Spiritual Gluttony

This week I tried out a new restaurant and the experience reminded me of a spiritual truth.

A friend of mine and I had lunch at a restaurant – new to us and to our town – that specializes in a kind of Chinese food that I hadn’t had before: Taiwanese hot pots (no, not that kind of pot, even if it’s legal now!). This was different from other Chinese foods I have long enjoyed, such as Cantonese and Szechuan dishes, and even faux-Chinese foods such as chop-suey and fortune cookies (which are both American inventions). The new restaurant’s food turned out to be quite tasty, so I’ll find some excuse to go back there sometime in the future. Although, there are so many other restaurants I haven’t yet tried and really should: a man’s work is never done. . .

So what spiritual truth did I think about? Was it that gluttony is one of the “seven deadly sins” as decreed by Pope Gregory in 590 AD? After all, according to medieval scholar Thomas Aquinas, gluttony is not just eating too much food; it can also be committed by eating too expensively, too daintily, too soon, or too eagerly! (So maybe I do need to repent!)

No, the spiritual lesson that came to mind was the similarity between my enjoying new culinary experiences by trying out new restaurants and food varieties, and something that the Church has struggled with over the centuries, something that theologians refer to as, “novelty.” That is, the desire of people to seek novel, or new, spiritual ideas and experiences beyond what God has already revealed in his Word and in the historic Christian Church’s teachings.

This desire for spiritual novelty shows itself in several ways.

1. One way is by seeking new beliefs. The old beliefs may be difficult to understand or accept, so some people seek ideas that are more to their liking. They hear an interpretation that sounds better, so they abandon what they were taught for the “novel” idea. This is how many of the historical heresies arose; for example, when people found it hard to understand how Jesus could be both God and man, they fell into one of two opposite but equally false doctrines: adoptionism, which taught that Jesus was just a man chosen and empowered by God to be the Savior, and docetism, which taught that Jesus only seemed to be a man, but was in reality only God (or a god!). The Nicene Creed was written as it was primarily to counter a popular heresy of its day, Arianism, which taught that Jesus was just a man. Thus, the Creed states that Jesus Christ is “true God from true God, begotten not made, of one being with the Father.”

Paul refers to this tendency to seek other teachings in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”

One of my professors at seminary warned us “budding theologians” against pursuing novel doctrines. He put it this way: because the Church has studied and wrestled with the Scriptures for a couple thousand years now, it has considered all the legitimate options for understanding any passage. Therefore, if you do your diligence and study multiple commentaries on a certain biblical passage, and you come up with a new interpretation different from all those you read, then you are wrong. Not just different, but wrong.

[If] you come up with a new interpretation different from all those you read, then you are wrong.

Another reason people seek new teachings is that the old ones are just that: old. As the saying goes, familiarity breeds contempt, and when people hear the “same old, same old” over and over again, they may become mentally bored with hearing the “old, old story” no matter how true and wonderful it is. A new teaching sounds exciting; it stimulates the mind and gets them thinking in new ways. They feel they are at the cutting edge of religious thought, and feel pride (another deadly sin!) in their intellectual ability. Besides, how could something written 2000-3000 years ago have relevance to today’s digital world and rapidly changing social norms? The truth that we are still the same people with the same sins and the same righteous Lord and Savior gets left behind in their drive to stay up-to-date.

You can understand the challenge Bible-honoring preachers face. We must take eternal, unchanging truths and make them understandable, interesting, and clearly seen to be relevant, to a culture that has “heard it all before.” We need to keep our message fresh to each new generation, and to those who have heard it their entire lives. And we need to do so again and again, never changing the core message. As one stand-up comedian said, “I could never be a pastor – to have to face the same audience every week and come up with new material each time just terrifies me!” Fortunately, we pastors have a great source book to draw from!

2. Another way is by seeking new spiritual experiences. People can hold to the right doctrines and still be given to seeking “novelty” in their faith by becoming addicted to the spiritual “highs” that come from certain religious activities. These may be conferences, retreats, mission trips, or small group meetings. They may include healing services, the use or witnessing of charismatic gifts, or a big-name evangelist’s crusade. Whatever the event, people go from one “mountain-top” experience to another, always restless with their mundane church life until they can go do something again to feel closer to God. They come back from the event or activity all aglow and happy, but after a while the glow fades as the daily grind takes hold. They begin to long for the next event to recapture the glow once again.

Is there anything wrong with those activities I mentioned? No, such things can be God-honoring and believer-edifying. We all enjoy some of them from time to time. The problem comes when they serve as an addictive drug for the participants, when the activity, rather than Christ, takes center stage. The events become an end in themselves. We participate to get our “fix” rather than fixing our eyes on Jesus, “the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).

Another problem with seeking new experiences is that they can deceive us. Just because something makes us feel good or spiritual doesn’t mean that it is from God or beneficial to us and our faith. An experience may touch us deeply, evoking powerful emotions and giving us a sense of release and healing, yet not be good for us at all. Our subjective feelings are not a good indicator of true spirituality. Like the former hit song, “If loving you is wrong, I don’t want to be right,” we can find many reasons to validate our feelings, even when they go contrary to God’s will and Word. Doing something that feels right to us is no defense either in a court of law or before God.

The other problem with seeking new experiences is the tendency it creates to minimize the objective truth of the Scriptures. Our faith is based on God’s Word, and is true however we feel about it. Whether we feel sad or happy, angry or peaceful, strong or weak, the promises of the Christian faith are there day after day and are unchanging. When we base our contentment on how excited we feel, we diminish God’s promises and the solid fact of what Christ did for us. Does my knowing about Christ make me happy? Absolutely! But even if I don’t feel happy, I still know what Christ did for me on the cross, and that is enough!

But even if I don’t feel happy, I still know what Christ did for me on the cross, and that is enough!

3. Finally, people may seek novelty in a new church: Just as hearing the same doctrines may get old to us, sometimes we just get tired of the same songs, the same decorations, the same order of service, and dare I say it – the same preacher(s). We want something new and more exciting. We’re feeling a little bored at church and know that out there somewhere is the perfect church just waiting for us: a fast-growing church with great music, happy and sinless people, rousing preachers, and a feeling of being where God is doing a special work.

There may be good reasons to change churches: your current church or denomination may have departed the faith and started teaching heresies (that is what brought Karen and me to The AALC and St Peter’s). Or you are genuinely called by God to change churches for the purpose of serving a church where God has a place and mission for you (again, relevant to Karen and me coming to St. Peter’s). Or if by staying, you would damage the current church or cause a schism to develop and split the congregation (not relevant to Karen and me). Or, of course, if you move away. The biblical example of separation is the split between Paul and Barnabas, who had worked together on their first missionary journey, then split and led two different missions with other partners – to the end that twice as many people were reached with the Gospel.

But unless there is a genuine call from God to leave your church and join another church, there are real problems with church-shopping or church-hopping. One is that you never really belong to one body; the more you leave over whatever reason, the easier it is to leave the next time. When Karen and I moved to Indiana, it took a couple years before we joined a church. Even though we attended services, we kept looking for the right church to join and didn’t find it – until we went ahead and joined a church anyway – the church where I would eventually receive my direct call from God into the ministry.

Another problem is that whatever issues you had in your previous church, unless they are resolved, will carry over spiritually into your new situation. If you had something against the pastor, guess what – that will eat at you even years later. And of course, the other big problem with looking for the perfect church is: there is no such thing. There is no perfect church out there – this side of heaven – that will make you happy.

As with job changes, sometimes it is better to change yourself in your job, than to change your job. Sometimes it is better to examine yourself, repent, and let the Spirit change you in your current church, than to change churches. A new and better you is better than a new church, any day!

A new and better you is better than a new church, any day!

So is it wrong to try out new foods or restaurants? No, of course not; Jesus himself showed that all foods were permissible (Mark 7:19 – “Thus he declared all foods clean.”). But don’t let that enjoyment of new experiences at the table intrude into your faith, for it is a precious and life-giving food which was “once and for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3). That’s better than spiritual gluttony. Chew on that!

And now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: 2 Timothy 4, Hebrews 12