Fat or Skinny Sin?

“You know.  This is a sin too” a lady said to me years ago as she shook my hand, her other hand pointing to my gut.  Was she right?  Is a big gut sinful?  I know at this point you are expecting a justification of being fat from the fat guy.  That is not what this post is about in the least bit.  What it is about is centering in on the real sins involved with eating and weight.

For too long, I have been being fed at conference after conference and tract after tract with this whole “the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit” line of thinking when it comes to a Christian view of fitness.  While the proponents don’t quite say it, they imply that the Holy Spirit prefers a six pack abs kind of body to live in.  Needless to say, the scriptures say nothing of the sort.  Truthfully, the body as temple talk is mostly about sexuality in the bible.  It has nothing to do with the shape or the even the health of the body.  So please, let’s stop with this talk.

Let me suggest that there are primarily three ways the scriptures do address this issue:

Gluttony:  This is the key issue.  Is food your god?  Is it where you turn when you are anxious?  Is it what you use to make you happy?  Is it your true love that you think about all day?  That is sin.  It is idolatry.  It is fearing, loving, and trusting in food above all things instead of God.  And while a large stomach is often a symptom of this sin, a small stomach can still hold the sin just fine.  Many fear, love and trust in organic, low-fat, low-carb, healthy food.  It is their prime concern and what they truly trust for wellbeing.  It is their prime identity.  This too is sin.  Anytime food becomes the center of our life, we are sinning.

Sloth:  This is another issue that can affect the size of one stomach.  Laziness.  If you do not move, stomachs tend to grow.  So be active in service to your neighbor.  And that is key.  While exercising may be of some value, I think it is far from scriptural to suggest that the opposite of sloth is hours on the treadmill.  That is not the work that we are called to as God’s people.  Refraining from sloth is about working to benefit your neighbor not working out.

Stewardship:  There can be a general case made for viewing the body as a trust to be managed.  But again the application to certain forms of working out is a weak case at best.

Truth is most fat people sin in gluttonous and slothful ways,  I know I do.  And that is where my battle begins.  It begins with confessing sin and not just signing up for a new diet.

The only scripture I find that really talks about fitness relatively in the way our world does is this:

1 Timothy 4:7-8 Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

So ultimately bodily training is of some value.  That is all we can say that the bible specifically teaches about it.  And that is quite different that saying is it is really important like the pastors and people caught up in the “Christian fitness” movement. 

We as the church must speak about sin and grace, not fitness and bodily training.  We speak about gluttony, sloth, and possibly stewardship.  That way when we are done speaking we will have been seelsorgers ((soul caregivers)) and not salesmen,  We will have led people to places where more than sociological guilt is the result.  Real guilt from real sin that needs to be meet with real absolution must be revealed.  This is how the church deals with these issues.

So is a fat gut intrinsically sinful?  No.  But it is most often the fruit of sin and worthy of examination by a friend or pastor.   Let doctors and physical trainers teach about bodily training for its own sake.  The church must speak about sin and grace, even when it comes to food and its resting places.