Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame - who set their mind on earthy things.
Paul sets forth a striking four-fold description of the "enemies of the cross of Christ." It is difficult to determine whether these people are renegade believers or hostile unbelievers.
Whose end is destruction
The first portrait of these rebels depicts their "end"–"destruction". The word "end" does not mean cessation of existence. It portrays the issue and course of action of their lives.
Their religion seems feasible: Be a good neighbor, pay your debts, join the P.T.A. Those are earmarks of good citizens but not of a good Christian necessarily. We may unpack all our obligations to our fellow man but this will not impress God. The horizontal is not the issue with God but the perpendicular.
On the other hand their religion may comprise more spice, "If you join us we put no limits on your sex life…" A certain popular philosophy in the first century believed it was man’s duty to plum the depth of sin just as much as it is to scale the heights of virtue. Sin was their duty. By living at both ends of virtue and sin their experience is complete.
"Destruction" is not annihilation or extinction in the Bible. The word connotes the idea of "waste" or "ruin." A person who is an enemy of the cross ends in ruin. They are not annihilated. At death they do not slip into an eternal unconsciousness. They continue to exist but they wreck the quality of life either in time or eternity. They know nothing of God’s quality of life. Their end is more than termination; it is a state of moral ruin. "Destruction" essentially has to do with separation from God.
Whose god is their belly
The second characteristic of these haters of the cross is their "god is their belly." Their god was their appetite. "For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly…" (Rom. 16:18). These people are not atheists. They have a god. It is their appetite. They are their own god. There is no true atheist. Most atheists bow before their own brain. They worship self. They are self indulgent. They sit in judgment of the Bible. Their god is made up of what they can taste, smell, see, hear and feel. Their god is made of what their finite brains can understand. They invent their own god. They manufacture gods of
Christians live lives of practical atheism. They savor self indulgence. Christians manufacture gods of their wife, husband or children.. Others worship their business or job. A great god to many believers is the mighty dollar. Their god is their belly. A man’s god is that to which he wholly gives himself. His god is what drives him.
PRINCIPLE: Ruin is the end of a self-indulgent philosophy of life.
APPLICATION: What drives you? The dollar? Sex? Good causes such as your family, career? Is God the central purpose for your existence?
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