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Questions · Ethics

Philippians 3:19: whose God is their belly

What Christian writers said, from about AD 195 to 1930.

38 passages · 26 writers · 9 centuries

The short answer

Writers read 'whose god is their belly' as describing the sensual and the epicure, who live for gratifying appetite. Chrysostom says Paul speaks of greediness rather than the body part, and Aquinas says gluttons place their last end in the pleasures of the belly. Spurgeon applies the words to professing Christians who never restrain their appetites, Chrysostom fears they apply to those of his own day who spend their lives drinking and reveling, and Wesley applies them to a hearer for whom eating and drinking are the greatest pleasures. Watson and Philaret say the belly becomes a god or idol when loved or set above God, and Fausset glosses 'end' as fixed doom. Chrysostom, Evans, and Brown tie Romans 16:18 to Philippians 3:19, and Calvin reads 'their own belly' of false prophets who seek the benefit of their stomach, and Barnes of their own lusts and private interests.

The sensual and the epicure

17 passages · 15 writers · 100s to 1900s

Clement of Alexandria, Watson, Wesley, Spurgeon, and Barnes read 'whose god is their belly' as describing the sensual, epicures, or those who seek the gratification of their appetites. Chrysostom says it speaks of greediness, and Aquinas says it is written of gluttons who place their last end in the pleasures of the belly. Tertullian tells his opponents that to them their belly is god.

c. 197–200 · Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) 2.1

No one who uses it will ever study to become temperate, burying as he does his mind in his belly, very like the fish called ass, which, Aristotle says, alone of all creatures has its heart in its stomach. This fish Epicharmus the comic poet calls “monster-paunch.” Such are the men who believe in their belly, “whose God is their belly, whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.” To them the apostle predicted no good when he said, “whose end is destruction.”

1265–1273 · Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica I-II, q. 1, a. 5, s.c.

On the contrary, That in which a man rests as in his last end, is master of his affections, since he takes therefrom his entire rule of life. Hence of gluttons it is written (Phil. 3:19): "Whose god is their belly": viz. because they place their last end in the pleasures of the belly.

The belly as an idol, and the end destruction

12 passages · 12 writers · 200s to 1800s

Philaret, Charnock, Henry, Chrysostom, Jacobus de Voragine, and Origen describe the belly as a god or idol. Fausset, Tillotson, and Spurgeon comment on 'whose end is destruction', and Fausset glosses 'end' as fixed doom.

c. 390 · John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 21.2

Now He calls mammon here “a master,” not because of its own nature, but on account of the wretchedness of them that bow themselves beneath it. So also He calls “the belly a god,” not from the dignity of such a mistress, but from the wretchedness of them that are enslaved: it being a thing worse than any punishment, and enough, before the punishment, in the way of vengeance on him who is involved in it. For what condemned criminals can be so wretched, as they who having God for their Lord, do from that mild rule desert to this grievous tyranny, and this when their act brings after it so much harm even here?

1871 · A. R. Fausset, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on Philippians 3.19

end—fixed doom. whose god is their belly—(Ro 16:18); hereafter to be destroyed by God (1Co 6:13). In contrast to our "body" (Php 3:21), which our God, the Lord Jesus, shall "fashion like unto His glorious body." Their belly is now pampered, our body now wasted; then the respective states of both shall be reversed.

Romans 16:18: serving their own belly

9 passages · 7 writers · 300s to 1800s

Chrysostom, Evans, and Brown tie Romans 16:18 to Philippians 3:19. Calvin reads 'their own belly' of false prophets who seek the benefit of their stomach rather than the glory of Christ, and Barnes reads it as their own lusts and private interests.

c. 386–398 · John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Epistle to the Romans 32

For he says, “Withdraw from every brother that walketh disorderly” (2 Thess. iii. 6): and in speaking to Timothy about the coppersmith, he gives him the like advice, and says, “Of whom be thou ware also.” (2 Tim. iv. 15.) Then also to lash (κωμῳδὥν) those who dare to do such things, he mentions also the reason of their devising this division. “For they that are such,” he says, “serve not our Lord Christ, but their own belly.” And this he said too when he wrote to the Philippians, “Whose god is their belly.” (Phil. iii. 19.) But here he appears to me to intimate those of the Jews, whom he ever uses particularly to find fault with as gluttonous. For in writing to Titus too, he said of them, “Evil beasts, slow bellies.” (Tit. i. 12, see v. 10.) And Christ also blames them on this head: “Ye devour widows’ houses” (Matt. xxiii. 14), He says. And the Prophets accuse them of things of the kind. For, “My beloved,” He says, “hath waxen fat and gross, and hath kicked” (Deut. xxxii. 15). Wherefore also Moses exhorted them, and said, “When thou hast eaten and drunken and art full, remember the Lord thy God.” (ib. vi. 11, 12.)

1540 · John Calvin, Commentary on Romans 16.18

For they who are such, etc. He mentions an unvarying mark, by which false prophets are to be distinguished from the servants of Christ; for they have no care for the glory of Christ, but seek the benefit of their stomach. As, however, they deceitfully crept in, and by assuming another character, concealed their own wickedness, he at the same time pointed out, in order that no one might be deceived, the arts which they adopted — that they ingratiated themselves by a bland address. The preachers of the gospel have also their courtesy and their pleasing manner, but joined with honesty, so that they neither soothe men with vain praises, nor flatter their vices: but impostors allure men by flattery, and spare and indulge their vices, that they may keep them attached to themselves.

c. 1714 · John Evans, Commentary on Romans 16.17-20

How many are there who call Christ Master and Lord, that are far from serving him! But they serve their own belly—their carnal, sensual, secular interests. It is some base lust or other that they are pleasing; pride, ambition, covetousness, luxury, lasciviousness, these are the designs which they are really carrying on. Their God is their belly, Phil. iii. 19. What a base master do they serve, and how unworthy to come in competition with Christ, that serve their own bellies, that make gain their godliness, and the gratifying of a sensual appetite the very scope and business of their lives, to which all other purposes and designs must truckle and be made subservient.