Section 7
has covered in the foregoing verses. Instead, it is the example set by those who deal with the phys ical body in a proper way. How do we know that verse 17 refers not to the things of the soul, but to the things of the body? We know it by the fact that verse 18 begins with the word "for," indicat ing that this verse is an explanation of verse 17. Verse 18 says, "For many walk, of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ." They were enemies of the cross of Christ, which has terminated the indulgence of the lusts of the physical body.
As we have pointed out, the Epicureans care for indulgence in the enjoyment of eating and drinking. Paul refers to this in verse 19, which says, "Whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things." In promot ing the enjoyment of eating and drinking, the Epicureans were more concerned with physical indulgence than with ethics or morality. Today many take the way of the Epicureans to indulge in physical enjoyments. On the weekends some are so given to sports and physical pleasures that they forget everything else. Of the Epicureans Paul also says that they "set their minds on