S4E5 - Gluttony: The Over-Desire of a Good Thing

Our Seven Deadly Sins series continues with gluttony: the desire to consume beyond what we actually need. That certainly shows up at the table, but also in our scrolling, shopping, and substance consumption. Gluttony is sneaky and easy to dismiss, and since your metabolism can hide both your sins and your virtues, it can go unnoticed for a lifetime. So this conversation is really about the heart. Are you eating to delight in God's creation, or to cope? Or a better question might be: What do you reach for when you're hurting?

Food and drink aren't bad in themselves. They're gifts from God. Even in Eden, we were made for dependence, needing food to live, and for delight, enjoying trees that were pleasing to the eye. Gluttony perverts those into excess and shame. Its promise is comfort, but whether we run to food or starve ourselves of it, we're trying to solve some sort of pain that food can't fix, and many people stay spiritually and emotionally stuck because they won't face it. We also walk through Aquinas' five forms of gluttony (eating too soon, too expensively, too much, too eagerly, and too daintily), debate whether smaller vices keep us from larger ones, and hear Justin's framework for feasting, fasting, and "ordinary fare" days.

Practical Ways to Fight Gluttony:

1. Take your avoidant consumption more seriously than you think you need to. If you're consuming to change how you feel, you're avoiding something, and you won't heal until you face it.
2. Take gratitude more seriously than you think you need to. Receive good things as gifts, not escapes.
3. Practice the sacred "no." Find out what has become a god by going without it. Skip dessert, leave your phone in another room, or stop eating before you're stuffed.
4. Fast from your favorite thing. Set down whatever you instinctively run to when you're uncomfortable.
5. Pray for self-control. Ask God to grow self-discipline in you.

None of us have this dialed in, but we're learning that every craving points to a deeper hunger that only God can satisfy. So instead of numbing the ache, we invite you to face your vices and let Him meet you there.

Intentional Fatherhood Retreat: November 12-14, 2026 in Austin, TX

Scripture Mentioned: Genesis 2:9

Books Mentioned: The Body Teaches the Soul by Justin Whitmel Earley + The Supper of the Lamb by Robert Farrar Capon

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