“Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: for the drunkard and the glutton lose all, and sleepiness shall clothe [one with] rags” (Proverbs 23:20-21).
“Woe to thee, O land, when thy king [is] a child, and thy princes eat in the morning! Blessed [art] thou, O land, when thy king [is] the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!” (Ecclesiastes 10:16-17)
“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).
Do the passages I cite above speak of physical girth or body weight? They do not. Rather, they speak of behavioral gullet. Proverbs 23:20-21 speaks of drunkards and gluttons and Ecclesiastes 10:16-17 of eating for drunkenness rather than for strength. This kind of behavior — this intemperate drinking and eating that incapacitates, indisposes, or hinders — generally accompanies “sleepiness” (or perhaps a drowsy, lazy stupor) which is said to cloth a man in rags (I say “generally accompanies” since other Proverbs speak of training up a child in the truth and he will not depart from it, when some children do depart from the truth).
As far as I can discern, these passages on gluttony describe intemperate eating that so clogs and captivates the mind in a way that appears analogous to being drunk with alcohol. There is no mention of physical girth or obesity in these Scriptures.
What is obesity? What constitutes obesity? Why am I asking these questions? At least one reason (not the only reason) is because a recent professing Christian correspondent asked me the following question:
“How is it that men like Frame, Mcculley, and Spurgeon should not be called gluttons?”
Let us focus on Spurgeon since he is very popular, influential, and known by many to be a portly fellow. Anyway, this cavalier correspondent would take one look at Spurgeon and ASSUME, without the behavioral evidence that Scripture mentions, that Spurgeon was a characteristic glutton (rather than a non-characteristic-glutton) and thus judge Spurgeon unregenerate BASED SOLELY on his physical girth. Is this a righteous judgment or an unrighteous judgment?
Whatever one believes about the optimal diet for properly regulating the appetite (e.g., “standard American diet” in moderation, ketogenic diet, low fat diet, etc., etc.), or what are some plausible hormonal mechanisms for driving the excess storage of adipose tissue (i.e., fat tissue) it is CLEAR that any “body-type” (whatever that might mean) CAN commit the sin of gluttony.
“It may often happen as a matter of fact that in some given matter a proposition of the form ‘All B is A’ is true simultaneously with ‘All A is B.’ Thus it is as true to say that ‘All equiangular triangles are equilateral’ as that ‘All equilateral triangles are equiangular.’ Nevertheless we are not logically warranted in inferring the one from the other. Each has to be established on its separate evidence” (St. George William Joseph Stock, Deductive Logic (Kindle Edition).
Thus, EVEN IF one concedes that ALL obese persons (however one may define “obese”) are characterized by the sin of gluttony, NOT ALL who are characterized by the sin of gluttony are obese persons [Example: All canines have four legs, but not all that have four legs are canines.]
Clearly, thin persons can commit the sin of gluttony since it appears from Scripture that gluttony has much to do with behavior, even if not completely separate from physical girth. My correspondent’s assumption (and many people also assume this) is that obesity is univariate — that it has ONLY one explanation, or perhaps two (thus, bi-variate): Gluttony and “inactivity” (i.e., sloth, laziness).
Whether or not obesity is adequately explained in a univariate or multivariate way, is ultimately not the important issue. It is certainly not my intended focus in this post. My intended focus in this post is: What saith the Scriptures?
“Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses” (1 Timothy 5:19).
Again, the primary point of this post is how to honor Jesus Christ, who is TRUTH INCARNATE, with an application of 1 Timothy 5:19 regarding an alleged sin of gluttony.
Hypothetically speaking here:
If my correspondent and an elder of corpulent notoriety were members of a true gospel believing assembly, and this correspondent leveled the accusation of the sin of gluttony, then what? Who is the second witness (or even the first witness, for that matter)?
The Biblical standard (the only standard that matters) is that there MUST be at least two witnesses of the sin. Was the alleged sin witnessed? Or, rather, was the supposed evidential fruit of the sin “witnessed”? Was riotous and intemperate eating that incapacitates or hinders from performing necessary duties witnessed?
“Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: for the drunkard and the glutton lose all, and sleepiness shall clothe [one with] rags” (Proverbs 23:20-21)
“Woe to thee, O land, when thy king [is] a child, and thy princes eat in the morning! Blessed [art] thou, O land, when thy king [is] the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!” (Ecclesiastes 10:16-17)
There needs to be at least two lines of confirming evidence (two witnesses of the intemperance). 1 Timothy 5:19 applies to other sins, not just to gluttony. Admittedly, I was a bit surprised to discover that there are people out there who profess to believe the true gospel, but who will not apply a Biblical standard to judging righteous judgment regarding the sin of gluttony.
Agrammatos 