The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from A treatise on Good Works by Dr. Martin Luther: for fasting, as he will, on condition that he do not stop with
that, but have regard to his flesh; let him put upon it fasting,
watching and labor according to its lust and wantonness, and no
more, although pope, Church, bishop, father-confessor or any one
else whosoever have commanded it. For no one should measure and
regulate fasting, watching and labor according to the character
or quantity of the food, or according to the days, but according
to the withdrawal or approach of the lust and wantonness of the
flesh, for the sake of which alone the fasting, watching and
labor is ordained, that is, to kill and to subdue them. If it
were not for this lust, eating were as meritorious as fasting,
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