Last month we talked about the sin of appetite and its awful consequences. Many lives have been lost through the ages because of indulgence of appetite, but this does not need to happen. We can be victorious in the battle over appetite, and gain a heavenly crown.
Sin entered into this world because through appetite, and in order to overcome we must gain the victory over appetite. “Those who indulge a perverted appetite, do it to the injury of health and intellect. They cannot appreciate the value of spiritual things. Their sensibilities are blunted, and sin does not appear very sinful, and truth is not regarded of greater value than earthly treasure.” –Counsels on Diet and Foods, p. 425
When we indulge in appetite, we develop a familiarity with sin, and it no longer appears sinful. The sin of appetite leads to many other sins; we no longer have the spiritual discernment to recognize when we are falling into sinful practices.
As the people of God received greater light regarding many truths, such as the Sabbath, the Investigative Judgment, and the Three Angels’ Messages for the end times, they were also given light on the health message. In 1863, through Sister White, God provided the Adventist people with the laws that are to govern our health, and the penalty that will follow the transgression of it, that all may learn, and be careful to live in harmony with natural law. “Obedience to the laws of health should be made a matter of earnest study, for willing ignorance on this subject is sin.” –Child Guidance, p. 392
In the matter of indulgence of appetite, the best way to control appetite is not to allow indulgence to occur in the first place. The habit of indulging appetite can start from a very young age. Our appetites have been perverted over 6000 years of sin. Even as children, we have a natural desire for foods that are unhealthy. Parents need to control what their children eat. Often when children ask for unhealthy treats, parents have a hard time denying their requests.
Children can be very fussy eaters and will refuse to eat healthy foods, and insist on eating something that is unhealthy. Parents get concerned when their children refuse to eat, unless it is what they desire, and will give in to a child’s demands. However, we cannot indulge our children’s appetite when they are young, thinking that when they are older, we will feed them a healthy diet. By then, their tastes are established. And these tastes for foods that children were taught to indulge in at a young age will continue into their adult lives. Habits formed in childhood are very difficult to overcome, and will always be a source of temptation throughout one’s lifetime.
It is the responsibility of the parents to make wise decisions for their children when they are too young to understand for themselves. If a child’s appetite is indulged, the parents will have to answer for their course of action. Through the food that a mother provides for her family, she can either teach her children to control appetite, or she can teach them to indulge appetite.
“Teach them to deny appetite, to be grateful for the plain, simple diet God gives them. It is not for you to allow them to dictate to you what they should eat, but you should dictate what is best for them. It is a sin for you to allow your children to murmur and complain about good wholesome food, just because it does not suit their depraved appetite. . . . He [the child] should not be permitted to choose articles of food that are not good for him, simply because he likes them. The experience of parents should have a controlling power in the life of the child.” –Child Guidance, p. 391
We see the same struggle when people join God’s church and become vegetarians. They must adapt their taste buds to a diet that they often find bland and unexciting. When we eat unhealthy foods, we are creating pathways in our brain that then crave these foods. These pathways are strengthened each time we indulge; the cravings for unhealthy foods then becomes an addiction, often to the same degree as the one who indulges in drugs or alcohol. Refusing to eat certain foods will remove those pathways in our brain.
Sister White spoke of her own struggle to give up unhealthy foods when she was presented with the health reform message in 1863. However, she persevered, and we can do the same thing. Through the power of God we can deny our bodies the foods that they crave, and train our appetite to enjoy healthy foods.
“I have not changed my course a particle since I adopted the health reform. I have not taken one step back since this light from heaven upon this subject first shone upon my pathway. I broke away from everything at once,—from meat and butter, and from three meals,—and that while engaged in exhaustive brain labor, writing from early morning till sundown. I came down to two meals a day without changing my labor.
“I have been a great sufferer from disease. . . . When making these changes in my diet, I refused to yield to taste, and let them govern me. Shall that stand in the way of my securing greater strength, that I therewith glorify my Lord? Shall that stand in my way for a moment? Never!
“I suffered keen hunger, I was a great meat eater. But when faint, I placed my arms across my stomach, and said, ‘I will not taste a morsel. I will eat simple food or I will not eat at all.’ . . . Some things in the reform I could get along with very well; but when I came to the bread, I was especially set against it. When I made these changes, I had a special battle to fight. The first two or three meals, I could not eat. I said to my stomach, ‘You may wait until you can eat bread.’ In a little while I could eat bread, and graham bread, too. This I could not eat before; but now it tastes good, and I have had no loss of appetite.” –Counsels on Diet and Foods, p. 483
The light on health reform continues to shine brighter. Already in her day, Sister White counseled that “the diet reform should be progressive. As disease in animals increases, the use of milk and eggs will become more and more unsafe. An effort should be made to supply their place with other things that are healthful and inexpensive.” –Counsels for the Church, p. 225. Our church has not taken a formal stance on a vegan diet, and members still continue to use dairy and eggs. However, many members have made the choice to be vegan, now that there is strong evidence that dairy products are unhealthy. We need to progress in our health reform to return to the diet given to man in Eden, to prepare ourselves for our future, eternal home.
In the victory over appetite we have the example of Daniel and his three friends in the court of Babylon. They had been taken as slaves from their home, and placed in a heathen land, with the expectation that they would take on the customs and beliefs of their captors. Early on they were tested on the point of appetite when asked to eat and drink from the king’s table. “Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank.” Daniel 1:8. He knew that such a diet would not strengthen his physical powers or increase his mental capacity. He would do nothing to cloud his mind.
Daniel is a good example of a parent’s influence upon their children’s future choices. “Daniel’s parents had trained him in his childhood to habits of strict temperance. They had taught him that he must conform to nature’s laws in all his habits; that his eating and drinking had a direct influence upon his physical, mental, and moral nature, and that he was accountable to God for his capabilities, for he held them all as a gift from God, and must not, by any course of action, dwarf or cripple them. As the result of this teaching, the law of God was exalted in his heart.” –Child Guidance, p. 166
“The experience of Daniel and his youthful companions illustrates the benefits that may result from an abstemious diet, and shows what God will do for those who will co-operate with Him in the purifying and uplifting of the soul. They were an honor to God, and a bright and shining light in the court of Babylon. –Temperance, p. 91
“What if Daniel and his companions had made a compromise with those heathen officers, and had yielded to the pressure of the occasion by eating and drinking as was customary to the Babylonians? That single instance of departure from principle would have weakened their sense of right and their abhorrence of wrong. Indulgence of appetite would have involved the sacrifice of physical vigor, clearness of intellect, and spiritual power. One wrong step would probably have led to others, until, their connection with heaven being severed, they would have been swept away by temptation.” –Counsels on Diet and Foods, p. 155
How many times have we departed from principle and indulged our appetites in unhealthy foods? And yet, many continue to do so, opening up temptation to many other sins. We need to learn from Daniel, so that we can prevail against Satan and keep from being swept away by his temptations.
JESUS OVERCAME ON THE POINT OF APPETITE
In finding the victory over appetite, our greatest example is Jesus. Immediately after He began His ministry, He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Jesus’ time in the wilderness was to prepare Himself for His mission. He spent time in fasting and prayer, contemplating what was ahead of Him in His work for the salvation of mankind. This time was to strengthen Him for the path to the cross.
His agony was marked by knowing that mankind fell into sin on the point of appetite. And in order to show that appetite could be overcome, He needed to fast for 40 days. And then, after His time of fasting, Satan felt that Jesus was now weak enough to fall to the temptation of appetite. Satan came to Him when He was weak and hungry and said to Him, “If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” Jesus answered and said, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Satan could not tempt Jesus into sin.
“Many who profess godliness do not inquire into the reason of Christ’s long period of fasting and suffering in the wilderness. His anguish was not so much from the pangs of hunger as from His sense of the fearful result of the indulgence of appetite and passion upon the race. He knew that appetite would be man’s idol, and would lead him to forget God, and would stand directly in the way of his salvation.” –Temperance, p. 20
As Adam sinned on the point of appetite, now Jesus must start His redemption of mankind by being tempted by appetite. Satan also knew that many had fallen because of appetite, including Adam and Eve, who, through their giving into temptation introduced sin into the world. He knew that the children of Israel, God’s chosen people, so easily failed when tempted on the point of appetite, and believed that Jesus Himself would easily fail also. Satan became bold, and he boasted to the heavenly angels that when Christ appeared, taking on man’s nature after 4,000 years of sin, that He would be weaker than Satan, and Jesus would be overcome by Satan’s power. Therefore, he brought the hardest test to Christ first. If he could make Him sin because of appetite, then the dominion of this earth would remain his.
“[Jesus] realized the power of appetite upon man; and in behalf of sinful man, He bore the closest test possible upon that point. Here a victory was gained which few can appreciate. The controlling power of depraved appetite, and the grievous sin of indulging it, can only be understood by the length of the fast which our Saviour endured that He might break its power. . . . Intemperance lies at the foundation of all the moral evils known to man. Christ began the work of redemption just where the ruin began. The fall of our first parents was caused by the indulgence of appetite. In redemption, the denial of appetite is the first work of Christ.” –In Heavenly Places, p. 194
Jesus resisted the temptation of appetite for almost six weeks. His fast strengthened Him for His earthly mission. He proved that we all can overcome appetite, through prayer and fasting; through His example and sacrifice on the cross, we have the power to become the sons of God.
“That long fast in the wilderness was to be a lesson to fallen man for all time. Christ overcame appetite by self-denial and self-control. He was not overcome by the strong temptations of the enemy, and this is encouragement for every soul who is struggling against temptation. Christ has made it possible for every member of the human family to resist temptation. . . . That long fast of the Saviour strengthened Him to endure. He gave evidence to man that He would begin the work of overcoming just where the ruin began,—on the point of appetite. . . . If the indulgence of appetite was so strong upon the race that in order to break its power, the divine Son of God, in behalf of man, was required to fast nearly six weeks, what a work is before the Christian in order that he may overcome even as Christ overcame! The strength of the temptation to indulge perverted appetite can be measured only by the inexpressible anguish of Christ in that long fast in the wilderness.” –Counsels on Diet and Foods, p. 186
We have the great example of Jesus, who overcame appetite, and in whose strength we can also gain the victory over appetite. “In our own strength it is impossible for us to deny the clamours of our fallen nature. . . . Christ knew that the enemy would come to every human being, to take advantage of hereditary weakness, and by his false insinuations to ensnare all whose trust is not in God. And by passing over the ground which man must travel, our Lord has prepared the way for us to overcome. It is not His will that we should be placed at a disadvantage in the conflict with Satan. He would not have us intimidated and discouraged by the assaults of the serpent. ‘Be of good cheer,’ He says, ‘I have overcome the world.’ Let him who is struggling against the power of appetite, look to the Saviour in the wilderness of temptation, See Him in His agony upon the cross, as He exclaimed, ‘I thirst. He has endured all that is possible for us to bear. His victory is ours.” –The Desire of Ages, p. 123
“There was in Him nothing that responded to Satan’s sophistry. He did not consent to sin. Not even by a thought did He yield to temptation. So it may be with us. Christ’s humanity was united with divinity; He was fitted for the conflict by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And He came to make us partakers of the divine image. So long as we are united with Him by faith, sin has no more dominion over us. . . .
“And how is this accomplished, Christ has shown us. By what means did He overcome in the conflict with Satan? By the word of God. Only by the word could He resist temptation. . . . Every promise in God’s word is ours. ‘By every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God’ are we to live. When assailed by temptation, look not to circumstances or to the weakness of self, but to the power of the word. All its strength is yours. ‘Thy word,’ says the psalmist, ‘have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee.’” –The Desire of Ages, p. 123
However, we cannot solely rely on Christ to remove all our cravings to indulge appetite. We must do our utmost to overcome. Many people blame God when they continue to fall into sin, and that God is not working hard enough in their behalf to put away sin from them. We can choose what we have in our homes to eat, we can choose which company we associate with, we can choose to deny our desires for unhealthy foods. This all rests on us. And small victories will then grow into greater victories, and we will have trained our appetites to follow the light given to us in the health reform message. “But it is not our heavenly Father’s purpose to save us without an effort on our part to cooperate with Christ. We must act our part, and divine power, uniting with our effort, will bring victory.” –Counsels on Diet and Foods, p. 153. “There was in Him nothing that responded to Satan’s sophistry. He did not consent to sin. Not even by a thought did He yield to temptation. So it may be with us. Christ’s humanity was united with divinity; He was fitted for the conflict by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And He came to make us partakers of the divine image. So long as we are united with Him by faith, sin has no more dominion over us. . . .
“And how is this accomplished, Christ has shown us. By what means did He overcome in the conflict with Satan? By the word of God. Only by the word could He resist temptation. . . . Every promise in God’s word is ours. ‘By every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God’ are we to live. When assailed by temptation, look not to circumstances or to the weakness of self, but to the power of the word. All its strength is yours. ‘Thy word,’ says the psalmist, ‘have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee.’” –The Desire of Ages, p. 123
However, we cannot solely rely on Christ to remove all our cravings to indulge appetite. We must do our utmost to overcome. Many people blame God when they continue to fall into sin, and that God is not working hard enough in their behalf to put away sin from them. We can choose what we have in our homes to eat, we can choose which company we associate with, we can choose to deny our desires for unhealthy foods. This all rests on us. And small victories will then grow into greater victories, and we will have trained our appetites to follow the light given to us in the health reform message. “But it is not our heavenly Father’s purpose to save us without an effort on our part to cooperate with Christ. We must act our part, and divine power, uniting with our effort, will bring victory.” –Counsels on Diet and Foods, p. 153
“Temptations to the indulgence of appetite possess a power which can only be overcome by the help that God can impart. But with every temptation we have the promise of God, that there shall be a way of escape. Why, then, are so many overcome? It is because they do not put their trust in God. They do not avail themselves of the means provided for their safety. The excuses offered for the gratification of perverted appetite, are therefore of no weight with God.” –Ibid., p. 154. As long as we place our dependence and our trust in God, we can be victorious over appetite, and many other besetting sins.