The Seven Deadly Virtues–Satisfaction

[image error]I have been bothered by my weight most of my life. I was heavy as a child, a condition which my mother euphemistically described as being “big boned.” I was so obsessed with the fear of being fat that even when I thinned out in my adolescence, I did not think of myself as thin. I am no longer thin and I am still bothered. I am not alone. According to some estimates, 45 million Americans go on a diet each year. In our weight-conscious culture, you would think that we would be highly sensitized to the sin the Bible calls gluttony. The truth is, most of us wouldn’t recognize a glutton if he swallowed us whole. We certainly wouldn’t be able to tell whether we are gluttons and the mirror will not help us. That’s because gluttony isn’t really about one’s weight at all.

Traditionally gluttony is linked with food and drink. The Bible associates gluttony with drunkenness (Deut. 21:20; Prov. 23:21). Gluttony is essentially a sin of inordinate appetite. But why would the Bible deem any hunger to be inordinate? Hunger, after all, is a part of our nature. If we don’t eat, we die. Jesus Himself came “eating and drinking” (Matt. 11:19). Food, drink, indeed, all our bodily appetites are part of God’s design. But what exactly is that design?

It is tempting to think that the function of our appetite is to point us in the direction of fulfillment and satisfaction. In truth, it is the opposite. Our appetites by their very nature can never be entirely satisfied. Satisfy your hunger with a meal now and a few hours later it will return. There is nothing to be done about it. Functionally, appetite is a means to an end. It motivates me to take in the sustenance I require for life. When appetite becomes an end in itself, it turns into a kind of slavery (1 Cor. 6:12-13). Spiritually, our appetites are signposts which point to a hunger that cannot be filled by any human means. They are a sign of our emptiness and our need for God. When we look to earthly means to fully and finally satisfy ourselves, we become those whose “god is their stomach” (Phil. 3:19).

Gluttony may seem like an outmoded relic of medieval culture to us. Yet those who live in a consumer society are especially vulnerable to it. That is because consumerism plays upon our emptiness by promising to completely satisfy our appetite. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the culture of marketing. “The consumer culture encourages us not only to buy more but to seek our identity and fulfillment through what we buy, to express our individuality through our ‘choice’ of products” author and activist Jean Kilbourne observes. “Advertising corrupts relationships and then offers products, both as solace and as substitutes for the intimate human connection we all long for and need.” It isn’t the buying and selling that is the problem here, so much as it is the false promise of satisfaction.

Consumerism has profoundly shaped the way the church functions today. Not only because churches are competing with one another to attract more attendees but because consumerism plays upon our spiritual hunger, causing it to promise more than it can deliver and offering cheap substitutes for those things that the Bible calls “worship” and “fellowship.” Instead of providing a context for encountering the reality of God’s presence, we try to create a worship “experience” that will attract more spiritual customers. In the place of “koinonia,” we offer atmosphere. In this model, both God and the church’s members are pushed to the margins.

The Bible’s warnings about gluttony are not a form of Gnosticism or asceticism. Eating is associated with fellowship with God in both Testaments. This theme was reflected in the many meals that Jesus shared with His disciples and was ultimately captured in the Lord’s Supper. It will find its culmination at the end of the age in the marriage feast of the Lamb. Only then will we find what we hunger for most. It is only then that our true desire will be satisfied.