The Deadly Sin of Gluttony in our Modern Society

The Deadly Sin of Gluttony

Gluttony is another one of the Seven Deadly Sins, on the surface it doesn´t sound that deadly, but delve deeper, just like all the other Deadly Sins and you realise this is another sin that creeps up on you and gradually takes over your life, just like all the others. Gluttony is derived from the Latin Word to Gulp down. Gluttony normally applies to excessive eating of food or drink as defined in the Oxford Dictionary


Gluttony Oxford Dictionary Definition Noun: Habitual greed or excess in eating



The classic view of Gluttony
The classic view of Gluttony is somebody that is absolutely huge and stuffing their face continually, just for the pleasure of it. Although this is one case of Gluttony, this Deadly Sin doesn´t always work that way. Chris Donato of Trinity International University has this to say on the subject

Two mistakes accompany most discussions on gluttony. The first is that it only pertains to those with a less than shapely waistline; the second is that it always involves food. In reality, it can apply to toys, television, entertainment, sex, or relationships. It is about an excess of anything.

How Gluttony ties in closely with Greed
Gluttony ties in very closely with the other Deadly Sin of Greed and works in a similar way, but Greed is more concerned with Wealth, Money and Materialism to excess, a different sort of consumption but it can be applied to food and drink as well. The Deadly Sin of Gluttony is characterized by a limitless appetite for food and drink and overindulgence to the point where one is no longer eating just to live, but rather living to eat. Compulsive eating disorders are a modern day version that results in uncontrollable gluttony!

Gluttony from a Christian Perspective
However when we look at this Deadly Sin from a Christian Perspective it has a broader concept and can include not just food but alcohol and even substance abuse as in drugs so can cover addictions such as alcoholism and the modern equivalent of Binge Drinking and Drug addiction in it´s myriad of forms.

Where does it lead?
As with all of the Seven Deadly Sins, Gluttony will lead you down exactly the same initially bright road with short term pleasure and buzz, but the road you will end up on will get gradually darker and darker. The problem is you will not notice that this is happening as it will be a very slow process, but everybody else will. Eventually it will take over your life, you will become a slave to it, and it will be just you and your Deadly Sin as companion and nothing else. If you have ever watched the film Seven with Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, the man that got killed for Gluttony... that will give you a good idea what this one is all about in it´s extreme form. Nothing else will matter in your life except fulfilling this deadly desire which will never get fulfilled.

It´s the same old cycle as the other Deadly Sins with the familiar short lived buzz, euphoria then the crash down to earth, the guilt and shame, then the low and depression which then comes full circle to deal with this low and the whole process starts again. This is particularly true of Alcohol and Drugs and the same principle can be applied to Food. All people that embrace Gluttony will eventually hit problems in some shape or form. The common ones being extreme health problems, family problems, loss of job, loss of friends and a general sense of lack of control of your life. In extreme cases if help isn´t found in time, just like the others it can lead to death and not a pleasant one at that.. Gluttony nowadays is seen as an emotional cry for help and a way to fill a big hole or void in a persons life that will never get filled, not with this anyway.

Modern Day Society doesn´t help.
Our fast paced and over indulgent lifestyles don´t help with fighting off Gluttony. Being bombarded with special offers with Buy One Get One Free, Happy Hours, 6 cans for the price of 5, half price today only, buy 1 case and get a free bottle of Bubbly. TV Advertising is also guilty. With cheap drugs it´s the same. On the drug scene Crack Cocaine and the new Zombie Drug on the streets called Flakka come into this category, they are dirt cheap, highly addictive and have scary after effects, especially Flakka where people go into a wild Zombie like rage where it takes 4 full grown men or more to bring such a person under control.

What´s the answer to overcoming this Deadly Sin
Just like all the others, these Deadly Sins play on the carnal primitive emotions of mankind and they are at the base level and simply pure evil. You can try self help, alcholics anonymous, drug rehab, eating disorder clinics, all of these have varying degrees of success. To truly conquer this one, just like the others, firstly you have to recognise you have the problem in the first place and secondly you need something to give you the power to truly overcome this Deadly Sin and not gradually slip back to your old ways. With our modern day society pressures in the form of advertising, marketing, media and peer pressure from friends it will be very difficult to stay clean unless something fundamental changes in your life that gives you the power to see this thing coming. It´s called being Born Again and Saved. This is yet another Deadly Sin you will not beat on your own!

Gluttony in the Bible

Gluttony and Drunkards are mentioned many times in the Bible

Proverbs 23:20-21
20. Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:
21. For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

Philippians 3:18-19
18. (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:
19. Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
Luke 7:34
34. The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!

Dueteronomy 21:18-20
18. If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them:
19. Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place;
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.

1 Corinthians 5:11
But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.

Proverbs 23:1-3
1. When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee:
2. And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.
3. Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.

Proverbs 25:16 - Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.

1 Corinthians 6
19 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?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.