Can you explain gluttony?

By CopticBot.ai (Coptic Space Inc.) · Last reviewed 2026-10-10

In Coptic Orthodox spiritual teaching, gluttony (in Greek: gastrimargia /, which literally translates to "belly-madness") is not simply eating food. God created food, gave us taste buds, and designed our bodies to require nourishment to survive and serve Him.

Gluttony is the distortion of eating: it is when the stomach becomes your master instead of your servant. It occurs when eating shifts from nourishing the body to an uncontrollable craving for pleasure, comfort, and sensory escape.

1. The Core Definition

As the Holy Fathers explain, the essence of gluttony is forcing nature to serve selfish pleasure:

• Natural eating: Holding nature in check and eating to sustain life and health.
• Gluttony: Forcing oneself to eat without real hunger, obsessing over food, or being controlled by the craving for physical satisfaction.

In the words of St. Paul, when a person is ruled by gluttony:

"Their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame—with minds set on earthly things." (Philippians 3:19)

2. The Three Faces of Gluttony (St. John Cassian)

The Desert Fathers noted that the passion of gluttony attacks in three specific ways—all of which middle schoolers experience daily:

1. Eating Before the Time (Impatience): You cannot wait until the meal or the scheduled time. You must constantly snack, graze, and satisfy your mouth the second a craving pops into your head. You lack the discipline to wait.
2. Eating in Excess (Greed of Quantity): Stuffing yourself until you are miserable and bloated. You take more than you need simply because it tastes good, gobbling everything in sight even when your body tells you to stop.
3. Picky Obsession (Greed of Quality / Pickiness): Refusing ordinary, simple, healthy food cooked by your parents because you demand specific seasonings, sweet treats, fast food, or luxury snacks. It is an addiction to taste and sensory pampering.

3. Why Gluttony Is the "First Passion"

In the list of the eight deadly passions, the Church Fathers almost always place gluttony first. Why? Because it was the very first sin of mankind in the Garden of Eden: Adam and Eve fell because they looked at a piece of food, desired the bodily pleasure of it, and disobeyed God's commandment.

St. John Climacus (The Ladder of Divine Ascent) explains that gluttony opens the doorway to almost every other sin:

• It produces laziness and sleepiness: When a person stuffs themselves with food, the mind becomes heavy, the body becomes sluggish, and suddenly praying an Agpeya or reading Scripture feels completely impossible.
• It hardens the heart: An overfed, pampered stomach makes the soul insensitive to spiritual matters and cold to the suffering of the poor.
• It feeds impure thoughts (lust): As St. John Climacus writes:

"Satiety in food is the father of fornication; but mortification of the stomach is an agent of purity."

When you feed the stomach whatever it demands, you give excess fuel to the flesh, making it nearly impossible to fight lust and keep your eyes and thoughts clean.

Philoxenus of Mabbug similarly warned that a person ruled by the belly becomes degraded in soul:

"Christ died for him, and yet he makes himself a grave of meats... His friends are in reality the friends of his belly."

4. How to Explain Gluttony to Junior High Kids

Explain it in terms of control:

"Ask yourself: Who is driving the car? Are you controlling your body, or is your stomach controlling you?

When you're bored or stressed, do you immediately open the pantry and look for chips, candy, or soda to make yourself feel better? When Abouna tells us it’s a fasting day, do you throw a fit because you can't eat cheese or meat?

If you cannot say 'no' to a slice of pizza or a candy bar, how on earth will you say 'no' to the devil when he tempts you with bigger sins like lying, cheating, looking at bad images, or denying Christ when you are pressured? Fasting is gym training for your soul: every time you tell your stomach 'no,' your spirit gets stronger."

5. Connection to the 21 Martyrs of Libya

The 21 Martyrs in Libya endured weeks of captivity. They were likely starved, fed scraps, and locked in harsh conditions. If they had been men enslaved to comfort, fast food, and constant belly-pleasure, their spirits would have broken immediately under physical deprivation.

Because they grew up in the Coptic Church fasting more than 210 days a year—controlling their bellies during Great Lent, Holy Week, the Nativity Fast, and Wednesdays and Fridays—their physical hunger could not blackmail their spiritual loyalty. They had already conquered gluttony in daily life, so hunger could not force them to deny Christ on the beach.