably drawn from this last warning in
Proverbs. Jesus was falsely accused of being “a GLUTTON and a winebibber” because
He associated with “tax collectors and sinners” in order to teach them
(Matt. 11:19; Luke 7:34). “Glutton” in these two passages translates the Greek
word phagos (φάγος) meaning
literally “an eater,” from the verb meaning “to eat.” The Latin Vulgate used
the word vorax here, from which our word “voracious” (meaning
“insatiable”) is derived.
This
accusation against Jesus is informative. Was He really a “glutton and a
winebibber”? Of course not! In contrast to the austere lifestyle John the
Baptist was commanded to practice (Luke 1:15), Jesus drank grape juice and ate
normal foods rather than “locusts and wild honey” (Matt. 3:4). The
Jewish leaders, however, set a standard of austerity for Jesus the Law did not
demand. Jesus was not wasteful, lazy, overindulgent, or engaging in food and
drink to the point that it hindered obedience to God’s word. Their accusation
was false, but their misuse of the term “glutton” shows that gluttony does not
consist in simply eating with friends, or engaging in wholesome enjoyment of
food, but in abuse, excess, and self-indulgence.
The final
passage in the New Testament comes in a warning to the evangelist Titus, while
he labored on Crete. Paul quotes a proverb circulated about the island’s
inhabitants—“ Cretans are always
liars, evil beasts, lazy GLUTTONS” (Titus 1:12). For the word “gluttons”
this text uses the word gastēr (γαστήρ)
meaning “belly,” used here in the sense of “a man who is as it were all
stomach” (Thayer). It's connection with the term “lazy” echoes the
warnings of Proverbs. These are men unwilling to work, but always ready to eat.
Dishonesty and brutish behavior accompany their idleness and overindulgence.
Defining Gluttony
What do these
passages indicate about how to determine whether we are practicing gluttony or
not? Let’s observe four principles taught in these and other Scriptures that
provide a definition. Gluttony involves...
1. Laziness and Waste. A
punishment man was given when cast out of the garden was “toil” in order
to provide food for himself (Gen. 3:17). When labor results in food for the
body there is no sin in partaking of it with joy. Three times, in various forms
the Preacher in Ecclesiastes tells us, “It is good and fitting for one to
eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor in which he toils under
the sun” (Ecc. 5:18; cf. 2:24; 3:13). To give oneself to indulgence in food
and drink while refusing to work is gluttony. The Cretans were “lazy
gluttons” (Titus 1:2) and the wise man warned that gluttony leads to “poverty”
and “drowsiness” (Prov. 22:21). If the rebellious son would not obey
his parents’ voice (Deut. 21:20), we can infer that he was indulging in food
and drink when he should have been working. When Paul warned the church in
Thessalonica to withdraw from those walking in a “disorderly manner” (2
Thess. 3: 11, 6), the example he cited of this conduct was that they were “not
working at all” (2 Thess. 3:11)—of whom he commanded, “If anyone will
not work, neither shall he eat” (2 Thess. 3:10). This was gluttony, even
though it had little to do with the amount they ate. They had an improper
attitude toward food. In the parable of the prodigal son, the young man “wasted
his possessions with prodigal living” (Luke 15:13), and found himself not only
in “poverty” (Prov. 22:21), but in hunger (Luke 15:16). He had probably
lived in gluttony, but we may learn from his father’s response that it was not
gluttony for his father to kill the “fatted calf” so they could “eat
and be merry” (Luke 15:23).
2. Lack of Self Control.
The apostle Peter taught, “by whom a person is overcome, by him
also he is brought into bondage” (2 Pet. 2:19). Paul declared, “All
things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any” (1
Cor. 6:12). The child of God should avoid slavery to anything other than
righteousness (cf. Rom. 6:18-19). Proverbs taught, “Have you found honey?
Eat only as much as you need, lest you be filled with it and vomit” (Prov.
25:16). Gluttony is habitual eating to excess. It's frequent association with
drunkenness illustrates this. Like those who “linger long at the wine” (Prov.
23:30) gluttons “gorge themselves on meat” (Prov. 23:20, NIV). Paul
taught Christians, “having food and clothing, with these we shall be
content” (1 Tim, 6:8). The glutton is never content. Like the drunkard
anxious to “seek another drink” (Prov. 23:35), the belly of the glutton
is never satisfied.
The Roman
emperor Vitellius, who reigned for eight months in 69 A.D. epitomized this type
of gluttony. The Roman people called him patinarium, a name for a
glutton that meant literally “pile of dishes” (Seutonius, Life of Vitellius 17).
One of his predecessors, Galba claimed he “thought of nothing but eating” and
warned that his “bottomless gullet might be filled from the resources of the
province” (ibid. 7). The Roman historian Seutonius claimed that he ate
numerous times a day, using emetics (i.e., drugs to induce vomiting) in order
to allow him to eat more even after he was full (ibid. 13). That was
gluttony! It is little wonder that the wise man contrasts gluttony with
obedience to God’s law (Prov. 28:7)—one so enslaved to foods cannot serve,
worship, and honor God—his energies are wholly consumed by his desires.
3. Poor Stewardship of the Body. The wise man warned of indulgence that can
lead to the point of nausea (Prov. 25:16) and a gluttony induced stupor causing
“drowsiness” (Prov. 22:21). 200 years before Christ the Jewish scribe
Joshua ben Sira echoed the same warnings. In the apocryphal book known as Ecclesiasticus
(or the Wisdom of Sirach), he wrote, “Do not be greedy for every
delicacy, and do not eat without restraint; for overeating brings sickness, and
gluttony leads to nausea. Many have died of gluttony, but the one who guards
against it prolongs his life” (37:29-31, NRSV). He saw the wise man’s
connection between gluttony and “drowsiness,” writing, “Healthy
sleep depends on moderate eating, he rises early and feels fit. The distress of
sleeplessness and of nausea and colic are with the glutton ” (31{34}:20).
Clearly, the body needs food, but excess is harmful. Long before doctors knew
about cholesterol and high blood pressure the Holy Spirit taught moderation
rather than gluttony. The Christian is taught, “your body is the temple of
the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your
own” (1 Cor. 6:19). Our bodies are a stewardship from God. Gluttony abuses
the body rather than using it in prudent service to the Lord.
4. Misplaced Devotion. Plato
claimed that when, “the desire for food prevails over the higher reason and the
other desires, it is called gluttony” (Phaedrus 238a-b). We noted above
that the word translated “gluttons” in the Cretan proverb of Titus 1:12
literally means, “belly.” The Greeks had coined a word for this type of
person—he was philogastoridēs (φιλογαστορίδης)
“one who loves his belly.” This reminds us of Paul’s warning to the
Philippians—“For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you
even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction,
whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind
on earthly things” (Phil. 3:18-19). To make one’s “belly” his god,
is not just talking about food. Paul told the Romans that those who “cause
divisions and offenses” serve “their own belly” (Rom. 16:17-18). In
the context of talking about sexual immorality, Paul said, “Foods for the
stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now
the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the
body” (1 Cor. 6:13). The “belly” is man’s appetite. Just as the
fornicator craves the sexual appetites of the flesh, the glutton craves the
culinary appetites of the flesh. To crave material things to the hindrance of
spiritual things is wrong! The glutton is a materialist. His concern is with “earthly
things.” This was true of Esau. He was a “profane person” because “for
one morsel of food” he “sold his birthright” (Heb. 12:16). He was a
glutton, more concerned with a moment of indulgence than his future well-being.
He served his belly.
Conclusion
We have seen
that gluttony involves more than just a healthy enjoyment of food. It is
characterized by improper attitudes towards God’s word, respect for authority,
prudence, self-control, and one’s relationship to his own body and the material
world. Each Christian must search his own heart and examine his own behavior to
determine, “am I a glutton?” We can’t always look at another person and truly
determine if his or her attitudes toward food constitute gluttony or not. A
person’s weight can have causes that have nothing to do with gluttonous
attitudes. The variability of each person’s metabolism has a huge bearing on
the amount of food our body needs to function. At the same time, as with all behavior
regulated by Scripture we must never excuse or overlook something we should
correct in our own lives because of its difficulty or inconvenience. God has
blessed us with bodies to use in His service. Let us honor this stewardship as
faithful servants of our Master.
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