There’s been a bit of a controversy brewing in certain circles recently about the matter of gluttony and obesity. CREC pastor Doug Wilson fielded a question on it for his Ask Doug series, and his answer yielded no small backlash.
To be clear, this discussion is not relevant just because of Wilson.
This is a society-wide issue. According to CDC estimates, 40% of Americans are obese, and 70% are overweight. This problem plagues both men and women, both the young and the old, and people of all different races.
It’s also especially an issue for us, because the church certainly isn’t showing the world a better way. The most recent data shows that there is no measurable difference in weight management between those who attend church and those who don’t.
So, is gluttony a sin that Christians commit?
Let’s first look at Wilson’s response to the question he received: “What exactly is the sin of gluttony, and are my two eyes all I need to know that someone has committed it?”
Wilson spoke to the etymological definitions of the word as a matter of riotous eating, often connected to drunkenness and wild partying. He highlighted that Jesus was accused of the sin of gluttony for the kind of people He ate with (Matthew 11:19).
Wilson went on to say that “Gluttony is not a second helping of mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving. Gluttony is not to food what drunkenness is to wine.” Based on that, he explained that the sin the Bible described is not really the kind of thing that happens today.
Despite all of that, He landed on the conclusion that it is wrong to be overweight (specifically as a preacher) if it’s because you are gluttonously given to habitual overeating. But, it’s okay if you are overweight because you have “the metabolism of a large flat garden rock”—Wilson’s description of his own case.
Why that doesn’t check out
The change from “gluttony doesn’t really happen today” to “some people are guilty of it” should tell you the argument falls short. Why can’t we just acknowledge that the word technically meant something more specific to their day, but also that being obese is still bad, whether it counts as gluttony or not?
The other problem with Wilson’s explanation is the side door he gave himself to step out of. Yes, being overweight is bad if it’s because you eat too much, but not if because you have a bad metabolism. So… who determines that? How will the first group know they need to repent if the scale can’t fairly tell them?
The truth is, this is a problem we need to be honest about. It’s one of those things that has become so common that we just decide not to talk about it. But shouldn’t it be the other way around? If a problem is plaguing that many of our people, shouldn’t we talk about it even more?
Does it matter?
The counterargument will usually be that this doesn’t really matter. “Flesh and blood won’t inherit the kingdom” and “It’s all gonna burn” and whatever other gnostically-twisted catchphrases we want to throw at the problem should suffice.
But God gave you a body for a reason, and how you treat it will determine many things about your life on this earth. Paul spoke of self-control and noted that he disciplined his body to make it his slave (1 Corinthians 9:25-27). He also said that he would not be mastered by anything, and then immediately connected that point to food (1 Corinthians 6:12-13).
I can’t understand why anyone would say we as Christians shouldn’t be separating ourselves from the world on this issue. Instead, rather than showing the world a healthier path, we just do what they do and insist it doesn’t matter. But it matters greatly.
Your health matters to you more than you realize
A study found that being overweight leads to an excess cost of $600 per year, obesity $1861 per year, and severe obesity $3100 per year. I would say that matters.
Further, obesity shortens your lifespan. I would say that matters, too.
And neither of those stats measure the day-to-day feeling, the energy you have, the sleep you can get, the soreness. It makes a difference.
Your health matters to your kids more than you realize
Being overweight or obese gives your kids double the odds of being obese and overweight themselves. The food you serve in the home, the activity level you have, the way they think about snacks and treats, it all comes from the decisions you make. You’re either setting them up for success or setting them back for life.
Your health matters to others more than you realize
One study found that people assume overweight people lack self-control. But what popped out even more from that study is this: people also assume overweight folks are less competent.
Whether this is fair or not doesn’t matter—it’s a reality we have to deal with. You literally lose respect of the people around you when you’re not in control. That, too, matters.
Acknowledging the difficulties
There’s no clear line
This discussion is not unlike the modesty discussion: there is a safe zone, an obviously unsafe zone, and a gray area in the middle. We of course don’t want to be in the unsafe zone, but, as Wilson showed, it can be hard to be objective about that.
Still, even if you can’t know when exactly you’ve gone from unsafe to gray to safe, it’s better to just take care of your health and try to bring your weight and food consumption to a healthier place.
It’s harder than ever.
We are drowning in junk food. You will not get anything healthy from a drive-thru, and 99% of the time you won’t get something healthy out of a bag or a box at the store. It’s usually going to take time to make food that isn’t actively harming you.
To make things worse, even when you try to be healthy, others will present you with a constant stream of opportunities to backslide. Church pot lucks and in-home fellowship almost always include desserts and other foods that aren’t going to help you be healthier. It’s hard to be the one who eats a little and then goes home to fill up on something better. But even though you don’t have to do that every time, that might be the kind of thing it takes sometimes.
For reasons like these, it takes far more foresight and restraint to eat healthy than it may have in times past. That should not mean we just resign ourselves to poor health.
Common health issues can complicate things
Because of years of living in a bad food situation, and thanks to all kinds of other negative environmental factors, digestive and metabolic issues are very real. Eating poorly doesn’t just cost you that day. It slows down your metabolism over the long run, making for a vicious cycle in which you have to keep eating less to stay ahead.
Still, that’s not an insurmountable problem. It just takes the honesty to admit that there is a problem.
It’s not an overnight fix
One of the frustrating parts of caring for our health is that it can take weeks or months to even start to see progress.
For this reason, sometimes you will hear the struggle compared to other self-control issues like anger or gossip. To an extent, that’s a fair comparison. Those are bad habits that can take a while to address. On the other hand, that’s not a pass. We can’t say “Well she gossips, he’s impatient, and I eat too much. Nobody’s perfect.”
Don’t we want the gossip to stop gossiping, and the impatient man to gain patience? Don’t we believe that with God’s help, they can? Then we should see chronic overeating the same way.
Take stock, and make it happen
I can honestly say, I speak from experience on this subject more than most. I’ve tried intermittent fasting, I’ve tried low carb high fat, I’ve tried high carb low fat, I’ve done the protein craze, I count steps, I have (and still do) put time into regular exercise. Aside from chemical intervention like GLP-1s, if you name it, I’ve done it or am doing it.
And, longtime readers will know that I once was morbidly obese thanks to a horrible diet. After that, around the time I started this site, I got a bit too thin by long-term under-eating. Then, I gained some weight back on purpose to build up my strength and be a bit healthier. But, I gained a bit (I’d say ~10 lbs) more than I wanted that I’ve had great difficulty losing, thanks in part to health issues.
I say all of that to say, I have seen this issue from almost every perspective. I can sympathize with the claims of a poor metabolism while also knowing that that doesn’t mean you’re out of luck, cursed to life-long poor health.
And the truth of the matter is, with enough time and effort, nearly every single one of us have the ability to achieve (or maintain) good health through nutrition and exercise.
And, since God has given us these bodies, we should use that ability to take care of our health.
No, you don’t have to become Arnold Schwarzenegger or a marathon runner or an exclusive salad consumer or anything like that. It’s a false dichotomy to pretend that we either have to be vainly obsessed with our physiques, or be completely at the mercy of what our bodies decide to become.
As I often say, asking “Is it a sin?” is usually a copout to avoid discussing what we ought to do by dismissing it as something we don’t have to do. We shouldn’t be looking for technicalities to see if we’ve crossed the line of gluttony. We should be striving to be good stewards of the one body God has given us.
Notes
The Men’s Excellence Workshop registration page is pending final approval, and then emails will be sent out! You can join the early bird mailing list here.
I’m not a nutritionist, but I have learned a lot along the way through a ton of trial and error.
If you’re interested, I shared some of that in this post and this appearance on the Godly Young Men podcast.
My feeling is that gluttony should be judged by conduct and the condition of the heart, not by someone's physical appearance. A person can be thin and still struggle with gluttony, while someone who is overweight may not be guilty of it at all.
Biblically, the issue isn't simply how much food someone eats or whether they enjoy a large meal. It's the relationship between appetite and self-control.
Gluttony is ultimately a disordering of desire. Something God created as good becomes sinful when our desire for it begins to govern us.
The question isn't just, "How much did I eat?" It's also, "Am I exercising dominion over my appetite, or is my appetite exercising dominion over me?"
Have we reduced gluttony to overeating and, in doing so, overlooked other ways our appetites can control us? Could gluttony include habitually surrendering to cravings for foods we know are harming us, even when we aren't eating excessive portions? And might the same underlying problem of disordered desire explain why some people can't put down their phones, constantly seek entertainment, or spend money they don't have on things they don't need?
In today's world, we can satisfy almost any craving immediately. We can become so accustomed to indulging our desires that we gradually lose the willingness to deny ourselves what we want.
Perhaps the modern glutton isn't necessarily the person who eats until he cannot move. Maybe it's the person who has allowed his appetite to make his decisions for him.