How Much is Too Much? Thoughts from a Christian Counselor

How much is too much? It is a question that was as relevant ten thousand years ago as it is today. It is the same question that has haunted Biblical characters as well as everyday people. We are aware of Solomon having seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines (I Kings 11:3). His net worth was in the trillions. Solomon possessed great wisdom. Yet, he declared everything to be meaningless in the book of Ecclesiastes.

Excess in the Ancient World

The same question haunted the Greeks and Romans of Paul’s time: How much is too much? In the book of Colossians, the apostle Paul talks about the “mystery kept hidden for ages and generations” (Colossians 1:26, NIV). The apostle Paul stated that this mystery was revealed through Christ Jesus, was given to his people through the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5; Colossians 1:26-27)

The Greeks and Romans, during Paul’s time, believed in mythology. One of these myths was the Bacchanalia Mystery (“Bacchanalia”). The Bacchanalia was a festival likely to celebrate the Greek god Dionysus, the god of wine. The Romans later adopted this festival.

Originally, this festival was a three-day festival for women to drink wine. Over time, men were included in this festival. The Greeks and Romans would celebrate these festivals more frequently. More individuals participated in these festivals with animal sacrifices, feasts, and an occasional orgy.

The Roman government eventually banned Bacchanalia in 186 B.C., but these festivals continued in secret in the Roman Empire (Acker, May 23, 2024, “What were Bacchanalia?”). These festivals engaged a significant amount of debauchery among their participants.

Another mystery popular during the time of Paul was the Eleusinian Mystery (“Eleusinian”). The Eleusinian followers believed in the myth of Persephone to explain the changing of the seasons. Persephone was the daughter of Demeter, the Greek goddess of agriculture.

Hades, the Greek god of the underworld, kidnapped Persephone and took her to be his wife. As a result of her sorrow, Demeter caused famine to occur on the land. Eventually, Zeus, the chief Greek god, persuaded Hades to give Persephone. However, Hades tricked Persephone into eating pomegranate seeds, which required her to live six months with her mother and six months with Hades.

As a result, nothing would grow in the fall and winter. The Eleusinian followers would sing, dance, and possibly consume psychoactive agents (Cheng, 2024). For this reason, the apostle Peter wrote in I Peter 4:3 (NIV), “For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do – living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.”

We are aware from history that the Romans and Greeks indulged in excess in other areas. The Romans often staged colossal battles between gladiators, reenacted famous naval battles, and had contests between wild animals and humans in the Roman Colosseum and other stadiums throughout the Roman Empire. These events led to the deaths of countless animals and humans in the arena.

Crowds and Roman emperors became bloodthirsty for death and destruction. The blood of participants soaked into the wooden posts beneath the Roman Colosseum. Eventually, these spectacles fell out of favor with the Roman people because it was senseless bloodshed and violence for no logical reason.

We have seen in ancient ruins how life was under Roman and Greek rule. We can read accounts from historical writers like Plato, Pliny, Socrates, and Homer. We can read accounts of how Roman emperors sometimes mistreated their subjects.

Excess in Modern America

Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NIV): “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” [Emphasis added]. Are we as Americans repeating the same mistakes that ancient civilizations made? I would argue in the affirmative.

The world has adopted a slogan that was originally found in Isaiah 22:13b (NIV): “Let us eat and drink . . . for tomorrow we die!” Unfortunately, the nation of Judah did not learn its lesson. The apostle Paul repeated this phrase to the Corinthians, talking about the hope found in the resurrection of Jesus Christ (I Corinthians 15:32b).

Unfortunately, the Roman Empire ignored the lessons from the fall of the Babylonians, Persians, and Greeks. Are we as Americans repeating the attitudes of these previous empires? Sadly, I would answer in the affirmative.

In recent history, people like Elon Musk and Nick Cannon have had children with numerous women. People such as Elon Musk, Larry Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos have earned billions of dollars among them. Mankind has made leaps in technology and innovation in various industries over the last 125 years.

Nothing is wrong with having numerous children. On one hand, people have the right to procreate with whom they choose, but on the other hand, is it beneficial to procreate with several different individuals? There is nothing wrong with having great wealth, but are these men being good stewards of what God has blessed them with and helping mankind?

I do not have the answer for that, because I am not God. It is wonderful to jump on a plane to travel the world. It is amazing that we can find anything we want on the internet. Incredibly, we can heat our homes with electricity or natural gas, but have we used these things to advance God’s mission to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the world? All these things are meaningless compared to what God did in six days and what Christ did for us on the cross.

Circling back to the Mysteries of Greek and Roman cultures, do we have similar festivals to celebrate events? How many stories have you heard of individuals getting drunk at weddings, teenagers drinking kegs of beer in a cow pasture, or individuals hungover after a long holiday weekend?

How much is too much alcohol?

By itself, there is nothing wrong with consuming alcohol. In I Timothy 5:22, the apostle Paul tells Timothy to drink a little wine for his stomach. In ancient times, people did not have access to pure water. Thus, they would drink wine to remove any impurities in the water. It would be common to dilute wine in water. In addition, alcohol in ancient times was less potent than today’s distilled alcohol.

Concerning alcohol, we have access to information measuring the appropriate consumption of alcohol that ancient societies did not have. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism states that men under the age of sixty-five consuming more than fourteen servings of alcohol per week or more than four drinks per day (Patel & Balasanova, 2021) and women more than eight servings of alcohol per week or more than three per day as risky (NIAAA, 2025).

The NIAAA recommends that men consume no more than two drinks per day, and women consume no more than one drink per day as their recommended guideline (NIAAA). The question to ask yourself becomes “When does too much alcohol affect you?”

How much is too much sex?

Like alcohol, there is nothing wrong with sex. Sex is an expression of love between two married adults. The purpose of sex is to procreate and strengthen the emotional and physical bond between them. Ideally, couples set healthy boundaries between each other to have an adequate amount of sex. The question again becomes how much is too much?

Rather than examining this issue quantitatively, I believe that sex is too much qualitatively. Nine million individuals in the United States currently struggle with compulsive sexual behavior. Two of the top pornography websites generate nine billion visits a month. The increase of sex-related advertisements on social media sites increases the engagement with the product (Stewart, Dalakas, & Eells, 2023).

About forty-four percent of unmarried and eighteen percent of married couples experience infidelity (Harper, 2025). In the United States, 40.5% of children are born out of wedlock (World Population Review, 2025). We live in a sex-saturated society.

Excessive Use of Narcotics

If your parents or grandparents talked about an electronic Kool-aid™ party, it was not about sitting around and drinking Kool-aid™ with friends. An electronic Kool-aid™ party refers to people sitting and taking LSD to hallucinate, similar to what Greeks and Romans did two thousand years ago. The purpose of these parties was to “turn on, tune in, and drop out.” The problem with LSD is that individuals can hallucinate through flashbacks months after a person consumes it.

Today, individuals in the state of Washington consume marijuana. Marijuana does have some medical benefits for those with late-stage cancer or who are dying from starvation from late-stage AIDS. People argue that it might help them manage chronic pain.

However, more people are consuming marijuana recreationally than ever. This marijuana is more potent than your parents’ or grandparents’ Mexican mud marijuana, as advertised by the comedy team of Cheech and Chong of the 1970’s and 1980s. This marijuana can contain 60-99% THC.

The adverse effects of marijuana are the potential for anxiety and psychiatric symptoms of delusional thinking and hallucinations. I keep coming back to the question is how much is too much.

What is wrong with “too much?”

We live in a world of instant gratification. We can answer a call on our phone to have anonymous sex with another person. We can go to the store and buy alcohol to party all night long. We can sit in the luxury of our homes and enjoy pornography on our television sets. We can go to the casino in hopes of winning the jackpot. We can find any drug available on our streets. We can join a criminal gang to engage in bloodshed and violence.

It is selfish to engage in what the apostle John calls the “lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and pride of life [coming] from the world” (I John 2:16, NIV). I am not here to cast stones. I, too, have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. It is not all about me and my desires, emotions, feelings, etc.

Hopefully, after you read this article, you will realize that enough is enough. If you feel judged by this, it was not my intent, and I apologize to you. I have been on the front lines of a battle for the hearts and minds of good people. Unfortunately, good people make poor choices in the moment with life-altering consequences.

It is not enough to live for the moment. Living for the moment is futile. Instead, live for something that gives purpose and meaning. Having purpose and meaning leads to hope, to others who have a similar meaning and purpose, and to God who will never leave or forsake you.

At Spokane Christian Counseling, we accept broken people of all shapes, forms, and sizes. We are non-judgmental. We take people where they are and help them to get to a better place. We do not judge people for not having religious beliefs or acting inconsistently with their religious beliefs and values. Our desire is to help people heal and put their lives back together. Why don’t you give us a call?