Number Three = Gluttony/Temperance
Gluttony is the vice of over-indulgence. Temperance keeps need from becoming greed.
Anyone OVER 50 years old needs no introduction to
"the Skipper” from “Gilligan’s Island.”
Of course, “Skipper” is a nickname and title: extra points for anyone who can tell me the character’s actual name. (A: Jonas Grumby.) The Skipper and Gilligan are characters reminiscent of screen legends Laurel and Hardy.
The actor’s name was Alan Hale Jr. (Can you imagine calling a man his size “JUNIOR?”) In the show, the Skipper was easily the strongest man and probably the tallest character too.
Before Hale was cast in the role, actor Carroll O’Connor was considered for the part. Thinking about Archie Bunker as the Skipper is almost too much for the mind to handle isn’t it?
A side note: in 2003 film and TV critic Thomas Carson wrote a book, Gilligan’s Wake, which supplied a back story for the Skipper, where he served with JFK on PT-109 and Captain McHale (Ernest Borgnine) from the “McHale’s Navy” TV show. Blending history and fiction, the book was well-received.
I chose this picture of the character because its’ the one that best shows off the Skipper’s sizable paunch. It’s true that a guy like me has no right to fault the Skipper’s figure. The point simply is that the Skipper is our best symbol of gluttony because the evidence is piled up above his belt. Hale was also a seafood restaurant owner, so no reason to limit dinners.
When he died in 1991, Alan Hale Jr.’s ashes were sprinkled over the Pacific Ocean, a fitting end to a character who spent 30 years on “Gilligan’s Island.”
1. The vicious vice of GLUTTONY (Luke 12:13-21)
What is “gluttony?”
- An obsession over satisfying any physical appetite beyond what’s needed.
- A perversion of need into greed. Billy Graham wrote: “Gluttony is a perversion of a natural, God-given appetite. We must fix in our minds the fact that sin is not always flagrant and open transgression. It is often the perversion and distortion of natural, normal desires and appetites. Love is distorted into lust. Self-respect too often is perverted into godless ambition. When a God-given, normal hunger is extended greedily into abnormality…it becomes sin.” (7 Deadly Sins, p. 75.)
Overeating is a common example of gluttony, but it takes many forms.
- A thirsty person needs to drink. Consuming too much of some kinds of drink lead to drunkenness.
- A hungry person needs food. Too much food leads to obesity-related issues.
- A hurting person needs medication. We’ve heard a lot about how opiod addiction has hurt so many people.
- A poor person needs to work, but workaholism hurts relationships and one’s physical health.
- A bored person needs activity. We spend so much time and money on amusements, they can be addictive.
- An ambitious person needs achievement. Too much of self sacrificed to being #1 reduces relationships to superficiality.
What’s needed is moderation. Take eating as an example, the Old Testament Law set aside days of feasting and fasting. In both cases, the issue was never food; the issue was love for God manifest in obedience. The feasting and fasting were both commanded by God and were good. In our day and theirs, sin intervenes when we do too much of either or do any of it out of an ungodly motive. “Gluttony” is over-doing anything that is otherwise necessary and/or good.
Why is gluttony deadly?
- It is an expression of materialism. Where are your thoughts most of the day? How often are you thinking about God and what He wants you to do? How often do you cross the line between need and greed?
- It is another form of selfishness. Whenever we try to justify abundance and ignore the need of others, we are guilty of sinful self-centeredness. Whenever our own pleasure becomes the most important thing, we’ve gone over into gluttony.
- It is a subtle version of idolatry. The maxim, “we eat to live, not live to eat” is a reminder that we’re not to let anything in this life take the place of God. While we may not bow down and pray to a sandwich, it can still be idolatry.
- It violates God’s commands to honor Him with our bodies. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 and Romans 6:13 are two examples of God’s commands to offer ourselves, body and soul, in service to Him. Reminding ourselves that all things belong to God is one way we avoid gluttony.
Jesus gave a fictional example of the deadly reality of gluttony. The context of the passage is Jesus’ refusal to be brought into a family feud (vs. 13-15). He had the spiritual insight to know that the real issue was GREED and he wisely avoided taking sides. Never one to waste, Jesus turned the incident into a “teachable moment.”
The main point of the parable: it is foolish to have an insatiable appetite for worldly things and neglect God. How do we know that? We look at the specifics.
The man expressed the point of view typical for a glutton (vs. 16-19). Rather than see his abundance as a blessing and honor God, the RICH FOOL’s only thought was how to hoard it and keep it for himself. Rather than see his abundance as God’s supply to enable him to help others, he only made plans how to have more.
God condemned his point of view in v. 20. Morally & spiritually, he was a FOOL. In the Bible, ungodly and evil people are foolish. Their problem is not a lack of intelligence, but a lack of attention to the things of God. Evil deeds are the result. The man in the parable is not condemned as foolish because he had wealth, but because he made the decision to waste it on himself. God grants us the ability to create wealth (see Deuteronomy 8:18) for two reasons; so we can care for ourselves, not depending on others, and also so we can help others who find themselves in need. On a practical level, he wasted time and money on himself: death would cheat him of all he’d stored up.
It is better to be RICH TOWARD GOD than well-stocked in worldly things. Jesus ended with a stern warning in v. 21; “THIS IS HOW IT WILL BE WITH ANYONE WHO STORES UP THINGS FOR HIMSELF BUT IS NOT RICH TOWARD GOD.”
2. The vital virtue of TEMPERANCE (Daniel 1).
What is temperance? It is an attitude of moderation in regard to satisfying physical appetites.
- It is using worldly things without being used by them or getting too used to having them.
- It is owning things without being owned by them or forgetting that God is the true owner of all of them.
Temperance involves acts of self-control that disciplines one’s self by self-denial. Moderation is only possible when we exercise our intelligence, practice self-discipline, and rely on the Holy Spirit. Falling into extremes requires less of these virtuous things, often resulting in a loss of truth and ruination of relationships.
God’s preference for moderation in all things is clearly revealed in Ecclesiastes 7:18 = IT IS GOOD TO GRASP THE ONE AND NOT LET GO OF THE OTHER. THE MAN WHO FEARS GOD WILL AVOID ALL EXTREMES. How much better would our American society be if all extremists took this line of thinking?
Obedience to God’s commands requires us to put Him before all worldly things. Love for God is manifest in obedience. Actions convey love for God.
Obedience is also required because God is self-identified as “jealous” of us. God will not share you with the world. We must be His; first AND foremost.
Why is temperance a vital virtue? First, because temperance recognizes that our liberty in Christ is boundaried by our responsibility to obey God and bless others. Human nature seeks to satisfy self first and take the path of least effort to do so. Our new divine nature seeks to obey God first and bless others by pointing to God. People who are prompt to insist on their rights and/or ignore their responsibilities reveal a heart in rebellion against God, making an idol of self.
Second, temperance seeks to avoid sin by keeping things in perspective; God’s perspective. Temperance is founded on seeing the world as God does; flawed by sin, one day to be replaced.
Daniel is a great example of temperance. The context of Daniel 1 is the historical fact of the “Babylonian Captivity.” Daniel was one of many deportees from Judah. In ancient times, the winners of a war took captives from the conquered people to be slaves. The intent was to inculcate them with the victor’s culture and then send them back home to spread the influence of the conqueror to the subject nations.
Daniel was one of a group of especially promising young men who were going to be renamed, retrained, and put to work in government offices (v. 4). Daniel is one of the most godly men in the Old Testament.
The place Daniel demonstrated the vital virtue of temperance was - unexpectedly - in his diet. The people serving in the king’s palace were naturally used to the very best food (v. 5), probably lots of it. This was the king’s will and that was not a thing to be trifled with (v. 10).
Daniel’s objection to the king’s diet was spiritual! We choose to diet for physical or emotional reasons. But v. 7 says Daniel RESOLVED NOT TO DEFILE HIMSELF with the king’s food. Though it might be used in an emotional sense, the word DEFILE is a spiritual term. To defile something was to compromise or impugn its holiness. We see the spiritual/religious/love-as-obedience-to-God aspect of Daniel’s dietary designs in three inferences.
- One, the food had probably been offered to idols first, which meant that to eat it made Daniel a participant in idolatry, even if it was “after the fact.”
- Two, the Babylonians did not observe Jewish kosher laws and thereby put food on the table that the Law had forbidden.
- Three, gluttony was probably encouraged at every meal. Then - as now - conspicuous consumption of food is something for which the wealthy and powerful are notorious. (Ask me about Roman vomitoriums and using bread as napkins.)
Daniel did not act in rebellion, but reasonably asked for an exception to the royal table. He overcame his handler’s hesitation by suggesting a test: a ten day veggie diet (vs. 9-14). Eating veggies only was the only sure way to avoid eating meat offered to idols, so this is not a vindication of vegetarianism. This situation came up because Daniel and his friends insisted on following God’s law, not man’s law. If you choose to be a vegetarian or vegan, you are free to do so for other reasons; please don’t cite this chapter as justification.
The result of the ten day table test was that Daniel and his Jewish friends were healthier than the guys who bellied up to the “Royal Buffet” every meal (vs. 15-16). Daniel’s instructor approved their special meal plan and God did too, as indicated by two stamps of “divine approval.”
- In v. 17 we see that God gave Daniel something like the Spiritual Gift of Discernment in his ability to interpret VISIONS and DREAMS OF ALL KINDS.
- In v. 20, God gave Daniel and fellow Jewish superior wisdom, making them TEN TIMES more able than ALL THE MAGICIANS AND ENCHANTERS in all of Babylon.
How do we practice temperance? We can follow Daniel’s example. Don’t follow the crowd. The world will mislead and distract you from following God’s will. This will result in sin and a life less than what God has chosen. Don’t compromise God’s standards as you understand them. In this situation, God did not give Daniel a new command to be a vegetarian or reward Daniel for that kind of diet. Instead, we see Daniel used his brains and followed the Spirit to figure out a way to avoid idolatry. Similarly, we must be creative to see God’s path. New solutions may be needed!
We must recognize self-control is a biblical virtue and one area that needs control is our impulse to please ourselves. Our spiritual nature must control our human nature. We must be more concerned about pleasing God than pleasing ourselves.
Practice moderation in all things is a biblical virtue; simplify your life by practicing it. Moderation has very few advocates and it is more difficult to achieve, but almost always puts you closer to God.
If you can’t do push-ups, practice your “push-aways.” As in “push away” from the table. More importantly “push away” from things that will tempt you to deny God.
Anyone UNDER 50 needs no introduction to
“Yelp,” a website and app that allows users to post and read reviews of local businesses, especially restaurants. Yelp was started in 2004 by a couple of former PayPal employees. At the end of last year, users had posted 148 million reviews, using a five star rating system. Most of the people who use Yelp live in major metropolitan areas and are doing so on a mobile device.
Studies have shown that Yelp carries considerable clout. A study showed that restaurants gain 5-9% more reservations for every star in their Yelp rating. Of course, this kind of success attracts criticism and some have claimed the system is flawed and abused.
I suppose it is because of the connection to restaurants that Yelp was chosen as the symbol of gluttony. However, given the amount of criticism Yelp receives each year, it may have been chosen because use of the site are “gluttons for punishment!”
At an entirely different site, Trulia.com rated Las Vegas, Nevada as the most gluttonous city in America. Vegas’ rating of 113 (most other cities scored in the 20s) was probably based on the number of buffet restaurants, the number of plastic surgery offices (0.94 per 100,000 residents), obesity, drinking, and smoking rates. If Vegas really is the capital of gluttony, then not EVERYTHING that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Some of it comes home on one’s tummy and thighs.
Gluttony is the vice of over-indulgence. Temperance keeps need from becoming greed.
Gluttony is the sin of abuse and over-use of things that God created for our good. It has deadly spiritual consequences and does our health no good either.
Remember, gluttony is not limited to food and drink. Anything in this world can be a means of gluttony. Part of our daily life must be making decisions that exercise self-control so that God’s good gifts never become a substitute for God Himself.