Eating For Life

Copyright 1987 Kyle H. Miller

Anorexia nervosa and bulimia are two forms of eating disorders that have received increasing attention in the past number of years. It appears that these conditions are extreme examples of how people use eating and/or not eating to create or hide their identity. The heart of foolish eating is the seductive system of employing food as a means of identity formation and maintenance. You can gain insight into your identity/self-image by looking at what you eat, when you eat it, and why you eat it.

Evidence for this premise can be seen in the fact that eating wrongly is just another way of attempting to escape from the pain and frustration of life in a fleshly and seemingly controllable manner. While some people use drugs, alcohol, sleep, sex, work, money, power, possessions, sports, school, marriage, family, and/or friends, still others use eating and/or not eating to attempt to control the "uncontrollableness" of life.

The roots of this wrong use of food can be traced back to two primary causes. The first is the quality of parenting that people received in childhood, particularly the father-image and mother-image impressions that unknowingly and gradually produced the God-image of adulthood. Second, the wrong use of food is slowly developed since childhood and has a deceptive, seductive, and destructive cycle.

At this point, it is important for each of us to consider whether or not we use food to protect our identity. We can easily deny the presence of an eating disorder in our own lives when the symptoms of the extreme cases of anorexia nervosa or bulimia are not occurring. The majority of individuals with eating disorders are not those who eat nothing or overeat and throw up, but those who simply overeat for any number of reasons. For example, men, while not seeming to be as affected with eating disorders as women (due to social and physical factors) are the greatest overeaters.

God's Word clearly addresses eating. In His wisdom, He has given teachings, principles, and commandments to us to follow so we can experience freedom in food and eating. The word that best summarizes God's principles in this area is sustanance, which means "that which gives and sustains life." The root word sustain means "to keep from failing or sinking: to nourish or keep alive, to endure or undergo." What or whom we turn to for comfort in difficulties will tell us what our sustenance is based on.

Jesus Christ in the sixth chapter of John provides us with the model that can help us understand eating. Jesus is the Bread of Life (John 6:48) and the Living Bread that comes down from heaven

(John 6:51). These references to Jesus' very nature give us our biggest clue. Instead of trying to falsely sustain ourselves on the control and comfort that can be obtained by using food to meet our needs and protect our identities, God has graciously provided us with an alternative. God has made salvation and subsequent freedom and maturity possible through Jesus Christ.

Initially, this statement might appear to be a "spiritualized", shallow, and simplistic answer to a very complex and destructive problem. It is not. A practical way to begin finding out if this teaching is applicable to your life is by asking yourself the following questions: (1) Do I value what the bathroom scale, the mirror, others' opinions, TV, pictures, and movies say about me? (2) Do I consciously or unconsciously turn to eating food when I am anxious, tired, angry, frustrated, hurt, or alone whether I am physically hungry or not? The source of your valued opinions (people or God) and the direction in which you turn in times of trouble (food or God) will reveal the foundation of your identity.

Even for such a destructive cycle the steps to freedom are clear (not easy or quick, but simple to understand). First, confess this self-centered obsession with food and body-image as sin. Second, receive God's forgiveness as a gift and evidence of His love. Third, hide His Word in your heart (Psalms 119:11) and pray that God will conform you to the image of His Son and not to any image in your mind. Fourth, ask God to reveal and change the underlying wrong thinking about Himself, yourself, your body and food that you began developing in childhood. Fifth, build a network of believers with which you can share mutual affirmation of your identity in Christ and with whom you can walk and help each other gain God's perspective and freedom in eating.

Biblical Quotes

"When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.... Then the Lord said to the woman, 'What is this you have done?' And the woman said, 'The serpent deceived me, and I ate.'" Genesis 3:6,7,13,14 NASB

"When you sit down to dine with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you; and put a knife to your throat, if you are a man of great appetite. Do not desire his delicacies, for it is deceptive food." Proverbs 23:1-3 NASB

"Do not be with heavy drinkers of wine, or with gluttonous eaters of meat; for the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty, and drowsiness will clothe a man with rags." Proverbs 23:20-21 NASB

But He answered and said, 'It is written, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God."' Matthew 4:4 NASB

"Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life." John 6:27a NASB

"Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food; but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord is for the body." 1 Corinthians 6:13 NASB

"Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31 NASB

"...whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things." Philippians 3:19 NASB