Can A Person Lose Their Salvation Through Habitual Sins Like Gluttony?
Q: Does “whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him” include habitual sins such as gluttony or serious obesity, as some claim?
A: I think it’s totally presumptuous for a person to say that if you’re overweight, you can’t be saved. The reasoning doesn’t stand up: how many pounds or kilos do you have to be overweight before you lose your salvation or prove that you never had it? At what body mass index is a person saved or not saved? It’s ridiculous.
Now, is it possible for a person to be so under the mastery of food that they deny the Lordship of Jesus Christ. I suppose that’s possible. But statements such as, “If you smoke cigarettes, you can’t be saved” or “If you go over the speed limit, you can’t be saved” are a totally presumptuous way for a person to talk, and it probably points towards a sort of a vicious streak of legalism within that person.
Today in the Western world, and particularly in the United States, there are weight loss drugs that have just come out in the past few years which are very popular with people. I suppose this type of legalistic person might think that these weight loss drugs are bringing people into the kingdom in droves, that this is the greatest evangelism project ever, because it’s helping people to not overeat. But again, that’s not how salvation works. It’s a very presumptuous way for a person to talk about something that could be a legitimate, serious problem and even a spiritual problem in somebody’s life.
Here’s how salvation actually works: Ephesians 2:8-9 – For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.