” Put à knife to your throat, if you are given to gluttony”
Proverb 23: 2
Here the Ruler brings best of the food to a man, but be careful what is before you. The fine food given by the ruler can lead you into temptation to do the will of the Ruler. Therefore , guard your heart and do not allow the lust of the flesh rule over you, instead resist it.
A good example we can see in Daniel (1-8) considering about food temptations King wanted to appoint persons with good looking smart and full of wisdom and knowledge to serve the King’s Palace , so he provided all kinds of delicacies and wine, which Daniel rejected and with the wisdom of God he preferred vegetables to eat and water to drink because he wanted to honour his God and not to defile himself.
Remembrance of my childhood days: My father was a Marine instructor teaching for the Barge and trawler people i.e water transport. Those days the barge Crew members were not educated so he used to make a model of the boat and practically teach them and use to take his minimum tuition fees only from those who could afford to pay. To those who could not afford, he used to teach freely. One day it so happened that one of his students came with a bundle of currency notes and tried to give him, but my father refused and told him, “ I will only take my fees”. Even in the difficult times along with wife and 5 children he guarded his heart from becoming corrupt , because he feared God.
As per Bible verses:
1 ) Rom 13: 14 – Godliness teaches you to avoid anything that leads to temptation.
2) 1Cor 9: 27 – Paul was committed to keeping his body’s appetites under his rule.
3) Ps 101: 3 – David would not allow any evil thing before his eyes.
4) Pr 9:6 – A good man will not even have foolish friends.
So we must be aware of our appetites, know our sins so that we can put a knife to those appetites and deny them by cutting off opportunities for them , even if the loss of those things is as costly or painful as losing an eye or hand.
Luke 9 : 23 – Jesus called it taking up a cross daily and it was mandatory in order to be His disciple.
Sol Geeta B. Muslekar AOJ