When you sit to dine with a ruler,
note well what is before you,
and put a knife to your throat
 if you are given to gluttony.
Do not crave his delicacies,
for that food is deceptive.

Proverbs 23:1-3

Gluttony is a sin that I have often taken lightly as a disciple in a way that I would never take adultery or drunkenness, but God does not take this sin lightly. In fact, the Bible repeatedly condemns this sin as the insidious evil that it is. 

A friend once texted me and said that she was hiding in her bathroom from her kids because she needed a break – definitely been there. I responded that whenever I hid in the bathroom I made sure to take ice cream with me. Imagine the response if I said, “Make sure to take some wine with you because it will help with the stress.” In my mind, it was acceptable to joke about gluttony but not drunkenness. I didn’t take my own sin seriously.

I want to include an important note: repentance from gluttony is not about losing weight. Even disciples frequently have an unhealthy focus on how much they weigh. If gluttony is a sin you commit daily, then repentance is likely to lead to weight loss because that is the way the human body works. However, the motivation for repentance should be righteousness not vanity, another sin that is easy to overlook.

Growing Up

A discerning son heeds instruction, but a companion of gluttons disgraces his father.

Proverbs 28:7

My mom grew up in a home where weight loss was an idol, and she was placed on strict diets regularly as a teenager. As often happens, she overcorrected a bit, and food was always readily available in our house. Being a traditional Southern family, the cooking was amazing but not healthful, and there were no limits on what we could eat. In fact, there was yummy food at everything. If you had a hard day, there was ice cream. If we got great report cards, we went to Ryan’s Great American Buffet. I learned to go to food for comfort and to handle my emotions. 

In high school I joined the swim team and started cutting the amount of food in half that I would normally eat. If my mom went to Taco Bell, I would previously order four or five things, and I decreased that to two. I also had severe migraines in high school, so I had to cut out caffeine and processed meats that were triggers for those migraines. I lost weight, which made me happy, but there was no heart level repentance. I was going through the motions to help with my headaches and to be a better swimmer, but these external motivations are never going to be enough to conquer gluttony.

Because there was no heart change, my eating habits went on a roller coaster over the next several years as I traveled abroad and went to college. There would be stretches when I would eat food because it was culturally appropriate even when I wasn’t hungry. I also continued to eat emotionally. Then I would work really hard to lose the weight that inevitably led to. It was years of being very concerned about the way I looked without considering the root cause the way that I ate or the way that I handled my emotions.

Learning about Healthy Food

If you find honey, eat just enough—too much of it, and you will vomit

Proverbs 25:16

When I was baptized at 24 years old, a friend told me he lost a lot of weight by running. When I asked what else he did, he told me that he started a diet. He had a bowl of cereal in the morning, a turkey sandwich in the afternoon, and some boiled chicken for dinner. I wanted to lose weight too, so I tried this. When I went to a mentoring time a few days later, my mentor asked me how I was and I told her I was having a rough day and was grumpy because I was very hungry…and proceeded to detail the entire situation. She then explained to me that was a terrible way to live and that I actually needed to eat more food – but I needed to eat food that fueled my body instead of harming it. 

My journey of repentance, of loving and respecting the body that God gave me, began here. I started running that month and ran a marathon ten months later, but between those events I learned to eat because my body needed to function, not to comfort my emotions. I was on a diet plan where I ate six times a day and the book I followed had detailed descriptions of healthy meals to eat. Before I started, I cleaned all the old food out of my apartment and started anew with real foods. I ate a carb, a protein and vegetable at each meal, and did not feel any need to overeat because I knew I would be eating again soon. For one of the first times in my life, I had a healthy relationship with food. It was liberating to be able to eat enough to feel full without constant restrictions. I could still go out to eat with friends and have a great time at parties without watching when other people went for seconds so that I could too. I didn’t feel like I had to hide my eating all the time. It was no longer a source of shame.

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