We are in the middle of the holiday season between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

So it is probably unfair to ask this question now, but a podcast listener named Jan writes

in to ask it.

And so I will pass it on to you, Pastor John.

I was wondering, how would you define the sin of gluttony?

I think it's helpful in talking about gluttony to compare it to other sins and why it is

that something good like food and the enjoyment of it becomes sinful.

For example, the existence of sexual desires and the experience of them per se is not evil,

but there is such a thing as the sin of lust.

The enjoyment of someone's praising you is not necessarily evil, but it can become the

sin of vain glory.

The enjoyment of God-given rest is not evil, but it can become the sin of sloth or laziness.

The enjoyment of proper self-respect can become the sin of pride and the desire to have

something innocent.

Home, car, computer can become the sin of covetousness or even worse, the sin of envy if

you're resentful that somebody else has it and you don't.

And the legitimate desire and enjoyment of food can become gluttony.

I think it's helpful to see what's really going on in all these so-called deadly sins.

The larger question is what happens in the human heart when all of these good things

given by God become sinful things?

What happens?

And that really is the right way to ask Jan's question, I think, about the definition

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