Paul’s description of the enemies of the cross suggests that they were controlled by their bellies. Paul may have meant something other than appetite when he used the word belly, but there can be no doubt that the idea is included. In Romans 16:18, Paul said that “they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly.” In other words, those who are divisive and doctrinally unsound are led by their own lusts. The outcomes of their desires focus upon fulfilling their own lusts which Proverbs and Ecclesiastes reinforce. In Proverbs 16:26, the Bible says that man “laboureth for himself; for his mouth craveth it of him.” This is repeated in Ecclesiastes 6:7 where the Bible says, “All the labour of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.” These are just a few biblical examples of those ruled by appetite.
Believers should be zealous of good works, but their zeal must not spring from a position of ignorance. The Bible points to the Jews as a zealous people, but their zeal was not according to knowledge. Nobody worked harder trying to reach a righteous state than did the Jews. However, they failed to realize that true righteousness comes as an unmerited gift from God. Yet, the Jews were “ignorant of God's righteousness,” and went “about to establish their own righteousness” (Romans 10:3). Paul repeatedly testified concerning the futility of trying to earn God's favour through one’s own efforts (Acts 22:3; Philippians 3:6). Before Paul came to know Christ, he thought he should fight against Christ’s followers and zealously persecute the church of God. He even placed many of the new believers into prison and caused their deaths. Yet, he declared that all this was done in ignorance (1 Timothy 1:13). He, like the Jews, had a tremendous zeal, but that zeal was not according to knowledge.
