Avoid Gluttony
Some do not exercise control over their appetites, but indulge taste
at the expense of health. As the result, the brain is clouded, their
thoughts are sluggish, and they fail to accomplish what they might
if they were self-denying and abstemious. These rob God of the
physical and mental strength which might be devoted to His service if
temperance were observed in all things....
The word of God places the sin of gluttony in the same catalogue
with drunkenness. So offensive was this sin in the sight of God that
He gave directions to Moses that a child who would not be restrained
on the point of appetite, but would gorge himself with anything his
taste might crave, should be brought by his parents before the rulers in
Israel and should be stoned to death. The condition of the glutton was
considered hopeless. He would be of no use to others and was a curse
to himself. No dependence could be placed upon him in anything. His
influence would be ever contaminating others, and the world would
be better without such a character for his terrible defects would be
perpetuated.
None who have a sense of their accountability to God will allow
the animal propensities to control reason. Those who do this are not
Christians, whoever they may be and however exalted their profession.
The injunction of Christ is, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your
Father which is in heaven is perfect.”
Matthew 5:48
. He here shows
us that we may be as perfect in our sphere as God is in His sphere.—
Testimonies for the Church 4:454, 455
(1880).
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