The fruit of the Spirit is . . . self-control.
—GALATIANS 5:2 2–2 3
Americans are getting fatter and fatter. Our girth is growing at an alarming rate, and our waistlines are expanding to dangerous levels. Obesity has become a major health crisis in our land. Just look around and see how many seriously overweight people there are. Perhaps you don’t have to look any further than your own mirror.1
Throughout much of human history, and to this day in many parts of the world, people have had to fight and scratch just to survive. Today we live in a culture of opulence and decadence that presents a whole new set of challenges. We are not meeting them well, not realizing the dangers that come with luxury. As Juvenal wrote nineteen hundred years ago, “Luxury, more savage than arms, has oppressed Rome, and avenges a conquered world” (Satire VI). There are real challenges in having too much.
A 2015 article announced, “The average American woman is now the same weight as the average 1960s man,” offering these three bullet points:
• Modern American women are an average 166.2 pounds, while the typical man in the 1960s was 166.3 pounds.
• The weight gain has been blamed on Americans overeating unhealthy foods and scaling back on exercise.
• During the same period, men put on an average of 30 pounds.2
But this is not simply a question of our appearance. The fatter we get, the unhealthier we get. A major study by the RAND Corporation confirmed what many other studies have found, namely, that “obesity is linked to very high rates of chronic illnesses—higher than living in poverty, and much higher than smoking or drinking.”3 That’s why a leading medical doctor wrote that we Americans are “Digging Our Graves with Forks and Knives.”4 As the RAND study concluded, “Not only does obesity have more negative health consequences than smoking, drinking, or poverty, it also affects more people. Approximately 23 percent of Americans are obese. An additional 36 percent are overweight. By contrast, only 6 percent are heavy drinkers, 19 percent are daily smokers, and 14 percent live in poverty.”5
In 2012, articles were written about the soaring costs associated with our growing waistlines. As reported by Reuters, “U.S. hospitals are ripping out wall-mounted toilets and replacing them with floor models to better support obese patients. The Federal Transit Administration wants buses to be tested for the impact of heavier riders on steering and braking. Cars are burning nearly a billion gallons of gasoline more a year than if passengers weighed what they did in 1960.”6
Because obesity raises the risk of a host of medical conditions, from heart disease to chronic pain, the obese are absent from work more often than people of healthy weight. The most obese men take 5.9 more sick days a year; the most obese women, 9.4 days more. Obesity-related absenteeism costs employers as much as $6.4 billion a year, health economists led by Eric Finkelstein of Duke University calculated.7
The very real costs are staggering. So why are we getting fatter and fatter? Before we answer that question, let’s switch topics from eating to spending. Why are we getting more and more in debt?
I don’t want to depress you with these figures, but our debt is growing just like our waistlines are growing. As reported in 2010,
Back in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the average American consumer had less than two thousand dollars in total personal debt, but that amount has increased steadily during the past fifty years.
This year, according to a recent report on the financial website The Motley Fool, “The average American household has total debt of more than $90,000, which includes households that live debt free. The average household with debt owes more than $130,000.”8
Returning to our food issues, note these alarming statistics from the CDC:
• Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past thirty years.
• The percentage of children aged 6–11 years in the United States who were obese increased from 7 percent in 1980 to nearly 18 percent in 2012. Similarly, the percentage of adolescents aged 12–19 years who were obese increased from 5 percent to nearly 21 percent over the same period.
• In 2012, more than one-third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese.9
So, it’s not just that we’re getting fatter as a society, but our kids are getting fatter at younger and younger ages. Accordingly, the American Heart Association’s website reminds us that “with good reason, childhood obesity is now the No. 1 health concern among parents in the United States, topping drug abuse and smoking.” The website also quotes former Surgeon General Richard Carmona, who warned that, “because of the increasing rates of obesity, unhealthy eating habits and physical inactivity, we may see the first generation that will be less healthy and have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.”10
HOW DO WE REVERSE THESE DANGEROUS TRENDS?
Once again, God’s Word has the answers. We must recapture the biblical themes of stewardship and self-control: our bodies and our finances belong to the Lord, and we must take care of both as responsible stewards.
According to Paul, some people have their stomachs as their god (so, food is an idol in their lives) while others have made money into their god (he explicitly said that covetousness is idolatry).11 So we must beware the idolatry of a wrong attachment to food and money.
Here, then, are biblical principles that will help us get physically and financially fit. We’ll start with the issue of unhealthy eating, but first, a word of encouragement. On August 24, 2014, I weighed 275 pounds, and despite being almost 6’ 3” and working out (so I did have some muscle too), I was obese. My big problem, though, was not really gluttony per se, since I exercised a certain amount of discipline every day. My big problem was unhealthy eating—being addicted to chocolate (or at least to sugar) for most of my life (I ate Oreos for breakfast as a boy), and eating pizza and pasta on a weekly (or daily) basis, along with plenty of snacks like pretzels or jelly beans. And my favorite ice cream desserts were hard-core, like Ben and Jerry’s New York Super Fudge Chocolate (I’d eat the whole pint in two sittings during the same night when I splurged) or a large Chocolate Extreme Blizzard from Dairy Queen (sometimes I would skip a meal to “justify” having this decadent treat).
By God’s grace and with Nancy’s help, I made a total lifestyle change, eating foods I had never eaten before and getting rid of most of the foods I had eaten my entire life. Simply stated, I changed my whole relationship to food. Within eight months, I had lost 95 pounds (and I’ve kept it off since). My health is more vibrant than I can remember in decades, showing radical, positive changes in my blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and more. And at age 62 as of this writing, I can out-exercise most men one-third my age.
If I could make these radical changes (Nancy made them in her life, too) in my food intake, so can you. It’s simply a matter of applying the wise principles of the Word to your eating habits, leaning on him for grace and help, through which you too can go from indulgence to self-control.12
Principle 1: Our bodies belong to the Lord.
When the Lord saved us from our sins, he purchased us in full—spirit, soul, and body. We now belong to him in the entirety of our beings. In light of that, Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:19–20).
The context refers to abstaining from sexual immorality (see chapter 10 for more on that), but it’s clear that this text can refer to healthy eating as well. So let’s rephrase this in the form of a series of questions: Are you glorifying God in your body if you are destroying it willfully? Are you glorifying God in your body if you are shouting to the whole world, “I’m out of control when it comes to my appetite!”? Are you glorifying God in your body if you are unable to run your race effectively because of sickness and tiredness brought on by unhealthy eating? How does any of this glorify the Lord?
Principle 2: Your stomach is not your god.
Look at how strongly Paul spoke against certain false teachers in his day: “For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things” (Phil. 3:18–19). Read those words again, slowly and carefully. These people are bound by fleshly sins and controlled by carnal desires—and their god is their belly.
Jesus taught that “no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” (Matt. 6:24). We’ll come back to this verse in a moment when we talk about money, but once more, the same principle applies: if your stomach is your god, then your heart is divided, and as a child of God, you should not be a slave to carnal appetites.
Principle 3: Gluttony is a sin.
Notice the different contexts in which gluttony is referenced. Then ask yourself if you want to fit into any of these categories:
• “This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard” (Deut. 21:20).
• “Be not among drunkards or among gluttonous eaters of meat, for the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags” (Prov. 23:20–21).
• “The one who keeps the law is a son with understanding, but a companion of gluttons shames his father” (Prov. 28:7).
• “One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, ‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.’ This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith” (Titus 1:12–13).
Gluttony is associated with stubbornness, rebellion, drunkenness, lying, evil, and laziness that results in shame, poverty, and judgment. Gluttony should not characterize you and me!
Principle 4: Practice self-control.
Jesus preached that we, his followers, need to deny ourselves (see Luke 9:23); the world (along with what is preached from many a pulpit) tells us to indulge ourselves. Whose advice will we follow? Proverbs offers us this practical counsel: “When you sit down to dine with a ruler, think carefully about who is before you. If you have a big appetite, put a knife to your throat! Don’t be greedy for his delicacies, for they are deceptive food” (Prov. 23:1–3 CJB).
Today most Americans can eat like kings (meaning in the most indulgent, decadent ways imaginable), from appetizers to main courses to desserts to snacks. We can gorge ourselves to our stomachs’ content (and more), and we hardly realize what we’re doing.
We need to put into practice this word from Proverbs on a daily basis by saying no to unhealthy foods (the king’s dainties!) putting a knife to our throats, figuratively speaking, and by exercising discipline. Paul told us that we, just like Olympic athletes, should exercise self-control in all things, seeing that the crown we’re competing for is far more valuable and enduring (see 1 Cor. 9:24–27). But notice carefully his language: “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever” (1 Cor. 9:25 NIV, emphasis added). We are called to self-discipline as disciples, and that includes exercising moderation in our diets. As Proverbs exhorts, “If you have found honey, eat only enough for you, lest you have your fill of it and vomit it” (Prov. 25:16). Proverbs also states, “A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls” (Prov. 25:28). Surely you do not want your life to look like this.
Principle 5: We will reap what we sow.13
We’ll return to this principle as well when it comes to our money, reminding us that the same principles that bring life and health and well-being in one area of life are the same principles that bring life and health and well-being in other areas of life. When it comes to food, as a general rule, we can be sure that if we sow to health—meaning eating healthy foods, walking in self-control, and exercising—we will reap health. But if we sow to indulgence—meaning eating whatever we like in whatever amounts we desire and being couch potatoes—we will reap destruction, in the form of sickness, tiredness, shame, depression, and even premature death. God’s ways are ways of life.
Just like get-rich-quick schemes don’t work (as we will see shortly), so also fad diets don’t work.14 The right way is often the hard way, but it’s always the blessed way.
Now, let’s turn to financial issues and see what the Word has to say. Many books have been written on biblical principles of finance, since the Bible contains hundreds of verses relevant to money. We’ll just touch on a few here now.
Principle 1: There’s no substitute for good, hard work.
Just like glutton is a bad word in the Bible, so also is sluggard (meaning “lazy person”). Sluggard occurs more frequently.15 Look at how foolish a lazy person is: “The sluggard says, ‘There is a lion in the road! There is a lion in the streets!’” In other words, he makes lame excuses for his inactivity. “As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed.” What a graphic picture! “The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth.” Talk about lazy! Yet the sluggard thinks he’s so wise: “The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly” (Prov. 26:13–16). What a pathetic figure.
And the consequences of laziness are nothing to laugh about: “How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man” (Prov. 6:9–11).
God’s Word calls us to serious, hard work, counseling the lazy person to learn from some tiny, industrious creatures made by the Lord: “Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest” (Prov. 6:6–8). We must take responsibility for our finances, we must work hard, and we must plan ahead. So simple! As we’ll see in the next chapter, Paul instructed his followers that if they weren’t willing to work, they shouldn’t be allowed to eat.
So, if you’re healthy and able-bodied, get out of that bed, get out of your room, and get to work. And if you can’t find work, then do something productive with your time, volunteering to help others. Whatever you do, don’t look to others to give you a handout (we’ll have much more to say about that in the next chapter), take full responsibility for your life, and learn some good lessons from the ant.
Principle 2: Get-rich-quick schemes are doomed to fail.
Have you ever tracked what happened to winners of the lottery? Most of them end up in far worse shape after winning than before they became multimillionaires: some have destroyed marriages, some have destroyed personal lives, and many have destroyed finances.16 It’s the same with people who lose lots of weight on reality TV shows.17 Most of them end up heavier in the end. In short, quick-fix solutions do not work for the long haul, be they get-rich-quick schemes or fad diets.
Principle 3: You can’t serve God and money.
When Jesus spoke these words (Matt. 6:24), the word he used for money was mammon, which comes from the Greek mammōnas, which in turn comes from the Aramaic word mammōnā. What, exactly, does it mean? One lexicon explains that it occurs “usually in a derogatory sense” with reference to “property, wealth, earthly goods” (as in Luke 16:9), while here, in Matthew 6:24, it is a personification of “Mammon, the Syrian god of riches,” hence, money as some kind of deity.18 Yes, people often make a god out of money, and Jesus said you can’t serve that god and the one true God at the same time.
In practical terms, just as food is the fuel for healthy living, money is the tool for productive living. And so, rather than pursuing wealth, we work hard to meet our needs and the needs of those we’re responsible for with the goal of making extra money to give away to meet the needs of others. (If you can learn to give money away with joy, you’re certainly free from the god of money.)
Many people think that the more we have, the more we are. Not so. As Jesus said, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). As rendered in the New Living Translation (NLT): “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.”
We often hear that money is the root of all evil, but as you probably know, that’s a misquotation of Paul. What he spoke against was not money, which in and of itself is totally neutral, but rather the love of money, issuing this strong warning: “Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” (1 Tim. 6:9–10). A man of God, like Timothy, to whom he was writing, should have a different set of priorities: “But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness” (v. 11).
I have good friends who are successful businesspeople, and they are highly motivated to succeed and make lots of money. But they do not love money, and they are not trying to get rich. Instead they want to succeed so they will have more funds to invest in the gospel and in helping the poor and the needy, and their greatest goal is to win other businesspeople to the Lord.
God may have genuinely called you to be wealthy and to earn millions of dollars, but that is a calling fraught with many dangers. To succeed in that calling, you will have to destroy the idol of mammon and die to the love of money. Then you can be free to pursue your high calling.
Principle 4: Debt is dangerous and draining.
Also in 1 Timothy 6, Paul counseled believers to be content with what they had, writing, “But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content” (vv. 6–8). Many of us find this difficult to do, especially with the constant bombardment of advertising that most of us are subject to day and night: You need this! You really want this! You cannot live without this! So, we fall into debt rather than live within our means, thereby becoming slaves to a monthly bill that often consumes us. Is it really worth it? Is it really wise?
I don’t believe the primary debt issue is having an affordable mortgage on our homes (which is often much better than paying rent) or making affordable payments on a car (although many financial advisors say that we can afford only what we can buy with cash). The issue is falling into debt because we’re not willing to live within our means, and the Word warns us about this too: “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law” (Rom. 13:8). And, “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender” (Prov. 22:7).
There’s a reason that some of the best books on finances are written by Christian leaders (such as Dave Ramsey and Larry Burkett). And if every American (including our government) lived by these biblically based financial principles, we would have no national debt (can you imagine that?), we would have no national poverty, and we would have billions of dollars to invest in needy causes around the world.
Principle 5: Store up treasure in heaven.
One of the greatest ways to get free from the love of money and to embrace money as a practical tool for productive living is to store up treasure in heaven, since our hearts will follow our treasure (see Matt. 6:19–21). But how exactly do we do that?
Think of it as putting money in the bank or investing in a retirement fund. You put aside money today to be used tomorrow. We do the same thing when it comes to the world to come: we invest our earthly finances in heavenly treasures, meaning that we use our money to help those who cannot repay us and to advance the work of the gospel.
Proverbs teaches, “Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will repay him for his deed” (19:17). We might get that divine repayment in this world, or we might get it in the world to come, but our ultimate focus should be on the eternal repayment. As Jesus taught:
When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. (Luke 14:12–14)
What a radical concept, what a freeing concept, and what a blessed concept. As Jesus also taught, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35b).
And when you invest in world missions and reaching the lost with the gospel, you actually make eternal friends in the process. In the words of Jesus again, “And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by how you use worldly wealth, so that when it runs out you will be welcomed into the eternal homes” (Luke 16:9 NET).19 This too is a radical concept, one that frees us from the love of money and instead transforms money into something that will last forever.
I once read a joke about a wealthy believer who made a deal with the Lord that when he died, he would be allowed to bring one large package with him into heaven. Moments after his death, he found himself in front of the proverbial pearly gates, dragging a massive sack behind him. He was immediately told by the gatekeeper that he could not enter heaven with any of his possessions, but when the gatekeeper checked the records, to his surprise he saw that an exception had been made for this man.
“I just need to see what’s in your sack,” the gatekeeper said.
The rich man then opened his sack carefully, only to reveal an absolutely massive and weighty gold bar worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The gatekeeper said, “Okay, you can come through, but why in the world did you bring concrete?”
Yes, in the New Jerusalem the streets are made of gold. (Actually, the whole city is made of gold! See Rev. 21:18, 21.) How this changes our perspective on things.
As followers of Jesus, we are in this world but not of it (John 17:11–16), and though we go to school and get jobs and raise families and play sports and listen to music and go on vacations like everyone else, we have a very different perspective on what matters most, and we live in the light of eternity. So, if we eat to live rather than live to eat, we also live to give, to quote a famous phrase from missionary Wayne Meyers. And in so doing, we receive our Father’s blessings both in this world and in the world to come.
Here too we reap what we sow. As Paul explained so beautifully:
The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written, “He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.” He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.” (2 Cor. 9:6–11)
Principle 6: Recognize the deceitfulness of wealth.
Jesus said in one of his parables that “the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things” are like thorns that “choke the word”—pictured as a plant—thereby making it unfruitful (Mark 4:19). In what ways are riches deceitful? First, having lots of money and possessions can give us a false sense of security, as if nothing can touch us. This is clearly false, and what we have can be taken from us in a moment of time. Second, wealth can give us a false sense of identity, as if the more we own, the more important we are. This too is false, since what is highly esteemed among people is often detestable in God’s sight (see Luke 16:15 and note that this writing was spoken in the context of money; see v. 14). And the richest people in the world are sometimes the most miserable, experiencing more divorces, more depression, and more problems with their kids. That’s one reason I never envy the “rich and famous” of the world.
Let’s go back to Proverbs 23, where we were told to put a knife to our throats if we were gluttons sitting at the king’s table. The text continues, “Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist. When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven” (Prov. 23:4–5). In this light, Paul gave this wise counsel to Timothy, telling him to exhort the rich to be generous with a view toward the world to come:
As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. (1 Tim. 6:17–19)
Being rich is fine. There are many rich, godly Christians. But an attitude of generosity is the way to avoid the sorrows that wealth often brings as well as the way to store up true riches.
Scripture teaches many other financial principles (including the importance of putting your money to work, which can be deduced from a parable taught in Matt. 25:14–30), but since so many excellent books and online resources are available, I’ll stop here. Suffice it to say that once more, to the extent that we live in harmony with the Scriptures we can see our nation changed for the best, breaking with the culture of indulgence and laying the foundation for a culture of self-control and frugality. That is the culture that is blessed!