“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, 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; 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. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear” (Deuteronomy 21:18-21; underlining mine).
There is a saying that sins are like grapes: they come in bunches. As the universal atonement heretic, John Calvin writes on this passage:
“But although those were condemned who were addicted to other vices also, yet Moses expressly mentions gluttons and drunkards, to show that, although no capital crime were alleged, still, dissolute profligacy was sufficient, if the son could not be corrected by his parents; for it is plain that those are in a desperate state who have so cast away submissiveness and shame as to receive no profit from the admonitions of their parents” (John Calvin).
From other Scriptures we know that before obeying God’s command to put the evil away from among you, there must be sufficient evidence that actual evil has been committed. My primary focus is on the sin of gluttony. What is this sin? What does it look like? What would the fruit that is suitable for genuine repentance look like? Also, is this stubborn and rebellious son in Deuteronomy 21:18-21 NECESSARILY a child of corpulent notoriety? If so, how corpulent (i.e., portly, fat, obese, etc.) would he have to be? What or where’s your cut-off and by what standard?
The plan or idea is to judge true and righteous judgment and by the standard of Scripture in ALL sins. Christians serve a God of truth and righteousness and should seek to honor Him in these areas.
Agrammatos 