Drugs, Alcohol, Adultery…Gluttony?

December 1, 2008

By Sonya Szabolcsi 

Many of us, especially those of us who have grown up in church, have heard many messages about the dangers and sins of drugs, alcohol, smoking, adultery, stealing or lying.  Few of us have heard messages that deal with the dangers and sins of gluttony.  Why is this?  Is it because there's never been a problem with this issue?  Is it because we're afraid of hurting somebody's feelings?  Or is it because few want to come out and boldly say, “No, gluttony and obesity is not okay!”   

Why are drugs considered to be a sin to use?  It's harmful to our bodies and it is not treating our bodies like a temple of the Holy Ghost.  We are cheating our bodies when we deliberately hurt ourselves.  We cannot overlook the sin of gluttony and obesity simply because it's hard truth!  Sin is sin.  

Paul told us, “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's” (I Corinthians 6:19-20). 

When we love somebody, we desire to please them.  It's the same with our relationship with God.  If we love Him, then we will trust Him and strive to please Him.  After all, He does know what's best for us!  So, why would we want to defile His temple?   

Comparisons

There are a couple topics that come to mind that I can relate to gluttony/obesity: 

• Sex--There is nothing wrong with the act until it becomes something done outside of marriage.  Why is it wrong outside of marriage?  To keep it short, it's because not only are there potential health risks to our bodies, including negative emotional effects, but also because God specifically instructs us to keep sex within marriage. To use just one scripture, “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled; but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge” (Hebrews 13:4).

• Money--There's nothing wrong with money itself and using it.  It only becomes a sin when people start to love it and rely on money rather than on God. To use just one scripture, “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (I Timothy 6:10 NIV). 

As in these examples of sex and money, there's nothing wrong with food and enjoying the food God has given us for our nourishment.  It becomes a sin when we love it so much that we start to disregard our health and keep eating whatever we want and as much as we want when we can see exactly what it's doing to our bodies.  Is it a sin to eat things that really don't have too much nutritional value to our bodies?  No!   

There's a certain spirit and attitude that comes with eating that really determines whether your spirit is right or not.  One simple example of a wrong spirit would be a closet junkie.  It's something I would call “food abuse.”  (Obviously, this does not include people who can't help it because of a medical problem.) 

The fruit of the Spirit is a long, healthy list of spiritual priorities (Galatians 5:22-23) that ends with “temperance” or (“moderation”). 

Risks and Sad Facts

Treating something that is meant to be for our nourishment and abusing it in that manner is not pleasing to God.  As the above Scripture commands, “glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”  Continuously abusing your body with unhealthy eating habits creates health risks including heart disease, diabetes, and stroke, just to name a few.  Just as we respect the house of the Lord, we must also respect and properly care for our bodies, which are His.  

If you're still not convinced, then I challenge you to go to the Word for your answers and go to the Lord in prayer.  God's Word speaks plain truth.  If you want to actually see how this is a sin, sadly, all one has to do nowadays is just go outside and look at the people around you.  There are more obese people today than there were 30 years ago. DisneyLand is reworking some rides just because Americans have gotten so much bigger. 

Unfortunately, it's not just in adults that you can see this trend, but also children.  Health care professionals are scrambling to reverse the trends and warn people that things must change if they want to live to see their grandchildren or even their children reach the age of 30. 

As kidshealth.org states in, When Being Overweight is a Health Problem, “Doctors use the term 'overweight' or 'obese' to describe when someone is at greatest risk of developing weight-related health problems.  This health problem affects young people as well as adults-one third of all kids between the ages of 2 and 19 are overweight or obese.  So younger people are now developing health problems that used to affect only adults, like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and type two diabetes.”  I found this to be quite a sobering paragraph.  

As Apostolic Christians, let's be an example to our world and help reverse the trend/ 

Resources

Thanks to the expansion and popularity of the internet, one can find just about anything on there, including articles on health, diet, and exercise tips.  A couple sites that I would recommend are www.cdc.gov, www.americanheart.org, or www.wemd.com.   

If you don't have internet, that's okay!  You can connect now with the Holy Spirit for free unlimited use and get your help and strength to become more temperament in health!  Let's honor God and strive to please Him in body and spirit.  And let's encourage one another to work together in unity for a stronger and healthier church body and generation of children!  

ninetyandnine.com 

© 2008, Sonya Szabolcsi  

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Sonya Szabolcsi is a soon-to-be full-time student at Webster University in St. Louis, majoring in International Relations.  Besides working part-time at Aeropostle, she's spends her time counting the days she has left until she finally graduates!  She's got a heart for God, a heart for ministry, and a heart for whatever else God decides to put in it.