Respectable Sins of Christmas #1 - Gluttony

I personally enjoy the Christmas season. I love the carols, the lights, the food and drinks (any eggnog fans?). It is, altogether, a joyful and good-feeling time of year. At the same time, I know Christmas can be bittersweet—or even deeply painful—for some, and we do well to acknowledge that reality honestly.

My goal with this series is not to tell you to stop enjoying Christmas, nor to ruin the joy of the season. I am also not promising to “fix” your Christmas. But as wonderful as Christmas can be, it is also a time when many respectable sins become more visible. And if you are a Christian, you know that sin never truly adds joy—it quietly corrodes it. The aim of this series, then, is actually to protect and deepen your joy by helping you recognize the common sinful traps our culture so easily falls into during this season.

One of the most obvious, and least challenged, of these sins is gluttony.

You may not hear that word often anymore, but historically, it has been counted among the seven deadly sins. Gluttony is often reduced to overconsumption of food, and while that can certainly be part of it, gluttony goes deeper. At its core, it is what Jesus describes as “working for the bread that perishes” (John 6:27). The glutton places idolatrous expectations on food and drink, looking to them for the satisfaction the soul was created to find in God. Because food and drink cannot bear that weight, the glutton keeps consuming—eating, drinking, indulging—trying to quiet a hunger that never truly goes away.

Gluttony, however, does not always look like excess. Some eat very little but demand only the most special or exclusive foods, believing that this meal, this experience, will finally satisfy them. Others eat normal portions but spend beyond their means, convinced that they need certain foods or drinks to be content. For some, the season becomes entirely stomach-driven, an unrestrained pursuit of appetite with little regard for others, for generosity, or for self-control.

To be clear, the problem is not feasting. Feasting is not only permitted in Scripture; it is often commanded. God instructed Israel to celebrate His goodness with food and wine, rejoicing in His provision. The answer to gluttony is not asceticism, nor is it guilt-driven restraint. The answer is proper feasting. As Spirit-filled Christians, marked by self-control, we should be able to enjoy daily bread and celebratory meals in the presence of God, with thankful and ordered hearts.

Gluttony, then, is not ultimately a sin of the stomach, but a sin of the heart. It is a heart deceived into believing that soul-level satisfaction can be found by filling the stomach, pleasing the taste buds, or numbing the mind with bread that perishes. At its root, gluttony asks the wrong questions about what we consume. What am I expecting this food or drink to give me? What am I asking it to fix? What place does it hold in my life?

The irony is that the glutton is often assumed to be the one who truly appreciates food and drink. In reality, he rarely does. Enslaved by appetite, he finds no lasting contentment, no deep satisfaction—only a short-lived pleasure that fades almost immediately.

So pray this Christmas that God would give you the grace to enjoy His goodness rightly: to feast with gratitude, to delight yourself in the Lord, and to keep everything in its proper place—so that joy may grow rather than quietly erode.

Nino Marques