Gluttony, Diet, Fitness and Body Idolatry - Biblical Counseling Online

I Cor. 7:3ff; Song of Solomon
4. Gluttony is often associated with other sins.
Dt. 21:20; Pr. 23:20, 28:7, 23:21; Mt. 6:25ff; Col. 3:9; Eph. 4:25; Phil. 2:3-4; I Cor.
10:10
5. Gluttony can make you less useful to God. I Co. 10:31, 6:19-20
6. Not all gluttons are fat.
B. Excessive devotion to physical fitness can also be sinful.
1. One’s quest to obtain the perfect body can lead to other sins.
Js. 4:6; Eph. 4:19; II Pe. 2:2; Luke 21:34; Mt. 6:25ff
2. Making everything in your life revolve around your quest for the perfect body.
3. Some are legalistic about food.
I Tim. 4:3; Col. 2:16ff
4. Those who idolize the perfect body sometimes become anorexic or bulimic.
C. Food is not the problem. The root sin is idolatry.
Ex. 20:3-5; Phil. 3:19; Deut. 6:4; Isa. 55:1-2; Ezek. 14:1-11; Jer. 2:13
1. Food idolatry. Js. 4:1-2
2. Fitness idolatry.
3. You can be both a glutton and make fitness an idol – exercise bulimia.
III. How can those who are stuck in sinful patterns change?
A. The change we seek is unique. Col. 1:28; I Tim. 1:5
1. Our goal is not merely to be thin or to impress other people, but to please and
glorify God.
Col. 1:28; I Co. 10:31; II Co. 5:9
2. It is not what you eat which makes you a sinner, but what is in your heart.
Mark 7:14ff; Js. 1:14ff; Jer. 17:10
3. The change we seek is not outward and physical but inward and spiritual.
4. Seek first God’s kingdom and don’t worry (think) so much about food. Mt. 6:33
B. Change begins with the gospel.
1. Law alone will not change you.
Col. 2:23,19; Rom. 8:3-4; Gal. 3:3
a. Scripture generally begins with the indicative, what God has done for us, as
the ground for imperatives.
b. New Testament commands and exhortations are grounded in the gospel.
Eph. 4:9ff, 5:2,25ff; Rom. 15:2-3,7
c. Some think of the gospel exclusively for justification, but don’t realize its
relevance for sanctification. Gal. 3:3
d. Some biblical counselors move too quickly to the imperative (what we do)
without placing enough emphasis upon how the gospel is the basis of change.
2. You are accepted by God, not based upon how thin you are, but because of the
perfect righteousness of Christ. Phil. 3:9