A number of years ago I heard a medical practitioner tell a class that our two strongest appetites are for food and for sex. I have often thought about her observation and concluded that she was right for obvious reasons: food keeps humans alive; sex keeps the human race alive. Therefore, if we find ourselves thinking about food and about sex, we can blame God. He gave us the taste buds that make our mouths water when we approach a buffet table. He gave us the nerve endings and fantasies that enable us to be sexually aroused.
Unfortunately, these two powerful, life-sustaining appetites can undo the best of us. An obsessive pre-occupation with food, coupled with inactivity, can cause obesity. Gluttony is not a new problem, but the current availability of so much food and so many snacks has certainly escalated the problem. By the same token, an obsessive pre-occupation with sex, fueled by graphic sexual images in every kind of media, is hurting marriages and families in ways that we have never witnessed before. Lust, like gluttony, is also not a new problem, but the accessibility and affordability of porn, and the sexually charged videos of performers like Miley Cyrus and Rihanna, are corrupting spirits and ruining lives like never before.
Why am I mentioning gluttony and lust in the same article? To remind both chocolate addicts and sex addicts that everybody has a plank in their own eyes that needs as much attention as the sawdust that we see in someone else’s eyes (Matthew 7:3). And to highlight the fact that obesity and pornography are probably the biggest medical and social health problems that we face today.
Now there is nothing wrong with enjoying food. Jesus told several parables that involve banquets. He compared the kingdom of heaven to a wedding feast. He taught us to pray for our daily bread and his first public miracle was making wine. But the Bible also says, “Put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony” (Proverbs 23:2). And it warns us not to be like those whose “god is their stomach” (Philippians 3:19). Frankly, some of us have to admit that we spend way too much time thinking about food and that our eating habits are hurting our health. On a spiritual level, we have to repent of making idols of what we eat and drink.
Let me also say that there is nothing wrong with enjoying sex. The book of Genesis says that Adam and Eve were “both naked and felt no shame” (Genesis 2:25). One of the Bible’s sixty-six books is a book of erotica in which a man compares his beloved’s breasts to “twin fawns of a gazelle” and a woman compares her lover’s lips to “lilies dripping with myrrh” (Song of Songs 4:5; 5:13). But the apostle Paul could have been talking about sexting and late night voyeurism when he wrote, “Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity with a continual lust for more” (Ephesians 4:19).
When it comes to food and sex, our appetites are basic. But they become base when we allow ourselves to be mastered by our stomachs or our genitals. Food and sex are wonderful gifts from God, but Jesus should be our only master, not Adephagia, the goddess of gluttony, or Eros, the god of lust.
With the Lord’s help and within his will we can satisfy our normal, natural desires in a way that brings us well-being and joy.
So let me ask: “What or who is mastering you?”
- Pastor Peter
Why am I mentioning gluttony and lust in the same article? To remind both chocolate addicts and sex addicts that everybody has a plank in their own eyes that needs as much attention as the sawdust that we see in someone else’s eyes (Matthew 7:3). And to highlight the fact that obesity and pornography are probably the biggest medical and social health problems that we face today.
Now there is nothing wrong with enjoying food. Jesus told several parables that involve banquets. He compared the kingdom of heaven to a wedding feast. He taught us to pray for our daily bread and his first public miracle was making wine. But the Bible also says, “Put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony” (Proverbs 23:2). And it warns us not to be like those whose “god is their stomach” (Philippians 3:19). Frankly, some of us have to admit that we spend way too much time thinking about food and that our eating habits are hurting our health. On a spiritual level, we have to repent of making idols of what we eat and drink.
Let me also say that there is nothing wrong with enjoying sex. The book of Genesis says that Adam and Eve were “both naked and felt no shame” (Genesis 2:25). One of the Bible’s sixty-six books is a book of erotica in which a man compares his beloved’s breasts to “twin fawns of a gazelle” and a woman compares her lover’s lips to “lilies dripping with myrrh” (Song of Songs 4:5; 5:13). But the apostle Paul could have been talking about sexting and late night voyeurism when he wrote, “Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity with a continual lust for more” (Ephesians 4:19).
When it comes to food and sex, our appetites are basic. But they become base when we allow ourselves to be mastered by our stomachs or our genitals. Food and sex are wonderful gifts from God, but Jesus should be our only master, not Adephagia, the goddess of gluttony, or Eros, the god of lust.
With the Lord’s help and within his will we can satisfy our normal, natural desires in a way that brings us well-being and joy.
So let me ask: “What or who is mastering you?”
- Pastor Peter
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