Gluttony a sin in the bible?

Larry Parker said:Is there scripture stating
that gluttony is a sin?

Maybe these verses will help...  Although these verses do not state gluttony as a sin explicitly, I believe they do imply it.  A lust for anything but the true God is sin. (i.e. the First Commandment)

Deuteronomy 21:20 And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard.

Proverbs 23:21 For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: And drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

Philippians 3:19 Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.

Great references Peter! I was wondering myself!

As a Southern Baptist who likes what we call "fellowship" (those who are know what I mean[;)]) I would like to think of glutton and related words as being a very subjective term. Additionally, it can never refer to Chicken or any other fried meat product, and kind of casserole that has cheese, or banana pudding[:D] 

I think the gluttony logic was prior to sushi. Just a tiny piece far exceeds many, many boxes of Cherios. Even in Amarillo, a 2 lb steak couldn't match some of the sushi these days.

4
Am 6.4-7
Alas for those who lie on beds of ivory,    and lounge on their couches,    and eat lambs from the flock,    and calves from the stall; 5 who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp,    and like David improvise on instruments of music; 6 who drink wine from bowls,    and anoint themselves with the finest oils,    but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph! 7 Therefore they shall now be the first to go into exile,     and the revelry of the loungers shall pass away.

I am sometimes amazed at God's response after I have prayed for the sick.  When I am sick and pray for myself,I seldom improve (except once when I was visiting Christians in Bulgaria in the bad old days, and was coming down with a fluey cold I didn't need on such a short visit.  After prayer it desisted.  And once I exorcised a crippling back pain that always used to hit me the day I was due to return to Albania, and I was terrified when it didn't improve - the pain just disappeared!  Other times neither prayer nor exorcism has been followed by any improvement...  

Re obese people (I'm not underweight now and have been seriously overweight in the past) preaching that smokers should give up their bad habit (I don't smoke, but have fewer problems with Christians who smoke than with Christians who abuse our God-given body by making pigs of ourselves and thus putting our health at risk), I feel we should beware of preaching a discipline we are not practising ourselves.  What we say may be very true, but how many people are going to be inspired by our example to do what we say?

At the moment I'm concerned that my preoccupation with food shows more attachment to food than to God.  Yesterday I fasted for 24 hours for the first time in years, because I had been prevented by just not wanting to give up my food and capuccino.  Interestingly, yesterday I didn't feel much spiritual benefit, apart from being led to download samples of books about fasting on KIndle with a view to finding further insight.  Have just finished:  Fasting: a Biblical study (Logos), which I found very helpful.  I do recommend it.

But today the Bible spoke to me more than usual, and we had a good session with our often problematic children's group.  I think putting God before food for 24 hours, by not eating, has helped me become more focussed on him and his will.  With positive results.  I intend to do it regularly.  

Just as looking lustfully at a member of the opposite sex can be a form of adultery, so, in my case, over-preoccupation with what I am going to eat is a form of gluttony and, in fact, of idolatry, when food becomes more important to me than God.

(Ithink that verbal diarrhoea is  sometimes a disease, sometimes a sinful addiction, so I shall now shut up!)

Dominick Sela said:

"The Church isn't perfect - if it was you wouldn't be invited in"

My skinny Pastor friend that officiated my wedding vows always told people, "If you find the perfect church don't join it. You will ruin it if you do."

Fred Chapman said:

it can never refer to ... banana pudding

It can't refer to Banoffee Pie either.

BANOFFEE PIE

Graham cracker crust:

1½ cups graham cracker crumbs
½ cup confectioners' sugar
¾ cup melted butter
3 tsp. ground ginger (or fresh
ginger, squeezed in a garlic press)
2 tsp. cinnamon

Filling:

2 bananas, sliced
2 cans sweetened condensed milk
(not reduced fat; not evaporated milk)
2 cups heavy whipping cream
¼ cup confectioners' sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
Baker's (or similar) semi-sweet
chocolate cube (optional)

Strip the cans of condensed
milk of their labels, including the strict instruction never to heat unopened
can.  Place unopened cans in a deep
saucepan of water and bring to a boil. 
Boil for three hours, making sure the pan is regularly topped up with
water, and turning the cans over half way through.  Remove the cans and leave to cool for twenty
minutes or so.  This procedure turns the
condensed milk into a delicious soft toffee. 
(The cans may be boiled in advance and stored on the shelf for later
use, but they are easiest to spoon out when still slightly warm).

Mix crust ingredients together
until well blended.  Press into a 9-in
pie plate.  Chill in refrigerator.

Whip the cream, add
confectioners' sugar and vanilla.

Cover
the base of the pie crust with banana slices arranged flat.  Spoon the toffee onto the bananas and smooth
it level with a spoon or rubber spatula. 
Top with whipped cream, smoothed level. 
If desired, grate some chocolate over the top for decoration (e.g. with
the smallest holes of a cheese grater, or a special cappuccino chocolate
grinder if you have one). 

Banoffee Pie images

It's not gluttony to eat this stuff (it's quite heavenly actually); only if you eat the whole pie yourself in one sitting. [:)]

Sorry for the hijack. [:)]

To get this back onto the topic of Logos software and resources, there's a Vyrso book called Love Hunger: Breaking Free from Food Addiction. It might be a good antidote for someone struggling with gluttony. It's got a whole chapter of recipes. There are also recipes in Christ in the Feast of Tabernacles, God's Appointed Times: A Practical Guide for Understanding and Celebrating the Biblical Holidays, and A Passover Haggadah for Jewish Believers.

Consider Eli, the High Priest of 1 Samuel, who enjoyed eating the sacrifices that his sons had wickedly gathered and prepared. And Alexander Whyte thought Scripture revealed that the patriarch Isaac had fallen prey to gluttony.

I think perhaps gluttony, while not labelled specifically,as a sin, is a subset of idolatry.

Bayard Bastedo

Denise Barnhart said:

Using our trusty Logos search, gluttons always drink, and usually wine. This seems to be a significant clue. There's no mention of beer that I can see. The hebrew isn't clear on whether grape juice qualifies.

You might almost say that unless you were there to catch the juice as it seeped out from between the toes, there was no grape juice.  Grape juice ferments pretty quickly so before long it's wine.

Fermentation timing may well be a factor (in addition to it being a significant marker in the archaology trade). But notice, using Logos' high-powered exegetical tools, that 'eating' the grapes is never an issue. So maybe indeed, the key to gluttony is 'drinking', and a time period well after non-fermentation (thus ruling out 'grape juice').

At church a few sundays back, one of our enthusiastic communion preparers read the NT text literally, giving the congregation an instant surprise, following 'the bread'. And even more surprisingly, everyone carefully kept going, saying nothing to offend.

When one looks at the biblical “sin lists” (for example: Prov. 6:16-19; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:19-21; Col. 3:5-9; 1 Pet. 4:3), gluttony is not there.  In fact, “glutton” and its cognates do not occur often in the biblical text.  “Gluttons” occurs twice (Prov. 28:7; Tit. 1:12), “glutton” occurs twice (Deut. 21:20; Prov. 23:21), and “gluttonness” three time (Prov. 23:20; Mt. 11:19; Lk. 7:34) in the 1995 New American Standard Bible.

 Attempting to define “gluttony” is somewhat problematic.  I think most people have the association of “glutton” = “overeating.”  This understanding is partially correct, but it leaves the wrong impression.  The article on “gluttony” in the New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, states “gluttony, a practice that squanders food because the glutton does not appreciate its value.”  “Squander” and “not appreciate” the value of food, are those the things we think of with “gluttony”?  Now add to this the biblical image of a glutton (used figuratively in reference to the way Nebuchadnezzar treated Jerusalem) in Jeremiah 51:34-35 of someone who eats so much he vomits it up and then returns to eating.  This is a very different picture than how I hear most people use the word “gluttony.”  This should give all of us some “food” for thought.

George Somsel said:

 In the Episcopal Church we normally use wine unless there happens to be a problem of alcoholics in the church. 

The Church of England has always used wine. I thought everybody did until I moved across the Atlantic!

Jerry M said:

Can I pretend this is an old Southern Baptist recipe so that I can eat it guilt free?

Heh heh. Are Southern Baptists only allowed to eat things invented by Southern Baptists? Can you not eat spaghetti guilt free, or wonton soup, or chile con carne? [:)]

Jerry M said:

Rosie Perera said:

It's not gluttony to eat this stuff

Some how I never heard of this dessert before, reminds me of discovering Chocolate Chess pie when I traveled through the southern United States.  Yummie! 

I'd never heard of it before either, until I was in seminary. Regent College is an international grad school so there were several folks from the UK, and apparently it's a common dessert there. We had an annual event called "Taste of the World" which was like an enormous international potluck dinner (for about 300 people), and that's where I tasted it (and subsequently looked up the recipe online). People would bring in dishes from their home country, and we had yummy offerings from all over the world, including some stuff that wasn't all that yummy to this North American palate (Vegemite on toast from Australia, kimchi from Korea, haggis from Scotland). But I like to be adventurous, and I tasted some amazing stuff.

Peter Cellini said:

You have wanted to know what I mean by "born again" so here goes...

Scripture says that we are to be born, not of blood

You still haven't gotten to what needs to be said.  You state only that it is the work of God.  Fine, I won't quarrel with that, but what do you perceive happens to someone when they are "born again"?  I asked whether you conceived of this as a "get out of jail free" card.  Does it result in some difference in the person or not?  If it results in a difference in the person, what is the difference?  It's easy to quote scripture and not understand what is meant.  "Are you a ruler of the Jews and do not understand this?"  I'm afraid too often the fact is that people don't understand—they simply parrot.

Rosie Perera said:

Heh heh. Are Southern Baptists only allowed to eat things invented by Southern Baptists?

Just when I thought it could get no more sectarian than it already has.........    

                                             Is that potato salad amillennial? premillennial? or postmillennial?      [:'(]

tom collinge said:

Fred Chapman said:

it can never refer to ... banana pudding

Thanks be to God !!!!!!

Yes, I believe, brother!  I believe.

If I were looking for a Scripture that applied to gluttony, I would go with 1 Cor. 3:17  "If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple."
 

John Chrysostom, John preached through many of Paul’s letters ("I like all the saints," he said, "but St. Paul the most of all—that vessel of election, the trumpet of heaven"), the Gospels of Matthew and of John, and the Book of Genesis. Changed lives were his goal, and he denounced sins from abortion to prostitution and from gluttony to swearing.

Larry Parker said:

Is there scripture stating that gluttony is a sin?

The main problem that I see with gluttony is that it leads directly to obesity.

Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems.  Obesity is a leading preventable cause of death worldwide, with increasing prevalence in adults and children, and authorities view it as one of the most serious public health problems of the 21st century (per Wikipedia).

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. (1 Co 6:19–20 - NIV)

MJ. Smith said:

This thread proves we need Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth
by Richard Foster in Logos.

[Y]

MJ. Smith said:

This thread proves we need Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth by Richard Foster in Logos.

This thread shows that we need The Joy of Cooking by Rombauer and Julia Child's books.  [8-|]