Indulged to Death

The Faith invites me to a disciplined life that sets me free from the delusions of indulged passions. But discipline isn't very popular right now. How do we navigate such times?

Antone Lavey, the founder of the Church of Satan in California, once described Satanism as “indulgence instead of abstinence.” This is a fitting description of the slavery of indulging one’s desires with no discipline. And a powerful example to us of a society lost in the delusion of self-indulgence. We really have come to a point in our modern world where our affluence has placed even the manipulation of our physical bodies within the realm of indulging our delusions.

But what has this selfish indulgence brought us? Chaos, confusion, and perpetual adolescence means always attempting to ignore or escape the consequences of our actions. In other words, society will not survive this descent into the madness of indulging our every whim.

By the way, if you think freedom is about the ability to “do anything” you want, then you really don’t know what freedom is. If you think, “Hey, mind your own business,” then you don’t understand loving your neighbor. Freedom and true love are much more profound and demanding than some “live and let live” childish escapism.

Look at our lesson today in 1 Corinthians 10:5-12:

Brethren, God was not pleased with most of the fathers; for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now, these things are warnings for us, not to desire evil as they did. Do not be idolators as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to dance.” We must not indulge in immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now, these things happened to them as a warning, but they were written down for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

St. Paul tells these Corinthians that all of the Hebrew Bible was written to be an example and a lesson to us about what happens when people become idolators and ones who indulge their desires.

He reminds these believers of the events of Numbers 25 when the Nation of Israel fell into idolatry and sexual immorality. They had been seduced to adopt the idol worship of the false god Baal because of their immorality with the pagan women of the area. The consequence was that 23,000 people died in the losing battle, which was the direct result of their unfaithfulness to God in worshiping false gods. Unfaithfulness is always the consequence of undisciplined morals.

All of this is a warning to us today to pay attention to those places where we indulge our desires instead of cooperating with the Spirit to tame our passions so they are our servants rather than our masters.

The whole of the wisdom of the Faith is meant to wake us up to the destructive nature of undisciplined passions and the inescapable unfaithfulness that always results when we allow our desires to intoxicate us. And this is especially true of us because, as St. Paul says, the “end of the ages” has come. He means that the coming of Jesus Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of all the promises made to Abraham in the Hebrew Scriptures. Jesus is the end of the road for God’s eternal plan for His creation. And we are able to enter into this final wisdom by learning from those times when the people of God fell into indulging their passions instead of controlling them.

We Christians are to be men and women who choose to focus on a singular love for God that insists all other loves take a second spot to that one, true love. This means a sober and attentive life that avoids the adultery of giving in to our passions and selfishness of a self-centered view of the world. Escaping from that hellish slavery to myself through the freedom of focusing on Christ and His life sets me on the path of eternal wisdom rather than the momentary pleasure of indulging my narcissism.

As we remember the great Saint Maximus today, we can see in his life a total rejection of indulging the spirit of the age so that we can escape consequences. This hero of the 7th century held the Orthodox Faith while much of the East succumbed to heresy. He was in Constantinople in the royal court, where he was the chief private secretary of the Emperor and his grandson. St. Maximus was from a very pious and refined family and excelled in learning and wisdom. When the Eastern Empire fell into the heresy of Monothelitism (Jesus had only one will). This put in danger the Orthodox theology that Jesus is fully God AND fully Human. St. Maximus spoke out against this heresy when all the Capital had accepted it in order to not cause trouble and “can’t we all just get along.” He left the Royal household and came to a monastery wehre he eventually was made abbott. The Emperor demanded that Maximus abandon Orthodoxy for this heresy and when our precious saint refused, the Emperor had his tongue cut out and his right hand removed. Maximus never surrendered the Faith, and his courage is why the 6th Ecumenical Council eliminated this heresy in the East. St. Maximus fell asleep in the Lord in 662 AD.

Today, is your life learning the lessons of those who came before you? Or are you bound and determined to have to learn the hard way? Your passions have been gifted to you by God, and they are not evil. But they are in need of discipline and focus. When my passions are indulged, I always end up being unfaithful. When my passions are ordered and disciplined, I am free to enjoy a Normal Orthodox Life!

P.S. Let us the faithful praise with fitting hymns that lover of the Holy Trinity, great Maximus, who clearly taught the divinely-given Faith: that we should give glory unto Christ our God, Who, though but one hypostasis, hath in very truth two natures, wills, and energies. Let us cry to him: Rejoice, divine herald of the Faith.

Fr. Barnabas Powell is the parish priest at Sts. Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene Greek Orthodox Church in Cumming, GA. He is also the founder of Faith Encouraged Ministries and produces the Faith Encouraged Daily Devotional on Substack.